The Roche Family and Irish Cycling

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Sep 16, 2010
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Benotti69 said:
Roche claimed to Kimmage he trained for hours on a slice of toast to try and lose weight. Right of course he did. Not hanging anyone today, but lets be under no illusions, puhleeease.
Not hanging? But definitely twisting. He didn't say he trained on a slice of toast to lose weight. And it wasn't just a slice of toast. Puhleeease, do you have to twist everything?
- What have you eaten today?
- This morning I had toast with a bit of butter with some ginger marmalade.
- One slice of toast?
- Yeah, and a cappuccino.
- That's it?
- Yeah.
- And that was before you went for a ride?
- Yeah, I did two hours.
- You didn't eat during the spin?
- Actually, I did. I stopped for a coffee and it came with a little biscotti.
- And nothing since?
- No, but I'm not hungry. I had a good meal last night.
 
May 26, 2010
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fmk_RoI said:
Benotti69 said:
Roche claimed to Kimmage he trained for hours on a slice of toast to try and lose weight. Right of course he did. Not hanging anyone today, but lets be under no illusions, puhleeease.
Not hanging? But definitely twisting. He didn't say he trained on a slice of toast to lose weight. And it wasn't just a slice of toast. Puhleeease, do you have to twist everything?
- What have you eaten today?
- This morning I had toast with a bit of butter with some ginger marmalade.
- One slice of toast?
- Yeah, and a cappuccino.
- That's it?
- Yeah.
- And that was before you went for a ride?
- Yeah, I did two hours.
- You didn't eat during the spin?
- Actually, I did. I stopped for a coffee and it came with a little biscotti.
- And nothing since?
- No, but I'm not hungry. I had a good meal last night.

So coffee really piles on the calories? FFS sake you are MR Pedantic!!

Have you ever been on the continent. The biscotti is tiny.

2 hour rides, yeah. I bet. :lol:
 
Jul 21, 2016
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Yip, given the history, all skepticism is fully justified unfortunately.

If riders want to say they are clean they really need to learn to be crystal clear with their language...and they still won't be believed. :)

So what have they got to loose? Sing it from the roof-tops. ''I do not dope. I never have doped. I never will dope. I only eat organic advocado and free-range Yak''.

Join my 'Stop The Farce' movement for change (only me and my teddy-bear are members at the moment).

Legalise doping!

Emancipationz-R-Us.com
 
May 26, 2010
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TheSpud said:
Benotti69 said:
Roche has a team so is building a brand, hence the articles. He also probably wants more than the hotel or cafe bar after he hangs up his bike.

Hence the need to comment, but say little. Branding.

Interesting point about Nico - do you think he has earnt more as a cyclist than his dad (even accounting for the TDF win)? My impression is the $ are better now (not saying massive, but better)? To be honest if I could retire to a paid for B&B / Hotel in the Alps / Pyrenees with a half decent pension and enjoy the area I used to ride for my job then I would. But hey, thats me.

Got to have the business acumen. Roche Snr probably not hotel management sort.

Roche Jnr appears to be more grounded than his old man and is taking steps for his future while still in the present. Smart? No?
 
Jul 21, 2016
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What's the hubbub about riding on a bit of toast for brekkie mate Stuey mate? Like Stuey mate, brekkie free mate. Just-lose-the-fat.com
I ride all the time without a morsel for brekkie mate. No probz. 4 hr rides easiez.
 
Jul 21, 2016
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TheSpud said:
Dan2016 said:
Stephen Roche will always be a cycling god to me. He won the Tour when I first fell in love with the sport.
I met him once and didn't like him as a person at all.

With that pointless anecdote shared I'll get my coat... :D

Me too - it was the first time a nearly British rider got the Yellow jersey! La Plagne will always be in my memory (incidentally happens to be my favourite ski resort - everytime the coach goes up the hairpins I relive the memories).

How goddam dare you!! :)
The Celts are a proud people.
Nearly British?! That's fighting talk.
 
