In 1987 Dubliner Stephen Roche hit the heights with the Italian Carrera team before leaving it "disillusioned and disappointed". Despite that, he would eventually go back to the Italian squad later in his career. Roche tells stickybottle he sees similarities between his experience and Sam Bennett's return this year to Bora-hansgrohe. And though sprinters are "fragile", Roche says Bennett has "matured" in the last two years and goes back to his old team as a more dominant figure and with the upper hand after the messy departure in 2019.
After Stephen Roche's triple crown in 1987 - when he won the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and World Championships - a strange thing happened within his Carrera team; absolutely nothing.
Though the Dubliner had brought home the biggest spoils the sport had to offer, and was in his prime aged 28 years, his Carrera team didn't give him a new contract. Indeed, they didn't even make him an offer. Roche says he was more than a little "disillusioned and disappointed".
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"Roberto Vinsentini was in Carrera and he was the Italian in the Italian team," Roche says of his former team mate - with whom he clashed so spectacularly on his way to winning the '87 Giro, when Vinsentini was the defending champion.
"At the end of '87, Vinsentini still had a year to go on his contract. And Carrera had gotten a lot of stick over my Giro win, the tactics. It was very tense with the politics in the team. So, really, if they gave me a new contract…. with the two of us in the team there would have been chaos. They couldn't afford to risk that. So the decision was made: 'We'll let Stephen go'."
When he was hit with a recurrence of his old knee injury in the build up to 1988 he was so eager to prove himself to his new team, Fagor MBK, that he pushed himself too hard in training, making his condition worse.
"If I'd still been at Carrera, because I had won the big races already with them, I would have sat back more and focused on getting better rather than being too keen to train hard and prove my worth to the new team."
He went on to ride for Fagor MBK for two season - 1988 and 1989 - before riding 1990 with Histor Sigma and joining Ton Ton Tapis for 1991. His injury meant 1988 was a winless year. However, in his second season with Fagor MBK, in 1989, he took a stage win in Paris-Nice and was 2nd overall to Miguel Indurain. He also won a stage and the overall at Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco and claimed a stage win and 3rd overall at the Four Days of Dunkirk. He enjoyed a very consistent campaign in 1990, though winning the Four Days of Dunkirk was his only victory that year.
The 1991 season started well; 4th overall in Paris-Nice was followed by overall victories in Setmana-Catalana and Critérium International. But that success soon gave way to the lowest of low points - in July at the Tour de France with the world looking on.
A mix-up within Roche's Ton Ton Tapis team at the Tour saw him miss the start of the stage 2 team time trial. Roche was forced to ride the course himself in a desperate bid to stay in the race. But he missed the time cut and was forced to go home.
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Then Carrera came knocking again. Davide Boifava, the Carrera general manager who didn't offer Roche a contract after '87, urged him to keep his head high. He told him not to allow people in the sport to disrespect him and to come back into Carrera and get some results before he hung up his wheels for good.
Roche followed his advice and enjoyed a consistent year in 1992, taking multiple top 10s and a number of 2nd places before winning stage 16 of the Tour de France; his last pro win, secured through the mist in La Bourboule after 212km of racing.
"When I went back to Carrera it was really like going home; the masseurs, the directeurs, the mechanics; they were all the same as when I left in '87 and the structure was even better. It was like I hadn't left at all. And of course when I went back, the older guys are telling the newer guys about the '87 Giro and so on; telling stories about big things that happened. And that also meant going back was a bit of fun too. And Davide (Boifava) is an amazing man, he has a personality I adore. We've always been great friends, an incredible guy."
When Roche left Carrera after 1987 he had been so successful he had the power to bring his own group of riders into Fagor BMK; Sean Yates, Malcolm Elliott, Eddy Schepers and Robert Millar. Sam Bennett has now done the same with his move to Bora-hansgrohe; bringing with him Irish champion Ryan Mullen, former Kiwi champion Shane Archbald and Dutchman Danny van Poppel.
Roche believes Bennett's decision to bring in his own group would now prove instrumental for him as he works towards future success. And though Bennett is also going to a new team after injury, just like Roche in 1987-88, the former Tour winner believes the Carrick-on-Suir sprinter will be fine in the year ahead.
"Sam is going back to a team with a great structure; Bora-hansgrohe has always gotten great results, it knows the job of winning. But now Sam is also bringing in his own people, and that gives him a bit of comfort. When you're a leader, it's nice to have people around you who are on your side.
"And when you look at Sam…. you could say that sprinters generally are more temperamental than the normal GC rider. A GC rider can have a few things go wrong during a day, but they can still be there at the end of a day. But a sprinter… it's all very finely tuned, you have to do it all in a few moments. And because of that, you have to have men there that you are fully confident can do it all in the particular moment you need it.
"Sprinters are more fragile and they need people around them who can build them up and give them confidence, and of course do the job in the sprint. You get used to winning, and a certain way of winning. And when you are changing teams you're worried you won't find that same rhythm, the same mentality and composition in the new team. And you are under pressure to win and then win and win again. So having your own group around you, that will be a really big help for Sam."
Roche said while Bennett's departure from Bora-hansgohe at the end of 2019 was protracted and a little messy - and the team had selected Pascal Ackermann and Peter Sagan ahead of him for Grand Tours - those twists and turns of 2019 don't count for much now.
Bennett was returning as a rider who had come of age in his two years away from Bora-hansgrohe, having deposed Sagan from the Tour green jersey and taken two stage wins in that race, as well as a series of other wins. And now that Sagan and his group had left the German team, and Bennett was so much more established as a top rider, his second stint at Bora-hansgrohe would be completely different.
“A lot depends on the mindset the rider has and when you get to the level Sam is at… he clearly has that certain mindset otherwise you couldn’t win like he does,” said Roche. “Sam is very good at delivering. And when he left two years ago, there was a certain amount of discussion about his real value. He has matured in the last two years and he’s not going back as a ‘potential number 1 sprinter’, he’s the man now. He can go back with his head high; ‘I told you so’. He can think ‘I haven’t lost any time, I haven’t lost anything in the last two years, you guys have’.
“He’s going back as ‘the man’. He can’t say that, of course! He has to stay humble and remember where he comes from, and he will do that. You just have to say to yourself (about the events of two years ago): ‘Nobody made any mistake, that’s just life, that’s how it goes – I made my decision, you made yours and we are delighted to be back together again and let’s make chapter 2 better than chapter 1’. The important thing is that he just gets that first win and hopefully get it early. Once you have that first win, the pressure comes off.”
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