STEPHEN ROCHE - The "Driver" Within
Photo: Cycling Legends Collection https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1598663752263547&set=a.417935973669670 The new wave of English-speaking pros entering the European peloton in the early 1980s caused ripples. They were winning, but they were different. To the eyes of the Peugeot team manager, Maurice De Muer , the young Stephen Roche didn’t even look like a pro bike racer. They met at the 1981 Peugeot training camp in the South of France. Roche travelled with Robert Millar , who’d been with Peugeot the previous year . When they arrived D e Muer asked Millar if his driver was staying for dinner. The ‘driver’ was Stephen Roche. Millar explained the mix-up and De Muer looked Roche up and down, and told him; “You might have been able to win amateur races carrying that much weight, but you won’t as a pro.” Roche’s baby face had misled De Muer, which he quickly proved by winning the Tour of Corsica and Paris-Nice . That was incredible. Peugeot was stuffed with established talent, b...