Jul 3, 2014
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fmk_RoI said:
Benotti69 said:
Roche claimed to Kimmage he trained for hours on a slice of toast to try and lose weight. Right of course he did. Not hanging anyone today, but lets be under no illusions, puhleeease.
Not hanging? But definitely twisting. He didn't say he trained on a slice of toast to lose weight. And it wasn't just a slice of toast. Puhleeease, do you have to twist everything?
- What have you eaten today?
- This morning I had toast with a bit of butter with some ginger marmalade.
- One slice of toast?
- Yeah, and a cappuccino.
- That's it?
- Yeah.
- And that was before you went for a ride?
- Yeah, I did two hours.
- You didn't eat during the spin?
- Actually, I did. I stopped for a coffee and it came with a little biscotti.
- And nothing since?
- No, but I'm not hungry. I had a good meal last night.

And there is certainly twisting in the original post.

But a 2 hour ride - not exactly long for a pro cyclist. Be good to understand the context of that day - was it 2 hours early, come back lunch / fuel up and then another few hours later? Or was it just 2 hours?

Context is always important for these comments.
 
Jul 3, 2014
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Dan2016 said:
TheSpud said:
Dan2016 said:
Stephen Roche will always be a cycling god to me. He won the Tour when I first fell in love with the sport.
I met him once and didn't like him as a person at all.

With that pointless anecdote shared I'll get my coat... :D

Me too - it was the first time a nearly British rider got the Yellow jersey! La Plagne will always be in my memory (incidentally happens to be my favourite ski resort - everytime the coach goes up the hairpins I relive the memories).

How goddam dare you!! :)
The Celts are a proud people.
Nearly British?! That's fighting talk.

I'm Welsh so a pure Celt!

Roche is from Dublin, so not British at all - but close enough in those days! And no offence meant.

Very similar to Barry McGuigan - Irish but a UK citizen and very much adopted as such, even winning Sports Personality 1985.
 
Jul 21, 2016
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TheSpud said:
Dan2016 said:
TheSpud said:
Dan2016 said:
Stephen Roche will always be a cycling god to me. He won the Tour when I first fell in love with the sport.
I met him once and didn't like him as a person at all.

With that pointless anecdote shared I'll get my coat... :D

Me too - it was the first time a nearly British rider got the Yellow jersey! La Plagne will always be in my memory (incidentally happens to be my favourite ski resort - everytime the coach goes up the hairpins I relive the memories).

How goddam dare you!! :)
The Celts are a proud people.
Nearly British?! That's fighting talk.

I'm Welsh so a pure Celt!

Roche is from Dublin, so not British at all - but close enough in those days! And no offence meant.

Very similar to Barry McGuigan - Irish but a UK citizen and very much adopted as such, even winning Sports Personality 1985.

No offense taken Spud, I'm just messing about. :)

And yeah La Plagne stage '87, absolute classic. I remember watching that like it was yesterday. Great memories.

I heard him recounting the story of that stage a few years ago. You probably know the story already: he was stuffed all day, really badly stuffed. When Delgado broke away he knew he would have only one big late effort to try and limit the damage.

In those days the race communications didn't work in the last x number of kilometers on mountain stages. Delgado wouldn't know what was happening behind him in this 'black-out' zone. Roche left his effort to that short window of opportunity, and as you know, drove himself to the point of physical collapse.

I still remember the complete shock from the commentator seeing Roche appearing from the mist just after Delgado crossed the line. It was a genius bit of tactics. A real classic stage. Makes me all nostalgic for the 'good old days'.
 
Jul 3, 2014
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Dan2016 said:
No offense taken Spud, I'm just messing about. :)

And yeah La Plagne stage '87, absolute classic. I remember watching that like it was yesterday. Great memories.

I heard him recounting the story of that stage a few years ago. You probably know the story already: he was stuffed all day, really badly stuffed. When Delgado broke away he knew he would have only one big late effort to try and limit the damage.

In those days the race communications didn't work in the last x number of kilometers on mountain stages. Delgado wouldn't know what was happening behind him in this 'black-out' zone. Roche left his effort to that short window of opportunity, and as you know, drove himself to the point of physical collapse.

I still remember the complete shock from the commentator seeing Roche appearing from the mist just after Delgado crossed the line. It was a genius bit of tactics. A real classic stage. Makes me all nostalgic for the 'good old days'.

That commentator was Phil Liggett -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQojh-wqL04

Go to 1:50 in for the best bit.

Things were 'better' in those days in my view - maybe cos I was a teenager and life was fun and easy ...
 
Jul 7, 2012
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Dan2016 said:
The Celts are a proud people.
Nearly British?! That's fighting talk.

