Everything about Stephen Roche totally explained
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Stephen Roche (born
November 28 1959 in
Dundrum near
Dublin, Ireland) is a retired professional
road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in
1987, becoming only the second cyclist in history to win the
Triple Crown of overall victories in the
Tour de France and the
Giro d'Italia stage races, plus victory in the
World Cycling Championship. Roche's rise to prominence in the sport coincided with that of his fellow Irishman and great friend
Seán Kelly although the two were never teammates.
Although generally acknowledged as one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired by purists for his effortless pedalling style, he struggled with a series of chronic knee injuries and never meaningfully contended in the
Grand Tours post-1987. Although a
Tour de France victor, it's said that Roche never competed at peak fitness in a truly open and competitive race including the prominent riders of his generation. By the time of his retirement, Roche's
palmares comprised 58 professional wins. Post-retirement, Roche's achievements in the saddle have been undermined by Italian judicial assertions that he was administered with the performance enhancing drug EPO during the latter part of his professional career in the early 1990's. However Roche’s greatest successes, his victories in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships came in 1987, when EPO didn't exist.
Amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland (including a win in the legendary
Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche travelled to France and joined the vaunted Parisian
ACBB Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team. According to Roche himself the move to
ACBB was largely to aid his preparation for the 1980 Olympic games road race to be held in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris-Roubaix, escaping with Belgium rider
Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Famously, during the race Roche was told by his director sportif that if he didn't win then
'...he would be sent home to Ireland that day.
Although he also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris-Eze, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride at the Moscow games. However on his return to France, an amazing spell from August to October saw Roche win an incredible 19 races and led to the offer of a professional contract with the
Peugeot professional cycling team for the
1981 season.
Early professional career
In an extraordinary debut season, Roche scored his first professional victory by beating
Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won the early season
Paris-Nice stage race (despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux) and finished his impressive debut season with further victories in the
Tour de Corse,
Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and
Etoile des Espoirs races with an impressive second place behind Hinault once again in the
Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut season yielded 10 victories.
In a disappointing
1982 season his best performance was second in the
Amstel Gold Race behind
Jan Raas, but his rise to prominence continued in
1983 with victories in the
Tour de Romandie,
Grand Prix de Wallonie,
Etoile des Espoirs and
Paris-Bourges. In the
1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13
th and he finished the
1983 season with a bronze medal in the
World Cycling Championship at Alterheim in Zurich.
In
1984, now riding for the
La Redoute team following contractual wrangles with his
Peugeot team bosses (the settlement of which would lead to Roche sporting Peugeot branded cycling shorts for 2 years before winning a court action against velo club de Paris Peugeot), he repeated his
Tour de Romandie win, also won
Nice-Alassio,
Subida a Arrate and was second in
Paris-Nice. He finished 25
th in that year's edition of the
Tour de France. broke away alone early in the day and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his team mate
Roberto Visentini, who had been previously firmly leading the classification. His ambiguous behaviour in the stage gained him the
tifosi's hatred. It was said that the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him in the Giro was his longtime domestique
Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited the support of the
Panasonic riders and ACBB teammates of old friends
Robert Millar and Australian
Phil Anderson to encircle and protect him with Schepers on the pivotal Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolade Massacre").
Roche finished the Giro mentally and physically exhausted but suddenly found himself as favorite for the upcoming Tour de France. Following
Bernard Hinault's retirement,
Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with
Greg LeMond out injured following his accidental shooting on a hunting trip, the 1987 Tour de France was one of the most open of recent years. It was also one of the most mountainous routes since the war with a record 25 stages. Roche raced hard, winning the 87.5km
individual time trial stage 10 to
Futuroscope and taking second place on stage 19.
On the next stage, a particularly gruelling Alpine stage crossing both the Galibier and the Madeleine and finishing at
La Plagne, Roche attacked early in the stage and was away with a small
grupetto for several hours but was caught on the last climb. Having caught Roche, his nearest rival
Pedro Delgado then attacked on the final climb. Despite being almost 1 and a half minutes in arrears mid-way up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to just 4 seconds on the line. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness at the finish and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he famously replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute suite" ("yes, but I'm not ready for a woman straightaway").
