Stephen Roche has spoken to Be Celt about his involvement with new UCI Continental team – Team Dynamo Cover Pro Cycling which will be based in Brittany.
Roche along with other former pros Joel Pelier and Bruno Cornillet will be providing support and advice to the team which will be based in Baud, near Loreint. Roche was asked why he became involved with the project.
When Yann Dejan showed me the project, it looked promising because it’s really good to have a second pro team in Ireland after the An Post team,” Roche said.
“An Post have done a great job with the young riders of our island. They’re a great springboard for Irish riders. But they were a little bit isolated and now with Dynamo Cover in Brittany, it allow other young riders to race at a pro level and further expand our prospects.”
“They have a very good management team with Benoit Salmon, Sébastien Duclos and Yann Dejan. As for my part, I will be there to support them, help them when necessary and provide advice to the riders. However, due to my schedule, promoting the Skoda brand and running my training centre (www.stephenroche.com), I can’t be on every race.”
“But I’ll try to be there as often as I can. For me, this project really matters to me. It’s a beautiful concept for young riders. It is easy to say that we will do this and that, but you really have to do it now.”
“The academies are such a good idea to allow younger riders from Australia, Ireland and France to come together to race international races with the backing of a pro team. Nicolas did this with his junior team, and this has allowed many juniors from Ireland to progress.”
“However, his team had no rivals, it was the best. You had to go abroad for them to improve and this will allow these young riders to have access to even more races, it’s a nice transition between the amateur and professional world.”
Roche also spoke about the use of modern technology in cycling and how he feels it can prevent riders from learning race craft. “This is really a development team with some more experienced riders showing the younger ones about the job,” he said. “I’m against race radios as it does not allow the young to learn how to really read a race.”
Regarding the stage to La Plagne (’87 Tour), where I fell unconscious after the finish line and needed oxygen, I’ve been asked “Would you have been like that if you had a pulse monitor and earpiece?”
“I honestly do not know. I think if I had all these, I would not have been in that state there. I didn’t know I had taken so much time, more than 1 minute in 4 kilometres. I had no earpiece at the time but if the race radio had existed, I would have more easily managed my time and I’d have been 30 seconds behind.”
“Same for the pulse monitor, I would have been put on red alert and I think I would have slowed. Everything is relative, but it’s important for young riders to learn to ride intuititively, to really know your limits.”
Roche was also asked about one of the team’s goals for next year – An Post Rás – a race which Roche won at the age of 19.
“Yes, and I’m proud of this victory. This weekend, I was at the birthday of Eddy Merckx. When people say that we both won the triple crown, I point out that Eddy didn’t win the Rás.”
“Seriously though, this race is world famous now. It’s a difficult test which great champions have won such as Tony Martin. It should not be taken lightly, it is tough and can be full of surprises. It’s good to keep as one of the main objectives for an Irish team.”
