Roche was something else that year. Kimmage never finished in 87 but he did finish in 86.
Single minded to the extreme. He was well in the wrong team-wise in the Giro but he backed himself and Visentini cracked.
The Italian lad seems to have pissed him off no end and Roche just cracked, there’s a lovely anecdote where the team carvtells Scheppers he HAS to fall back to help the Italian but he asks Roche to look after him for the next season and Roche agrees,
It’s a lovely documentary, whatever you feel about Roche it’s a really good listen,
A lovely story at the end as well about the Nissan Classic and an old friend, he had a bit of class.
Wasn’t that Cabrera team the first to pioneer EPO that year?
Zzzzz
Bizarre response. It was a serious question.
Roche was my hero when I was a kid so I’ve no axe to grind with him.
I think it was the book about Pantani that alluded to the blood transfusions surrounding Carera at the time. 1987 was an unreal year by Roche and it’s well believable that he was on some super juice.
Don’t know about 87 but it was rife by 90/91 mainly on Italian and Spanish teams.
I know that yeah. That was mainly what made his interview so good. He is still absolutely sickened over packing it in and not being able to ride the end with Roche
Was was Roche hated?
By who?
He was hated by the Italians because he wasn’t the team leader and he went out and rode to win the races himself rather than support the leader who was an eye tie
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He was a co leader, while he had the pink jersey he should have been leader but it was a strange tour as you know
What was his problem with Roche? I’d understand why Vincentini would think that
Bernard took the jersey and proclaimed that the race was over with a week to go. He pissed a lot of riders off. The following day Roche and the other top guys attacked in the feeding zone which is a bit of a no no. Bernard punctured around the same time and he never got back on. No one would ride with him. He says he lost the Tour that day but Roche would say that Bernard wasn’t able to keep up in the following days anyway.
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Just downloaded it there, thanks for info. “The Orwell Wheeler”.
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You’ll have a lump in your throat at the end
Thanks for the heads up on the Roche documentary. It was a nice listen, a reminder of a more innocent time really.
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There was a program on Radio 1 last night about how better life was in the 70s. They search the radio archives for twee stories and get a couple of hipsters to poor scorn on it. One such story was how a telephonist was going to be sacked for being overweight. How the tables have turned. Now it’s required that you be fat and lazy in the public service.
Are you all set to update the “On This Day” thread from the forthcoming midnight?
Have downloaded the Roche doc, will listen while driving to a cycle in West Cork in the morning. Going up Mt Gabriel as part of 120km around the Mizen area
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