One day after taking his first professional victory on stage four of the race, Nicolas Roche today successfully defended his lead in the Tour de l'Avenir in France.
The 22-year-old Cofidis rider came home as part of the main bunch which finished 31 seconds behind three breakaways, with Edvald Hagen (Norwegian National Team) outsprinting Sergey Kolesnikov (Omnibike Dynamo Moscow) and Stef Clement (Bouygues Telecom) for the win.
Roche was 33rd while the other Irish rider in the race, Philip Deignan, finished in the same time in 77th position.
Roche maintains his 29-second lead over second-placed rider Cyrille Monnerais (Française des Jeux) heading into tomorrow’s stage six, a hilly 161.5 kilometre race from Nancy to La Bresse.
A first category mountain comes close to the finish and so Roche's ability to defend the lead will depend on both his climbing strengths and how he has recovered from his breakaway efforts early on in the race. He stated on Sunday that he has already achieved his big goal, namely a stage win.
