STEPHEN ROCHE the former Tour de France and world cycling champion said yesterday that he hoped the Government would decide soon about staging the initial stages of the Tour de France in 1998.

Cycling promoters Pat McQuaide and Alan Rushton, along with members of the Dublin International Sports Council (DISC), are to meet with the Minister for Tourism, Enda Kenny, today.

The proposal envisaged that the Tour would start in Dublin and be followed by three days of stages in Co Wicklow and in the Midlands, before riders embarked by sea for Roscoff.

Roche said that he was concerned that the contract had been with the Government for two months without having been signed.