Pierre Rolland (cyclist)

Pierre Rolland

Rolland at the 2017 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Pierre Rolland
Born	(1986-10-10) 10 October 1986 Gien, France
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight	67 kg (148 lb; 10.6 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Amateur team(s)
2005–2006	Super Sport 35
2006	Crédit Agricole (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)
2007–2008	Crédit Agricole
2009–2015	Bbox Bouygues Telecom[2]
2016–	Cannondale
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Young rider classification (2011) 2 individual stages (2011, 2012) Giro d'Italia 1 individual stage (2017)

Pierre Rolland (born 10 October 1986) is a French professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale. He is best known for his aggressive style of racing in the mountains.

He is a two-time stage winner in the Tour de France and a stage winner in the Giro d'Italia. His most famous win to date, came at the L'Alpe d'Huez in 2011. With his win on the legendary mountain, Rolland has gotten his name on the sign at turn 16 together with dutchman Joop Zootemelk.

His best overall finishes in a Grand Tour includes 4th overall at the 2014 Giro d'Italia and 8th overall at the 2012 Tour de France. Alongside winning a stage in the 2011 Tour de France, Rolland also won the young rider classification.

Cycling career

Rolland on his way to winning Stage 19 of the 2011 Tour de France on Alpe d'Huez

Bbox Bouygues Telecom/Team Europcar (2009–2015)

In his first season at Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Rolland finished 3rd at La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, but had to wait until 2010 to collect his first victory for the team, as he won a stage at the Circuit de Lorraine and finished eighth at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

2011

On stage 9 in the Tour de France, Thomas Voeckler claimed the yellow jersey after being a breakaway. For the following week, Rolland would help Voeckler defend the jersey over legendary mountain passes Luz-Ardiden, Plateau de Beille and Col du Galibier. Rolland gained acclaim for his strong work in defense of Thomas Voeckler's yellow jersey. Following the 14th stage of the Tour, Lance Armstrong referred to Rolland as a "rockstar."^[4] Rolland won the 19th stage at the top of Alpe d'Huez, beating Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sánchez and two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador.^[5] The victory also won him the white jersey, which he successfully defended in the 20th stage. He finished the Tour 10th in the general classification.

2012

In his first race during the season, Rolland won a stage at Étoile de Bessèges and finished the race 4th overall. Rolland's best result ever at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, came at the 2012 edition where he finished 12th. After the first week in the Tour de France, Rolland was only 25th in the general classification, and had also endured a crash on stage 6.^[6] On stage 11, Rolland was in the breakaway that had formed to only four riders later on the day. His breakaway companions were Chris Anker Sørensen (Team Saxo Bank), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and Vasil Kiriyenka (Movistar). On the descent from Col du Mollard, Rolland crashed in a corner but quickly got back on his bike. On the final climb up to La Toussuire/Les Sybelles, Rolland attacked and left the other riders behind, to take yet another solo win in the Tour de France.^[7] Rolland moved up to 9th position in the general classification after the stage but was still keen to hunt for more stage wins. On the final mountain stage of the Tour, Rolland finished 5th and moved up to 8th position in the general classification. This was his best ever career finish at the Tour de France, and he was also the best placed frenchman in the general classification.

Rolland riding in the polka-dot jersey at the 2013 Tour de France

2013

In April, Rolland won the pen-ultimate stage of Circuit de la Sarthe and on the next day he won the overall race.^[8] Just a few days later he was 3rd in the one-day race Paris-Camembert.^[9] Rolland then went on to finish 10th overall at Giro del Trentino, before one of his last goals of the spring campaign at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. After finishing 12th the previous year, Rolland had high hopes but had to settle for 24th. On stage 2 in the 100th edition of the Tour de France, Rolland made it into the breakaway and snatched the polka-dot jersey for the first time in his career. He would keep it until stage 7, where fellow frenchman Blel Kadri would take the lead with 1 point. On the last day in the Pyrenees on stage 9, Rolland would reclaim the jersey after collecting enough points in the breakaway. Rolland would lose the jersey on stage 15 to Chris Froome, who would win the stage to Mont Ventoux.

