Sports Poets Society

https://www.velonews.com/news/make-mine-a-triple-a-chat-with-1987-tour-champion-stephen-roche/ JULY 6, 2011 - STEVE THOMAS It was some 24 years ago, in 1987, that Irish cycling hero Stephen Roche won the Tour de France; it was his and Ireland’s only ever Tour victory — if you can actually be so blasé as to use the word “only” in the same sentence as a hard earned Tour de France victory; the culmination of a life’s work and ambition for any cyclist. Now on a recent day, VeloNews found him packing his bike once more and making for a new challenge; t he London-Paris ride, a major annual cyclo-sportive stage event, which he’s ridden before in aid of charity (leukemia research). “I’m flying straight from my Majorca cycling camp and will be riding the London-Paris, and then I start work at the Tour de France for Skoda France, so I’m busy enough.” Since his retirem ent at the end of 1993 Roche has continued to have a close involvement with the sport, both through his son