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Stephen Roche

Stephen Roche
Roche - Tour de France 1993 (cropped).jpg
Roche at the 1993 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name Stephen Roche
Born (1959-11-28) 28 November 1959 (age 57)
Dundrum, County Dublin, Ireland
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 74 kg (163 lb; 11.7 st)
Team information
Current team Retired
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type All-rounder
Amateur team(s)
1980 ACBB Boulogne-Billancourt
Professional team(s)
1981–1983 Peugeot-Shell-Michelin
1984–1985 La Redoute
1986–1987 Carrera–Inoxpran
1988–1989 Fagor-MBK
1990 Histor Sigma
1991 Ton Ton Tapis
1992–1993 Carrera Jeans–Vagabond
Major wins

Grand Tours

Tour de France
General classification (1987)
3 individual stages (1985, 1987, 1992)
1 TTT stage (1987)
Giro d'Italia
General classification (1987)
2 individual stages (1987)

Stage races

Critérium International (1985, 1991)
Paris–Nice (1981)
Tour de Romandie (1983, 1984, 1987)
Tour of the Basque Country (1989)

One-day races and Classics

World Road Race Championships (1987)

Other

Super Prestige Pernod International (1987)

Grand Tours

Stage races

One-day races and Classics

Other

Stephen Roche (/ˈr/; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia stage races, plus the World road race championship. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.

Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins. All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.

On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979 where he became the youngest rider ever to win the Rás), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".


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Wikipedia

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