Another Tour de France, another team leader. After stints in the service of Alberto Contador and Chris Froome, Nicolas Roche lines up in Düsseldorf next Saturday as a mainstay of the BMC team built around Richie Porte, the man whose remarkable run of form thus far in 2017 has led some, Froome included, to label the Tasmanian as the favourite to win the 2017 Tour de France.
Porte does not have the back catalogue of Froome or Contador – he has never finished on the podium of a Grand Tour, far less won one. But Roche sees at least one common trait between his leaders past and present.
"There's a big requirement to be a team leader: you need to be demanding," Roche told Cyclingnews. "It's a very tough sport. When you're at the biggest race in the world with a team of high-profile riders around you, you can't be relaxed and having beers at the hotel. You have to be demanding. You need the team to be behind you, and to make that happen, you need a strong character. So in that perspective, they're all very similar."
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Porte has always been a forceful personality, right back to his stint under the tutelage of Bjarne Riis at Saxo Bank in 2010 and 2011, but being strong willed does not automatically translate to being a strong leader. The Tasmanian's first real experience of the role came at Team Sky during the 2015 Giro d'Italia, where even before to his crash-enforced abandon, he evinced distinct signs of unease at carrying the burden of leadership.
Perhaps the change in environment has helped, but over the course of his year and a half at BMC, Porte has appeared increasingly comfortable in the role. Missing out on the podium at last year's Tour was a frustration but his fifth place overall was still a confirmation of progress made.
Roche spent the 2015 campaign alongside Porte at Team Sky and detected the change when they reunited at BMC after a year apart.
The BMC team
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