Stephen Roche on spending night in police cell after French arrest
Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about Irish great Stephen Roche…
One of the most talked about athletes in the history of Irish sport, there is little that has not been written about Stephen Roche.
But in a revealing new interview; the Tour, Giro and Worlds winner reveals he was arrested by French police five years ago as part of an investigation into a major fraud gang working in Nice.
And while the Dubliner was led away by a group of officers from outside a bank and placed in the cells in a local police station for the night, the investigators soon realised he was completely innocent.
Instead, he was about to become the fraudsters’ latest victim.
The unpleasant episode is revealed in the just-published December edition of Rouleur magazine.
Roche is interviewed at length by Andy McGrath under the headline ‘Stephen Roche: From Dublin to the Triple Crown’.
McGrath writes that five years ago a team of 16 police officers appeared and took Roche into custody as he was about to enter a bank in Nice.
He was set to sign over his investment money to a group of men who said they were behind a planned new bakery business.
However, it transpired the 1987 Tour winner was unwittingly dealing with a gang that had created a complex cover story and were defrauding a number of businesses in the south of France, with Roche simply the latest intended victim.
Working on the Tour with Skoda:
Roche with stage 5 winner and race leader Greg Van Avermaet back in July.
His arrest actually saved him from the gang in that it prevented him from signing over his money to them.
But his being placed into a cell and told to bed down for the night, without a pillow or blanket, does not sound like a pleasant experience.
“The amazing thing is, I rolled up my jacket and shoes as a pillow,” Roche says.
“I get down, to do sit-ups, press-ups, stretching. I slept and the next morning I did the same thing and waited for them to collect me.
“What I was doing in my prison cell seems a bit clichéd, but I was adamant I wasn’t going to break.”
He revealed he was questioned for 10 hours after spending the night in the cells before being released having been cleared of any wrongdoing.
And while he knew he had done nothing wrong and ultimately satisfied the police of that, it was a difficult experience.
“The only way of surviving was to keep strong. It affected me emotionally for a while, because you realise how close you got.”
Roche also speaks at length about his career; where he felt he won, and his rivals lost, the three big events that defined his career – the 1987 Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and World Championships.
The 57-year-old reflects on his personal life and career after cycling and his hopes for the future as well as his cycling holidays in Majorca.
The magazine is worth buying for Roche’s interview alone, but there’s lots of other fantastic features including part three of a series on An Post-Chainreaction from the Tour of Britain in September.
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