Stephen Roche
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Stephen Roche |
| Date of birth | November 28, 1959 |
| Country |  Ireland |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | All Rounder |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| 1980 | ACBB Boulogne-Billancourt |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1981-1983 1984-1985 1986-1987 1988-1989 1990 1991 1992-1993 |
Peugeot-Shell-Michelin La Redoute Carrera Fagor Histor Sigma Ton Ton Tapis Carrera |
| Major wins | |
| 1987 Tour de France 1987 Giro d'Italia  1987 World Cycling Championships1987 Super Prestige Pernod International 3 x Tour de Romandie Critérium International 1982 Paris Nice |
|
| Infobox last updated on: | |
| 25 March 2007 | |
| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor for Ireland |
|||
| Road bicycle racing | |||
| World Championships | |||
| Gold | 1987 Villach | Elite Men's Road Race | |
| Bronze | 1983 Altenrhein | Elite Men's Road Race | |
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 is 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 did not exist. [1]
Contents |
[edit] 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 did not win then '...he would be sent home to Ireland that day.[2]
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.
[edit] 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 13th 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 25th in that year's edition of the Tour de France.[2]
In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Tour Midi-Pyrénées and came second (again) in Paris-Nice and third in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and ultimately finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind race winner Bernard Hinault.
[edit] Chronic knee injury
In 1986 while riding at a six day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at high speed and badly damaged his right knee. This injury destroyed his début 1986 season at new team Carrera with little to show for the season other than second place in a stage of the Giro. Roche also recorded a gutsy finish in the 1986 Tour de France in 48th place a massive 1h 32' behind winner Greg LeMond, a tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.[2]
The chronic injury, and associated back problems, would recur throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche was forced to retire from the race after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and even surgical intervention did no good until he finally met the esteemed Dr. Muller-Wohlfahrt in Munich and thanks to him his career continued for a few more years.
By the end of his career Roche was said to be unable to properly compete at his best because of back problem resulting in a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun" knowing he would be unable to compete at the level required (he still finished a respectable 13th although riding for Claudio Chiappucci).
[edit] 1987 Triple Crown
In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season that is the dream of all professional cyclists. In the spring, he began by winning the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris-Nice. He also finished second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the closest he ever got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic and blaming his failure to win on tactical naivete and "riding like an amateur" on the day.
In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with Carrera in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and thus becoming the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the infamous 8 km time trial run downhill on the Poggio into Sanremo and stage 22, a 32 km individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is best remembered for the gruelling stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders,[3] 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.[4] 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 am not ready for a woman straightaway").[4]
The yellow jersey changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final 35km time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by what was at the time the narrowest margin ever of just 40 seconds (two years later, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Thus Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour de France and the Giro in the same year. He was also the first and only Irishman ever to win the Tour de France, a fact marked by then-Irish premier Charles Haughey joining Roche on the victor's podium on the Champs-Élysées.
Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second cyclist in history to have won the Triple Crown of Cycling. It was said Roche arrived at the race with poor form and insufficient training although he worked tirelessly during the 23 laps, 278 kilometre race over undulating terrain for his Irish teammate Seán Kelly and had escaped in the race winning break only while covering for his countryman. With pre-race favorite Moreno Argentin in the following group as well, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for the seemingly inevitable sprint, Roche attacked 500 metres from the finish and crossed the line victorious with just metres to spare from the descending pack.[4]
And after such a year, victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was also assured.[2] After winning the triple crown Roche was conferred with freedom of the city of Dublin in a ceremony in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly in the five day stage race to finish second overall behind Kelly.[5]
[edit] 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.[6]
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.[7] A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.[8]
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.
[edit] Relationships with team-mate and teams
Roche was long rumoured to be a difficult proposition to manage within teams. Although he had 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.
[edit] 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.[9] This was further reported in the Irish Times several days later, to which Roche again denied use of EPO.[10] 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.[11] This official judicial investigation concluded that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.[1] Files seized as part of the judicial investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini.[12] 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.[13]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Quotes
While it is 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 am convinced that long after I have stopped riding as a professional I will 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 is 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[1]
[edit] Grand Tour record
- 1983 - Tour de France: 13th GC
- 1984 - Tour de France: 25th GC
- 1985 - Tour de France: 3rd GC; Stage 18; 3rd Points
- 1986 - Tour de France: 48th GC
- 1987 - Giro d'Italia:
1st GC; Stage 1b and 22 - 1987 - Tour de France:
1st GC; Stage 10; 2nd Points - 1989 - Tour de France: dnf
- 1990 - Tour de France: 44th GC
- 1991 - Tour de France: dnf
- 1992 - Tour de France: 9th GC; Stage 16
- 1993 - Giro d'Italia: 9th GC
- 1993 - Tour de France: 13th GC
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Sad end to Roche's road. Timesonline. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
- ^ a b c d Stephen Roche and David Walsh (1988). The Agony and the Ecstasy: Stephen Roche's World of Cycling.
- ^ La storia del Giro d'Italia. La Repubblica.
- ^ a b c Roche remembers his annus mirabilis. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
- ^ Loserdom's guide to the 1987 Nissan Classic. Loserdomzine.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
- ^ Tour Heads for home stretch. International Herald tribune. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
- ^ The last edition of the Nissan Classic. Loserdomzine.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
- ^ Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly are names etched into the psyche of cycling aficionados. Michael Hearn and Brendan Mooney look back over their stunning careers. Irish Examiner. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
- ^ Sport: Roche denies use of E.P.O.. RTE.ie. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
- ^ Cycling: Roche's name again to forefront in doping investigation. RTE.ie. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
- ^ Ufficio della procura antidoping del coni. sportpro.it. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
- ^ Roche's name again to forefront in doping investigation. rte.ie. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
- ^ No.12 - Tour de France winner Stephen Roche denies allegations by an Italian judge of taking performance enhancing drugs. RTE.ie. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Moreno Argentin |
World Road Racing Champion 1987 |
Succeeded by Maurizio Fondriest |
| Preceded by Greg LeMond |
Winner of the Tour de France 1987 |
Succeeded by Pedro Delgado |
| Preceded by Roberto Visentini |
Winner of the Giro d'Italia 1987 |
Succeeded by Andrew Hampsten |
