Stephen Roche in the 1987 Giro d'Italia with Roberto Visentini sitting on his wheel and Dutch climber Erik Breukink battling with them up the climb.
By Shane Stokes
Almost 27 years since he won the Giro d’Italia and, with it, took the first step towards joining Eddy Merckx as the only person to take the triple crown of Giro, Tour de France and world championship titles, Stephen Roche relieved some of the memories in front of a large crowd yesterday.
They had gathered at a hotel close to the famous Giant’s Causeway, where Roche was being honoured with a Hall of Fame award.
The retired rider sat up on a stage for over thirty minutes, speaking about some standout moments of his career with Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Pier Bergonzi and his former team-mate Davide Cassani.
Advertisement
Unsurprisingly, the 1987 Giro d’Italia featured heavily in the reminiscences, with his duel with another Carrera rider Roberto Visentini dominating.
Visentini had started the race as the defending champion but, as Roche argued, he felt that his strong 1987 season prior to the race had earned him the right to also be a protected rider.
The Irishman took the lead early on and held it heading into the San Marino time trial, but there things went astray.
He slumped in the race against the clock, a discipline he normally excelled in, with the after effects of a crash hampering him but so too the effects of psychological tactics employed by Visentini.
“The morning before the time trial, I was doing a recce for it. It was raining, Robert doesn’t want to ride the recce,” Roche remembered, telling those present how things played out.
“So every few minutes he is coming beside me in the car. ‘Stefano, which way is the wind coming from?’
“‘From the left,’” Roche answered.
“‘Stefano, what gear are you riding?’
“‘Stefano, which way is the rain coming?’
“‘Down,” said Roche, his answer drawing a laugh from the audience.
“This is what it was like it was for the whole of my time trial,” he continued.
“Normally in my time trial, I am in a different world, I am in a little bubble, and I am thinking about what gear I am riding, the wind and everything else.
“Then I get back to my hotel and generally three hours before my start time, I have my lunch. A private lunch between myself, myself and my conscience, and going over the recce again. But on this particular day I had an unexpected guest to the table. It was Roberto.
“‘Stefano, after five kilometres, what is it like? Stefano, Stefano…’
“I couldn’t tell him where to go as I didn’t speak good enough Italian to tell him exactly what I wanted, and I didn’t want to get too vulgar either. I was just eating slowly and he drained me…he drained me. By the time I got to the start line, I was basically wasted. I never got a bit of good form that day.”
Related News
Visentini dominated the time trial while Roche lost over two minutes and slipped out of the race lead.
Roche’s fight back on the stage to Sappada is well known and the stuff of Giro legend, with his decision to fight back against his own team-mate leading to plenty of criticism from the Italian fans, as well as hurled punches and smatterings of insults.
He explained exactly why he took the decision to rebel against team orders, saying that Visentini’s refusal to support him in the Tour de France meant that he didn’t have to do likewise in the Giro d’Italia.
“I am totally devastated after having the jersey for eleven days,” he recollected. “I had some great team-mates behind me, great encouragement, saying ‘come on Stephen, come on Stephen.’ Then you lost the jersey, you go back to the hotel and you are alone. I thought that was very devastating.
“Then I put on the television and there is Roberto with two blondes, one on the left and the other on the right. He’s saying, “I am now the leader.”
“The journalists say, ‘Roberto, it is normal that Stephen Roche will ride for you…you are two minutes ahead. Then it is normal that you will go with him to the Tour de France.’
“’Oh, no no no,’” Roche said, explaining what Visentini’s answer was to those interviewing him.
“‘Stephen will ride for me, yes, but I am not going to the Tour de France…I am going to the beach.’”
In the video below Roche details this duel, as well as speaking about his beginnings in the sport and how he won the amateur Paris Roubaix despite having no experience of riding on cobbles.
He also explains his difficult 1986 season and the negotiations which followed that, speaks about winning the 1987 Tour de France and world championships and also some other key moments later in his career.
In the second video, Roche is interviewed by journalists after the presentation and gives his thoughts on the Giro d’Italia coming to Ireland, speaks of his expectations for his son Nicolas and nephew Dan Martin in the race, and talks about the contrast between the Giro and the Tour and why Bradley Wiggins was unable to perform there last year.
He also gives his opinion on world scratch race champion Martyn Irvine and the fact that Ireland is finally inching closer to an indoor velodrome.
Topics
