Further Feuds
by Mitchell Beazley, William Fotheringham A Century of Cycling: The classic races and legendary champions The most vicious Giro, however, was that of 1987, the “race of knives under the table”, as one Gazzetta writer put it. The Carrera Jeans team was jointly led by Roberto Visentini, a volatile playboy from a rich family who had won the race the previous year, and Stephen Roche of Ireland. Given his record, Visentini considered that Roche should act as his domestique, after which the Irishman would get his chance in the Tour de France, but the Dubliner had other ideas. Roche led the race early on, before Visentini took the maglia rosa from him in the time trial to the Republic of San Marino. Two days later, in the first stage into the Dolomites, to the ski station at Sappada, Roche marked an attack from two lesser riders and found himself in the lead. This left the Carrera manager, Davide Boifava, in a quandary: should he leave Roche in front, which risked him taking the