Leaner, meaner and keen for the hard road

CYCLING INTERVIEW WITH NICOLAS ROCHE: Though he will always carry the burden of being the son of Stephen, it seems now, at 25, he's not only comfortable with that, but ready to live up to it. Ian O'Riordanreports

HE WALKS into the room, dressed in a navy, three-quarter length coat, belt tied around the waist, over a very slim-fitting tweed suit. Black boots of Italian leather. Mediterranean skin, clean-shaven, neatly trimmed hair and two diamond-stud earrings.

He may not intend it, but Nicolas Roche is making a strong statement: I have a mother too, you know.

He almost certainly didn’t inherit this dress sense from his father, Stephen. His cycling abilities, probably, but he has his mother, Lydia, to thank for this elegance and air of Gallic sophistication. She’s French, and must often remind Nicolas that he’s half-French, too.

Either way, Nicolas Roche has gradually made a name for himself as one of the most promising riders in the peloton. Although he will always carry the burden of being the son of Stephen, it seems now, at age 25, he’s not only utterly comfortable with that, but ready to live up to it.

It’s lunchtime on Wednesday, and we’re in a Dublin hotel for the Irish Sports Council’s announcement of the high-performance grants for 2010. In the room of athletes and coaches, most of whom are dressed in tracksuit tops and jeans, Roche cuts a dash.

After the formalities, he removes his coat and sits down for a chat about the new season, and even in that slim-fitting suit Roche looks extremely slim. It’s one of the differences, he says, with an unmistakable hint of French accent, between this year and last. A lighter, slimmer Roche could be the difference between challenging for Tour wins, and achieving them.

His five years as a professional have been a steady learning curve. In 2007, he rode his first grand tour in Italy, the Giro, and finished 123rd. In 2008, he rode the tour of Spain, the Vuelta, finishing 13th, with three top-10 stage finishes.

Last year, Roche rode his first Tour de France, and surpassed most expectations by finishing 23rd, with five top-10 stage finishes – including second place on Stage 14 into Besançon. That was the day he truly announced his arrival, in more ways than one.

Cyclists generally peak between age 27 and 30, although Lance Armstrong appears to be peaking again at 38. Stephen Roche was 27 when he won the Tour de France in 1987 – although he probably peaked then, winning the Giro and the World Championships that year, to rival the one and only Eddy Merckx.

It could take a couple more years before Roche The Younger challenges for a place on the Tour podium, but he’s not limiting himself either.

“To say, now, I could win the Tour, is getting a little carried away. But at the same time there’s no point coming into the sport if you think you’ll finish last. You dream of top-three in the Tour.

“You might get 10th. If you dream of 10th, you might get 30th. You have to carve away. But you need maybe unrealistic dreams, to have that carrot, motivation.

“But you also need realistic dreams, to get some satisfaction. All athletes need some satisfaction. You can’t go chasing dreams that just aren’t possible. Or else you’ll end up frustrated. You need the bit of mixture, and say, ‘I’d love to win the Tour, but today, or tomorrow, I’d love top-10, or top-15, in general classification’.”

The least of his ambitions for 2010 will be to win Tour stages, but then that’s no different to last year: “Even the year before, in 2008, I was very close as well. Second in a Vuelta stage, in a photo-finish. And I finished 2008 with 13th general classification, at only 24. Also won two races that year.

“Then I had a hard start to 2009, but was hoping already last year to win a stage. Now, I just know I made some mistakes at the start of the season last year, and I’m trying to correct them. And I’ve corrected a few already. So my goals haven’t really changed that much for 2010. I just think now I’m more mentally mature.”

There is a harder attitude now about the young Roche, an edge to his manner that perhaps wasn’t there in the earlier years of his pro career. It’s not arrogance, perhaps just an inner realisation that pro cycling is an unforgiving trade, and that nice guys usually do finish last.

His father learnt the same lessons, none more famously than with his mental battle with Roberto Visentini, his Carrera team-mate and, in theory leader, in winning the 1987 Giro; the message being don’t mess with Roche.

By finishing second in a Tour stage last year, Roche sent out a similar message. At the time it was tough, almost insufferable, but he came out of it a better rider, mentally anyways.

Ag2r-La Mondiale, the French insurance and pension group, signed Roche for 2009, following the end of Crédit Agricole. Given his experience, Roche would be no mere domestique, but the team leader would be the Italian, Rinaldo Nocentini. As it turned out, Nocentini proved his worth, taking over the maillot jaune in the Tour on Stage 7, and holding it for eight days. On Stage 14, from Colmar into Besançon, Roche got himself into a 12-man break, although with Nocentini in danger of losing the jersey if the break opened up any further, Roche was told to sit back.

Most of the riders around him, like Daniel Bennati, Frederik Willems, Daniele Righi, began abusing Roche for not helping, using obscenities familiar to any language.

In the end Roche lost out on the stage win to the Russian, Serguei Ivanov, but Bennati and Righi kept going, cursing Roche live on Italian TV.

Before the next day’s stage, after a largely sleepless night, Roche found himself outside the Liquigas team bus, waiting for Bennati. In front of the assembled media, Roche grabbed him by the throat, told him to show some respect, and if he didn’t understand that the priority was the yellow jersey on Roche’s team, then he didn’t understand cycling; the message being, don’t mess with Roche.

