Stephen Roche has been introduced to the Giro d’Italia Hall of Fame as the 1987 winner, at a ceremony held at a hotel near the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. Irishman used this exceptional opportunity to share some of his predictions regarding this year’s star-studded edition of the Italian grand tour, however, mainly being concentrated on performances of his son Nicolas and nephew Dan Martin.

Obviously, Roche senior expects both Tinkoff-Saxo and Germin-Sharp riders to play important roles in the coming Giro d’Italia, as the Italian grand tour will kick off in the Northern Ireland for the first time.

“Dan is a good outside bet for the overall, although [Nairo] Quintana [Movistar] will probably start the race as favourite,” Roche told reporters.

“But when it gets to the Alps and Dolomites we’ll see what Dan can do. He can definitely can a stage win, maybe do the top five.”

“As well, the weather is very variable in the Giro, as we saw last year, and I don’t know if Quintana will be as good in that bad weather in the Dolomites.”

“Either way, Dan will be looking at the bigger picture rather than targetting the first two or three days.”

Regarding to his son Nicolas, Roche believes he will play to role of the sole Tinkoff-Saxo leader following his solid performances in last year’s Vuelta a Espana, concluded with a stage win and top five result in the overall classification.

The case is not completely determined, however, as a young Polish climber Rafał Majka also targets the Italian grand tour with a strong will to improve on his result from last season, when he finished seventh in the general classification and narrowly missed the victory in young riders’ classivication in the close encounter with Carlos Betancur of Ag2r-La Mondiale.

 “[Team-mates] Roman Kreuziger and Alberto Contador are doing the Tour and the Vuelta, and he’s never ridden the Giro before as a leader so it’s a big moment for him,” Roche said, “and a big change.”

“Nicolas has always ridden well in the Vuelta, and you wonder if that’s because he needs some hard racing before to be in top form. But he’s never had an opportunity to experiment.”

“Now he’s got that, and if he needs a good hammering in the races then he should go well in the Giro and in the Tour.”

“This year’s he’s got the chance and the race starting here is very important for him, and Tinkoff-Saxo are a good team so it’d be nice for him to have the jersey here.”