Life After Peugeot – Stephen Roche

by Rupert Guiness – The Foreign Legion (1993)

Roche has arguably had the most turbulent career of the lot. He has also been the most successful, with 1987 and his ‘Triple Crown’ triumph in the Tours of Italy, France and the world road title at Villach in Austria. Only the retired Belgian legend Eddy Merckx had ever accomplished the same feat in 1974. 

However his contractual wranglings and spate of injuries have earned as much headline space as his race results. Since leaving Peugeot after the 1984 season, Roche has ridden for six teams – La Redoute, Carrera, Fagor, Histor, Tonton Tapis and again Carrera, riding out his intended final season in 1993. 

Things started going wrong for Roche right from the start, in his first year out from Peugeot. It had nothing to do with his attitude or performance. On all accounts, 1984 was not a bad season with wins in Nice-Alassio, the Tour of Romandy and Subida a Arrate in Spain. He was also second in Paris-Nice, third in the Criterium International and Grand Prix des Nations. His biggest let down was a 25th in the Tour de France where he crashed two days before the mountains and injured his calf muscle. 

The atmosphere of La Redoute was not happy one created by former Peugeot men, Maurice de Muer as general manager and dual Tour champion Bernard Thèvenet as directeur-sportif. Thèvenet was clearly a better rider than director, proving the theory that champion cyclists don’t always make great bosses. His apparent downfall was because he let de Muer walk over him. According to Roche, even de Muer’s wife Jacqueline tried to turn his own riders against him. Thèvenet was always being outdone by de Muer and the rift between the two had a nasty effect on team morale. Finally, both men lost and it was announced that they would be replaced in 1985 by Raphaël Géminiani, a former professional who finished second in the 1951 Tour but had built himself a reputation as a directeur-sportif as well. 

Roche was wary of Géminiani at first. There was little communication between the two in the lead up months to the 1985 season. And it took a face-to-face argument during the Tour Mediterranean where they both aired their suspicions and doubts about each other before the relationship really strated making progress. But when it did, Roche and Géminiani got on fine. The season was eventually Roche’s best since 1981.

After taking third in that Tour Mediterranean, Roche won the Criterium International and the Tour du Midi Pyrenees, finished second in Paris-Nice, third in the Tour and seventh in the world titles. It was his Tour result which helped Roche realise his racing ambitions. Winning the 52km first sector of stage 18, from Luz Saint Sauveur to the summit Col d’Aubisque. It was in tht stage that Roche wore a one piece suit under ‘Gem’s’ instructions. Beacuse it was so short a race, he wanted Roche to race it like a time trial – and he did before eventually winning alone and with 1:03 on Sean Kelly.

The honeymoon between Roche and Géminiani ended after 1985 when LA Redoute pulled out of its sponsorships, and Roche signed up with the Italian team Carrera unable to take Géiniani with him. Still, the loss did not affect Roche too badly. In fact his two years with Carrera elevated him to near-immortality. But his glory didn’t come before the one year ‘on’ one year ‘off’ routine came down on Roche.

Roche crashed in the Paris Sx-Day event in which he teamed up with Englishman Tony Doyle. He injured his knee badly, damaging the cartilage, and endured a painful season culimnating with an operation that October. During that time Carrera and Roche had received much publicity with many people believing Roche was washed up. But in 1987 he proved otherwise.

His second season with Carrera may have highlighted by his ‘Triple Crown’ triumph, but there were other wins like the Tour of Valencia and the Tour of Romandy. He was also second in the Criterium International and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and fourth in Paris-Nice and Flèche Wallonne. It was hard to imagine that a rider of such calibre could fail amongst his team-mates. It began in the Tour of Italy with his much publicised fight for ladership with 1986 winner Roberto Visentini.

Roche’s battle against the Italian, all his team-mates bar Belgian domestique Eddy Schepers and the Italian peloton and ‘tifosi’ was an epic. Visentini and the rest didn’t want Roche to win and they did everything they could to make Roche’s bid difficult. It led to Carrera riders racing against Roche. Their dispute made the headlines in every paper, and Visentini’s fans showed their dislike throwing objects and spitting at Roche. His experiences in Italy made his eventul victory all the more impressive. And it certainly helped to instill an inner psychological toughness for the Tour de France a month later. No other rider could have staved off the verbal and physical abuse and still won like he did. Then again no other raider than Roche could hve got himself in such a situation. Merckx may have been ‘the Cannibal’, but Roche could certainly be thought of as a veritable tiger.

It was that tiger’s spirit which led to an amazing and most unexpected victory in the world championship later. The image of Roche pedalling like fury with his head buried between his legs, as he attacked in the final 400 metres, most surely remain in the minds of anyone who witnessed the occasion.

Roche still left Carrera after 1987. The domestic turmoil there requires it. And so he signed up to lead a new-look Fagor team to which he was also given license to hand-pick the men he wanted around him. Nobody expected Roche to repeat the success of 1987, but then nobody expected he would have so much misfortune over the next two yars. Disputes and injuries once more threatened his career. The issues created major rifts within the team; especially between Roche and his English-speakers allies in Fagor – Yates, Millar and Elliott. They were clarly unsettled by the wave of uncertainty which struck the team and they left after 1988.

Troubles continued to follow Roche, when he rode for Histor in 1990 and then Tonton Tapis in 1991: Histor was a Belgian team that never really adopted the French clan that Roche brought with him, and t was more or less the same at Tonton Tapis. Although his clash with former professional and Tonton Tapis directeur-sportif, Roger De Vlaeminck, was the cause of his headaches there.

The trouble cme to a head in the Tour de France when Roched missed the team time trial start because he was on the toilet. Roche still completed the course alone, but was eliminated for finishing outside the time limit. For the 1987 ‘Triple Crown’ winner, such an incident was as humiliating as anyone could imagine. There were accustaions and counter claims of what actually went wrong from both sides. How could such a mistake occur in suchan important event? It was insinuated that Roche even missed the start on purpose because he wanted ‘out’ from the team, but such claims are hard to believe. Roche hotly denied them to the press, public and the team’s administration. One thing was certain though – he had to leave.

Returning to Carrera in 1992 was the answer to a prayer for Roche. As in 1985 when he rode for LA Redoute, Roche once more found success. It ws not the sort of success he had in 1987 or 1985 and he rode through most of the season with a back injury. But his old tiger’s spirit returned, and in the circumstances his 15th in the Tour of Spain, and ninth and stage win at LA Bourboule in the Tour de France were as significant to Roche as any other victory in his career. They proved that Roche coud still emerge a winner.

He declared 1993 would be his last year. But that did not stop the threat of misfortune testing Roche once more. He hit his left knee in a fall while leaving his house early one January moring for a training ride and was unable to train for weeks. He could see his season was facing disaster and even hinted that if need be, he would not race at all rather than bow out struggling like an invalid. If Roche wanted anything, it was to be remebered as a fightes, and if 1993 could not prove that then the memories of 1992 would have to suffice.