We look back at Stephen Roche’s bronze medal ride in the 1983 World Pro Champs
Stephen Roche winning stage 2 of the Health Race Rás Tailteann from Longford to Westport in 1979 from Denis Brennan.
He would win the race overall aged just 19 years, competing with a strong Irish Cycling Federation selection that also included Tony Lally, John Shortt, Ollie McQuaid and Alan McCormack.
His last big outing for Ireland as an amateur was the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the following year, 1981, he would turn pro with Peugeot. He immediately beat Bernard Hinault for his first pro win at the Tour of Corsica.
Just two months into his pro career, he would win Paris Nice, with Sean Kelly winning the following seven editions of that race. Roche continued to blaze the trail and in 1983 won a series of huge races before taking bronze at the World Championships in Switzerland at the end of that season.
(Photo with thanks to Eddie Dawson http://www.rastailteann.com/event/ )
With the world TT and road titles being settled in Florence, Italy, this week, Graham Healy reflects on the 1983 ride in Altenrhein, Switzerland on the shores of Lake Constance, that brought Stephen Roche to his first podium at a World Championships.
In 1983, weeks after finishing his first Tour de France, Stephen Roche repeated the feat of compatriot Seán Kelly the year before in winning a bronze medal at the World Championships.
After a disappointing 1982 season, Roche was back on form winning the Tour of Romandie and the Grand Prix de Wallonnie in ’83. That year, the Worlds were being held in Altenrhein, Switzerland on the shores of Lake Constance.
Whilst Kelly stayed with the Irish amateur team in a cheap hotel near the race circuit, Roche stayed in more comfortable surroundings in nearby Liechtenstein with Robert Millar, fine-tuning their training.
The day before the pro event, the amateur race took place and best of the Irish was Davy Gardiner who finished in a group 4’40” behind the East German Uwe Raab, who would go on to become a team mate of Martin Earley and Seán Kelly at PDM.
Gardiner was in good company, finishing alongside Eric van Lancker, with Andy Hampsten five minutes further back. The only other Irishman to finish was Martin Earley, who was just one place of Dan Martin’s dad Neil.
The following day in the professional race, the 117 riders would have to face 18 laps of a 15-kilometre circuit for a total of 270 kilometres. Roche was obviously in good form as he put in some digs from early on, but couldn’t get away.
In the last few laps, a break went clear which included Australia’s Phil Anderson and gained a minute’s lead on the bunch. Kelly and Robert Millar worked hard in helping to bring this group back. But on the penultimate lap, Greg LeMond countered with Moreno Argentin of Italy and Spain’s Faustino Ruperez.
Argentin was the first to get dropped as he went backwards on the second last time up the climb. And on the final ascent LeMond got rid of the Spaniard. Behind the leaders, Roche, Adri van der Poel of Holland and Claude Criquielion of Belgium broke clear of the bunch and worked well to try and close the gap to the American LeMond. They picked up Ruperez along the way, but couldn’t bridge up to the lone leader.
He crossed the line to become the first American to win the World Road Race having finished in 2nd place the year before. Van der Poel won the sprint, 1’11” behind, to take the silver, with Roche winning bronze. The bunch sprint was won by Kelly who claimed 8th place.
Roche’s good form continued for the rest of the season as he took victory in Paris-Bourges, and more importantly worked to help Seán Kelly win his first classic, the Tour of Lombardy. The Dubliner would get in trouble with his Peugeot team afterwards as it was obvious that he had been helping Kelly to claim victory.
Four years later, Roche would go on to have an even better performance at the Worlds to become Ireland’s first World Road Race Champion.
Ok, ok, this may be a story about the 1983 Worlds but we can still bring you other vintage photos – this one is of 1979 Health Race Rás Tailteann leader Stephen Roche and ICF team mate and climbers’ classification leader Alan McCormack up the road.
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