These are the kind of things he was always going to have to learn for himself, that couldn’t be handed down, no matter how great a cyclist his father was.

He did come relatively late to cycling, at least in the competitive sense, and after winning the Junior Tour of Ireland in 2002, briefly declared for France, on the basis that he was told he couldn’t hold dual nationality as a pro (he has Irish and French passports).

As it turned out, he could, and so Roche soon re-declared for Ireland. He says he’s always felt Irish, grew up here, went to Blackrock College until age 15, before the family moved back to France (Stephen and Lydia are separated).

Stephen never pushed his son into cycling, he demanded only that Nicolas keep his bike clean. Word is it was actually Lydia, a former athlete, who introduced him to sport.

“It’s true I started out in running, because my mother was a runner. But then I loved all sports. Soccer, rugby. When you’re 10 or 12, it’s much easier to get a football, and kick it around the street with a few friends. It was more socially attractive at that age.

“As I got older I realised that, okay, there is more pleasure in cycling.

“But growing up I always loved cycling, played with my little sister in the garden. We would dress up as different cyclists. She was Claudio Chiappucci. I was Tony Rominger. We’d chase each other around the garden on our little pushbikes.

“So I always loved cycling. Now, I’m really passionate about it. Totally committed. I think my passion for the sport is my big advantage. At first, I was just enjoying riding my bike around, training hard, but nothing scientifically. It took me a bit longer to go out and do all the specific training. You have to go through all the specific work to improve. But I just wasn’t ready at a young age, to go into competition.”

For years, Irish cycling was asked one question: where is the next Roche? The next Seán Kelly? It’s not all that surprising that the next Roche happened to be a Roche, although he’s not the only Irish name in the peloton. Philip Deignan and Dan Martin are also making their mark as pros and, for the first time since the Kelly-Roche era, Ireland could have three riders in the Tour this year.

What is often overlooked is just how difficult it is to secure a pro contract: “If you think about it, there are only 700 or so cyclists on the pro tour,” says Roche. “In France, there are only four pro teams. In Belgium three, in Italy three, in Russia one. In Spain there are two. So it’s very difficult to make it. It’s very, very few. Much harder than, say, in professional soccer, where you have 18 or 20 teams in every country.”

Given his pro contract, the question also arises as to why Roche is part of the Irish Sports Council’s high-performance grants (he gets €20,000, same as seven other riders in the world-class category): well he has been, since 2003, and although he now lives in Varese, at the foot of the Italian Alps, it’s also about signing up to the carding scheme, including it’s anti-doping programme – and being available for the Olympics and World Championships.

“It’s been a long-term relationship, with Cycling Ireland, and the Sports Council. And it’s been a great help, because cycling is a very costly sport. We’re paid a salary for the year, but very few cyclists make sufficient money to survive on after their career. Because the money is not fantastic.

“Not everyone is Lance Armstrong. Armstrong is in a category of his own. The grant is a real bonus, for all athletes, to make your life calmer, and allow you to progress.

“This year I’m planning two weeks altitude training, and the grant will support that, something I couldn’t have done before.”

Last week, Roche rode in the early-season Tour Méditerranéen, a race that included Alexandre Vinokourov and Michael Rasmussen, just two of several riders with notorious doping backgrounds, now freely competing again. On the cover of the February issue of ProCycling magazine is Riccardo Ricco, the Italian who made a mockery of the 2008 Tour by winning two key mountain stages, before being ejected for abusing the latest EPO brand, Cera.

Ricco was banned for two years, but he’s free to race again next month, having received a four-month “discount” for naming a former directeur sportif as an accomplice.

“But they’re not welcome,” says Roche, with a seriousness in his voice not previously revealed. “I think riders making a comeback like that will find it hard, especially now. A lot more than maybe the older generation, where it was like, ‘oh, everyone needs a second chance’. I think the mentality is changing. I’m sure of that. Most of the people now say, ‘he was done, never come back’.

“Unfortunately the laws don’t change as quick, and some riders still get through on appeal. Slowly it is getting better. It’s just a matter of changing mentalities. Also, with a rider like Ricco, the problem is there is always someone ready to pay him to ride.

“But last week, I was riding with Rasmussen and he was not welcome. In a few weeks I’ll be riding with Ricco and I know he’s not welcome. I know these riders are taking a big risk, because a lot of the other riders want to hunt them down.

“I don’t ever want to be in that situation. I don’t want to know about it. But if one is stupid enough to cheat he doesn’t think about the consequences after. It’s already too late if you’re thinking of cheating. What we have to do is dissuade them from coming back.”

Drugs in cycling, as Roche suggests, hasn’t gone away and will never go away unless the cyclists themselves make it happen. He’s been a victim of the crime himself. Mikel Astarloza of Spain won Stage 16 of the Tour last year, six seconds ahead of Roche, in fourth, and was later done for EPO.

In his seminal pro cycling book, Rough Ride, Paul Kimmage talks about having crache dans la soupe, spat in the soup, for claiming cycling had a drugs problem. These days it would appear that to “crache dans la soupe” is to actually take drugs, because you are ruining it for everyone else.

It may be too soon to say whether that is true, but, if it is, it could be the difference between Nicolas Roche challenging for Tour wins, and achieving them.