Team Sky have announced their shortlist for the Tour de France and neither of their Irish riders, Nicolas Roche nor Philip Deignan, have been included in the list of eleven riders.
The shortlist was announced this morning and includes five Britons – Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard, Peter Kennaugh and Luke Rowe. The other six riders are Danny Pate, Mikel Nieve, Leopold Konig, Richie Porte, Sergio Henao and Wout Poels. The news will be a massive disappoitnment to the two riders. Roche has taken part in the Tour every year since 2009, and Deignan is still waiting to make his debut in the race. However, competition for the places was always going to be strong with Team Sky’s strength in-depth. This may mean that both Irish riders will be given an opportunity in the Vuelta instead, where they have both fared well in the past.
This means that just two Irish riders, Dan Martin and Sam Bennett, will be at the start line of the Tour de France.
[…] Team Sky are holding their cards very close to their chest and won’t be releasing the list of riders taking part till next Monday. With the absence of Roche’s name from the list there is still some hope that the Irish rider will be selected for the tour team despite his name not being on a list which was posted accidentally on the teams website yesterday. […]