But the Celts (including the Welsh) ARE British, not to be confused with the English, who were later immigrants into the British Isles. The whole King Arthur myth relates to the ancient hope of the British (Celts) that a King of the Britions would one day return and kick out the English who had displaced them and forced them into the peripheries of the British Isles!
 
Sep 16, 2010
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Roche likes to pass the problem back to the generation before. Worth noting that Roche and Wiggins were team-mates in Cofidis (2006) and Sky (2015). And that it was to Wiggins Roche turned when he wanted an afterword for his collection of race diaries.
 
Sep 16, 2010
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TheSpud said:
But a 2 hour ride - not exactly long for a pro cyclist. Be good to understand the context of that day - was it 2 hours early, come back lunch / fuel up and then another few hours later? Or was it just 2 hours?
It was the day after Paris-Nice. Technically his first 'rest day' after eight days on the road. The context is easily found if one really wanted to understand it: it's in the interview's intro.
 
May 26, 2010
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fmk_RoI said:

Or playing to the gullible fans.

Dont expect a rider like Roche to do a Kimmage. Not going to happen. He knows there is no journalistic career for him. He is planning a future in the sport, smart to take a leaf out of the snakeoil salesmens books and speak out of both sides of ones mouth a la Vaughters, Millar and even Brailsford.

Credit to Roche for doing that. The sport is not going to change. It will continue to lurch from scandal to scandal led by the likes of the McQuaids, Cooksons etc who are pocketing as much as they can while ignoring the obvious problems in the sport all the time trying to get onto the IOC gravy train.
 
Nov 14, 2013
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Benotti69 said:
fmk_RoI said:

Or playing to the gullible fans.

Dont expect a rider like Roche to do a Kimmage. Not going to happen. He knows there is no journalistic career for him. He is planning a future in the sport, smart to take a leaf out of the snakeoil salesmens books and speak out of both sides of ones mouth a la Vaughters, Millar and even Brailsford.

Credit to Roche for doing that. The sport is not going to change. It will continue to lurch from scandal to scandal led by the likes of the McQuaids, Cooksons etc who are pocketing as much as they can while ignoring the obvious problems in the sport all the time trying to get onto the IOC gravy train.

Good point.
It's easy from us out there, behind a computer, to demand that pro or ex-pro riders blow the whistle.
What do we expect?
Most of these guys stopped school quite young and have no real competence or domain of expertise outside of cycling. Let's forget one minute about money, they still want to do something with the rest of their life once they're retired. Cycling is a small world. Why would they burn bridges by going after doping?
Not to mention it would mean go after friends, ex-teamates... I believe it takes a certain state of mind (Kimmage) or specifics motivations (revenge and money à la Landis) to "do a Kimmage."

And in my mouth it's not really a compliment to them to be honest.
If I were in Roche position I don't know excactly what I would do but I know what I wouldn't do : a Kimmage
 
Sep 16, 2010
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Benotti69 said:
fmk_RoI said:
Benotti69 said:
fmk_RoI said:

Or playing to the gullible fans.
They sent him to Blackrock College. I know which scenario I think is more likely.

You speak as someone who also has 1st hand experience of Blackrock?
Inner city scruffs like me don't get to go to Blackrock, not even for the discos.
 
May 26, 2010
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fmk_RoI said:
Benotti69 said:
fmk_RoI said:
Benotti69 said:
fmk_RoI said:

Or playing to the gullible fans.
They sent him to Blackrock College. I know which scenario I think is more likely.

You speak as someone who also has 1st hand experience of Blackrock?
Inner city scruffs like me don't get to go to Blackrock, not even for the discos.

Then why suggest it is a school for dumbasses!
 
Sep 16, 2010
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Benotti69 said:
Then why suggest it is a school for dumbasses!
D'uh, because you don't need to go there to know that? Are you now proposing that we limit knowledge to direct personal experience? Gosh.
 
May 26, 2010
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fmk_RoI said:
Benotti69 said:
Then why suggest it is a school for dumbasses!
D'uh, because you don't need to go there to know that? Are you now proposing that we limit knowledge to direct personal experience? Gosh.

Got facts or you just spouting more celtic myths.

Private schools in Ireland have a big rugby presence but didn't know the exam results stunk. Maybe you have studied this in depth or work for the Dept of Educ.....

Edit: List of the past pupils of a school for dunces according to Fmk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Old_Rockmen