Sports Poets Society

by Barry Ryan The Ascent: Sean Kellty, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling's Golden Generation Gill Books ‘When you win the Giro d’Italia, you can spend the money any way you want,’ Roberto Visentini says, his voice rasping with indignation over the phone from his home above Lake Garda. The charge levelled at him through his career, by both the press and his peers, was that he would have won a lot more had his devotion to the austere life of professional cycling matched his reported enthusiasm for la bella vita. It is, understandably, characterisation Visentini resents to this day. ‘The people who say that are ignorant, basta. But then again, there weren’t a lot of correct people in cycling. Sons of bitches.  Given that his family’s considerable wealth was derived from the gloomy business of funeral direction, it was perhaps only fitting that Visentini would be a rather morose kind of playboy. Handsome, talented, moneyed and with a penchant for fast cars, V...

by Barry Ryan The Ascent: Sean Kellty, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling's Golden Generation Gill Books Patrick Valcke was the only member of the entourage Roche brought with him from La Redoute to Carrera at the beginning of 1986. It was a lonely kind of existence, especially as Roche had picked up a knee injury after a crash during the Paris Six-Day track event over the winter, and scarcely raced in the opening months of the season as he searched for e remedy. Though this big money acquisition was a statement of global ambition from Carrera, the team, sponsored by a Verona-based jeans manufacturer, remained resolutely local in feel. Team manager Davide Boifava, star rider Roberto Visentini and the bulk of the staff all hailed from the hinterland of Lake Garda. Outsiders were few, or at least it felt that way. If Carrera was a family, then Valcke was its black sheep, viewed with a mix of suspicion and contempt. ‘Carrera was a big machine, but at the same time, vi...