“I’ts Roche! It ’s Stephen Roche!”... behind Pedro Delgado
Stephen Roche had just become the first Irishman to win the Tour de France so it’s perhaps a little surprising to see Pedro Delgado as the main focus of the cover image this week, with Roche glued to his wheel and neither of them sporting the yellow jersey.
Roche had in fact only snatched the yellow jersey back from Delgado – Roche had worn yellow for stage 19 – in the time trial on the race’s penultimate stage. So photo ops were few and far between.
Having chipped away at the Spaniard’s lead in the final Alpine stages, it was stage number 24 – this was back in the days of split stages – where the Irishman took the jersey back. Second place in the 38km time trial around Dijon, and more importantly 61 seconds ahead of Delgado, sealed the deal.
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“Triomphe de Roche!” read the headline inside as the 27-year-old added himself to the select group of riders who’d won the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year. “Not only was the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, there to greet Ireland’s sporting hero, but also the Prime Minister of Ireland, Charles Haughey, who had flown to Paris especially.”
Writer Keith Bingham had met Roche years bef