Post-1987 career
At the close of the 1987 season, Roche changed team from
Carrera and moved to
Fagor MBK, bringing with him an apparently hand-picked selection of team mates including the English riders
Sean Yates and
Malcolm Elliot,
1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner
Robert Millar and loyal domestique
Eddy Schepers. The composition of the team was criticised at the time as containing too many English speakers and not enough continental professionals.
The 1988 season began badly, with a recurrence of the old knee injury and Roche's career began a gradual decline. In
1989 he again took second place in the
Paris-Nice stage race (making four second places in total) and the
Setmana Catalana. Roche made a return to
Grand Tours by racing the
1989 Giro d'Italia where he finished 9th overall behind
Laurent Fignon of
France. During the
1989 Tour de France, Roche had to withdraw due to his knee injury. There were problems with his
Fagor team in and he changed team once again. In
1990, racing for new
Histor Sigma team he won the
Four Days of Dunkirk and
1991 riding for
Roger De Vlaeminck's short-lived
TonTon Tapis team brought victories in the
Setmana Catalana and Critérium International. In the
1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start time for his team's
Team time trial and as a result was forced to withdraw from the race due to missing the time cut.
In the
Grand Tours, he was ninth in the
1989 Giro, and won a stage of the
1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (once again racing for the
Carrera team but now in support of team leader
Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the
Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche rode an aggressive race and was involved in many breakaway attempts but failed to make the difference and finished the race fifth overall. A year later, he was again ninth in the
1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the
1993 Tour de France.
Roche retired from the professional peloton at the end of an anonymous
1993 season which yielded just a single win, in the post-
Tour de France criterium at
Chateau Chinon.
Relationships with team-mate and teams
Roche was long rumoured to be a difficult proposition to manage within teams. Although he'd a problem with his team mate Roberto Visintini he was said to have been kind and respectful to his team mates.
Patrick Valcke was originally Roche's mechanic at Peugeot and followed Roche from team-to-team before becoming his Director Sportif at the
Fagor team.
Alleged Performance-enhancing drug usage
In May 1990,
Paul Kimmage a former professional cyclist,
Fagor team mate of Roche and a fellow Dubliner published a powerful and frank account of life in the professional peloton. His book
Rough Ride exposed the drug usage apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about his boyhood idol and former Fagor team leader Roche. Publication of the book resulted in an aggressive and visceral reaction from Roche, including the threat of litigation.
It was reported in the Rome based newspaper, La Republica, in January 2000 that
Francesco Conconi, a Professor at the
University of Ferrara that was involved with administering EPO to riders on the
Carrera team with whom Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche immediately denied the allegations of EPO. This was further reported in the Irish Times several days later, to which Roche again denied use of EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the conclusions of an investigation into a number of sports doctors including Professor Francesco Conconi. This official judicial investigation concluded that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton. In 2004 Judge Oliva alleged that Roche indeed had taken EPO during the 1993 season but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor any of his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.
Family and post-cycling career
Roche lives in Antibes where he owns a hotel, the Roche Marina Hotel, on the
Cote d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in
Majorca and working as a commentator on cycling events for the
Eurosport television channel.
He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One of their sons,
Nicholas Roche, is also now a professional cyclist with the French
Crédit Agricole road racing team. Their daughter,
Christel Roche, has graduated from a BBA and will soon follow a Masters.
Alexis is in primary school.
Florian has a severe sickness and is still fighting for life.
Quotes
While it's a very hard and sometimes very cruel profession, my love for the bike remains as strong now as it was in the days when I first discovered it. I'm convinced that long after I've stopped riding as a professional I'll be riding my bicycle. I never want to abandon my bike. I see my grandfather, now in his seventies and riding around everywhere. To me that's beautiful. And the bike must always remain a part of my life. » Stephen Roche
I have never taken performance enhancing drugs whether banned or unbanned, on or off the list, at any time. In fact, I underwent hundreds of tests during my career and all were negative. » Stephen Roche
The unequivocal findings of an Italian judge have undermined the cyclist’s countless denials that he ever benefited from EPO. » David Walsh, Stephen Roche's Official Biographer
Grand Tour record
Further Information
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