Sponsored By
STEPHEN ROCHE
About:
Stephen, born in Dublin is a retired Professional Cyclist living near Nice in France with his family. In a 13 year professional career, he peaked in 1987 becoming the second cyclist to win the 'Triple Crown' of victories in the Giro D’Italia, the Tour De France and the World Cycling Championships all in the same year. Additionally, Stephen is still the only cyclist to have won the Tour of Romandie 3 times. Among his 68 professional wins, he won Paris-Nice (1981), the Tour of Corsica (1981), the Tour of Midi Pyrénées (1985), the Tour of Valencia (1987), the Tour of Pays Basque (1989) and the 4 days de Dunkerque (1990) as well as numerous stages in the great Tour De France over these years.
Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in 1987.
Whilst being admired worldwide for his great pedaling style, he rode for 7 Professional Bike Racing teams including 2 of these being with the Italian Team - Carrera - five years apart. He suffered a knee injury during his career which ultimately held him back from competing at his best in 1988 & 1989 but he was back to winning stages at the Tour by 1992. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th.
His son Nicolas, is following in his fathers footsteps and is at present one of the Worlds best cyclists racing for the French Team AG2R Mondial Team. He is a part Irish National Cycling Champion (2009) and came close to matching his father by nearly winning a stage of the 2009 Tour De France (a few times during the race). He finished 15th overall in the same race in 2010 and followed this up with 8th in the Tour of Spain. 2011 is sure to be a great year for Nicolas and it has certainly began that way shooting into the top 30 of the World Rankings.
Follow Nicholas on TWITTER here.
At Present...
UCI
In 2009, Stephen was asked to join the an elite group within the UCI, who govern Cycling Worldwide and is now challenged with the other members of this group with thinking up of new things that Cycling can do to increase its popularity or advise on issues/safeguards within the sport to keep and improve its reputation worldwide
Training Cycling Camp, Majorca
Stephen has run this camp in the island of Majorca for many years now and it is suited to all types and levels of cyclist. Groups are split as per ability and bike rental, training advice etc are all available at the camp. For more information on this, check it out here.
Charity Fund Raising Involvement
In the last number of years, Stephen has turned his attention to fund raising for specific charities running the New York Marathon in ’08 for the Geoff Thomas Leukemia Foundation which he will continue with into 2009 along with another 2 events, the 'London-Paris Cycle Tour' and the 'Lands End to John O’Groats Challenge'. For more information on these, check out the Geoff Thomas Foundation Site. Of course he has just completed the 2nd Stephen Roche Tour De Cure with 1200 riders in May 2010.
Eurosport
Stephen is one of Eurosport's Main Commentators for the top ProTour Professional 'One Day Races' along with the larger Tours/Stage Races such as the Tour De France that the TV Station covers during the year.
Follow Stephen on TWITTER here.
