After a good early season, where he finished 10th in Paris–Nice, 5th in the Volta a Catalunya and 2nd in the Irish National Road Race Championships, Roche was chosen as the co-leader of the team in the Tour de France and during the race he wrote articles for the "Irish Independent" newspaper. Roche finished 15th overall, but could have been a few ranks above had he not lost four minutes to the race leaders because of a flat tyre in stage 15.