2014

The 2014 season was the first season that Rolland would ride the Giro d'Italia. After a spring where he had not delivered any top results, the pressure was lifted of his shoulders as he started the race. After finishing 21st in the Team time trial, Rolland started the Giro of in the worst way possible. However at the end of the first week, Rolland would improve and he moved up to 12th overall when the second rest day approached. As the more mountainous stages would appear in the race, Rolland improved his performance and moved even further up in the general classification. On the controversial stage to Val Martello, Rolland finished 3rd and moved up to 4th in the general classification. He would advance to 3rd place just two days after, and despite delivering one of his best Time trials ever on stage 19 where Rolland finished 4th, he dropped out of the podium. On the pen-ultimate stage to Monte Zoncolan, Rolland was on an almost impossible task, if he wanted to finish on the podium. He eventually lost 4 seconds to Fabio Aru, and therefore finished fourth in the general classification, his best finish in a Grand Tour.^[10] As he arrived at the Tour de France, Rolland was not considered any threat to the general classification and could therefore focus on breakaways. He would attack already on stage 2 in the final but had no luck of staying away. On stage 9 to Mulhouse, Rolland moved up to 8th in the general classification after his performance in the breakaway. On the next day he dropped to 16th in the general classification, possibly because of his efforts on the previous day. His best stage finish came on stage 17 to Saint-Lary-Soulan where he was 6th. Rolland finished the Tour de France just outside top 10 with an 11th place in the general classification.

2015

In his last season with Team Europcar, Rolland was very close to victory on two occasions in the spring. He finished 2nd on the first stage of the Volta a Catalunya, after losing the sprint to Maciej Paterski.^[11] Paterski moved into the leaders jersey after the stage, but Rolland would claim the jersey on stage 3 after Paterski lost over a minute.^[12] Rolland would already lose the jersey on the following stage as the over five minutes on stage 4. Two weeks later, Rolland was in the breakaway in the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, but this time he lost the sprint to Manuele Boaro. One week later, Rolland would finally achieve his first win of the season by winning the third and last stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León in solo fashion.^[13] He also won the overall race with 16 seconds to the second place. At the Tour de France, Rolland was outside the top 10 before the final week. On stage 18, Rolland was in the breakaway and finished 2nd behind countryman Romain Bardet. On the following day, Rolland went into the breakaway again and attacked solo. As he had won on La Toussuire - Les Sybelles in 2012, Rolland was looking to repeat it once again but was later overtaken by the eventual stage winner Vincenzo Nibali, and finished 11th on the stage. Rolland went into the breakaway once again on stage 20 on the stage to L'Alpe d'Huez, a mountain he had also won on previous, in 2011. This time, Rolland finished 6th and defended his 10th place in the general classification. In the Vuelta a España, Rolland was targeting stage wins and was in the breakaways once again with his best result being 5th on stage 16.

Cannondale (2016–2018)

On 27 August 2015, it was announced that Rolland would join Cannondale for the 2016 season.^[14]

2016

Rolland was in the breakaway on stage 19 of the 2016 Tour de France before enduring a heavy crash

With Pierre Rolland's move to Cannondale for the 2016 season, Rolland was looking to add more flavour to his racing career. Previously he had ridden many racedays in a season and had therefore limited time to train specific. More altitude camps where included in his preparations towards the Tour de France. At the Critérium du Dauphiné, Rolland finished 10th overall. Rolland was 9th overall after stage 7 at the Tour de France, however he crashed into the side of a rock on the descent to Bagnères-de-Luchon on stage 8 and lost almost 2 minutes.^[15] He also crashed on a descent on stage 19 after being in the breakaway with Rui Costa.^[16] At the Vuelta a España, Pierre finished 7th on stage 4.

2017

Rolland winning stage 17 of the 2017 Giro d'Italia

Rolland started the 2017 season of by finishing 78th at the Vuelta a Andalucia. His first top 10 result came at the Tour of the Alps where he finished 6th overall. He also finished 4th on stage 3, and 5th on the final stage 5. One of Rolland's season goals was the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia. At the Giro, Pierre won stage 17, after attacking inside the final 10 km of the breakaway.^[17] He also won the 3rd stage of the Route du Sud on top of the D923 climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre.^[18] He was feeling sick throughout the final week of the Tour de France thus not making a great result.

2018

At the Paris-Nice, Pierre finished 23rd overall. He finished 20th overall at the Circuit Cycliste Sartre - Pays de la Loire before riding the Ardennes Classics. On 9 August, it was announced that Rolland would join Vital Concept for the 2019 season after three years at Cannondale.^[19]

Career achievements

Grand Tour classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	—	—	4	—	—	22	—
Tour de France	20	58	10	8	24	11	10	16	54	27
Vuelta a España	—	DNF	—	—	—	—	50	50	—	56

Legend

—	Did not compete
DNF	Did not finish
IP	In progress

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pierre Rolland.

• Official website (in French)
• Pierre Rolland at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
• Pierre Rolland at Cycling Archives
• Pierre Rolland at Cycling Quotient
• Pierre Rolland at ProCyclingStats
• Pierre Rolland profile at Team Europcar