Since retiring from the World Tour in 2021, Nicola Roche has focused on gravel racing.Gravel Racing took Irish riders to the UCI Gravel World Championship in Italy on Sunday to take part in the 30th Rainbow Jersey race in the field of cycling.

His goal was to grow gravel's early discipline while enjoying the experience of testing himself against the best. "I had a great time," Roche told reporters at the finish line.

"There are days when you are for a performance. Today I've been for a lot of other things, obviously, the performance needs to be there, but it's important to challenge myself properly and see how far the line I am"at least for part of the race, being there and riding with the likes of Wout van Aert, Alejandro Valverde and Matej Mohorić will be the best thing to do at the end of 2021." It was just part of the "living the dream" experience that the rider, who retired from the World Tour instead, said.

"I was just laughing and saying, you know, gravel was just a crazy CX guy, a crazy mountain guy, a crazy road guy all sorts thrown together" and it was made for some aggressive races but there was no pacing with some hard races, the team said. There was no moorwork. I felt like it was the kind of thing we have in the United States today, but with more and more professional riders."

The race was going on from the beginning and the 39-year-old admitted that he was not ready for the first fight.

"It took a lot of time to move forward from behind. At about km 40 I made it back to the front and I was like,"Okay, now I'm going to go, without pacing, go to everything, try and as long as I can

" Then when we hit that real long climb, just literally about 100 meters of the top. Before, there was a bit steeper and that was it for me.

Then Roche belonged to the tracking group up to 90 km. "I don't know why, instead of riding, everyone started attacking each other and started going 40km, but I blew, okay, now, it was like about making it to the finish.

He fought another group entering the finish and eventually crossed the line in 22nd place after 36 minutes of the winner. In 2022, he finished 47th at the Gravel World Championships in Italy.

The top 4 spots were taken by current and former professional road riders, Mateimo Horic in 1st place (Slovenia), Florian Vermeersch in 2nd place (Belgium), Connor Swift in 3rd place (GBR) and Alejandro Valverde (Spain) in 4th place. American champion Keegan Swenson was the only gravel rider to reach the top 10.

For Roche, it makes perfect sense that Rodi dominated the podium.

"No one can do a Vuelta or tour to prepare for the gravel world and no one has enough support to train and commit as hard as a WorldTour rider," he explained. "Maybe I'll protect my home, but I believe that the top world tour riders are one of the most fittest athletes on Earth.

"It's not about making it more technical," Roche said, characterizing Sunday's 169km course and a 1,900-meter elevation difference as "one of the most technical courses I've done all year."

"I think WorldTour riders are just racehorses who are better trained and better cared for, and the rest are trying to do their best. Even the top guys in the US will never have the amount of support and race days you can have here."

Roche, who said he has raced for 12-14 days this year, plans to do more next season, with much of the season focused on racing in America, as in 2023. He also plans to race the UCI Gravel World Series race in Europe with the goal of helping the discipline grow.