Interview with
Stephen Roche
C
ycling World interviewed the former world champion and Tour de France winner on The Veulta and his recent love affair with cycling in Spain.
You only rode the Veulta a Espana once in 1992, placing fourteenth. Why was it a Tour you avoided? The reason why I did not do more Vuelta is that during my career it was always in April, and I was more suited to the Giro which was around the same dates or shortly after. Also the Giro was closer to the tour so it was a better preparation for the Tour de France which was the one I preferred – the most prestigious one. In 1992, my team Carrera was asked to do the Vuelta, and I was named race leader – so I was interested in doing it. On the other hand, Cappucci was named leader for the tour.
How did you find that Tour of 1992?
Cycling CyclingWorld World
Stephen Roche
The tour was very hard and it was very cold in the mountains, being early in the season.
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Now you run a Cycle Holiday business in Mallorca. What made you fall in love with cycling in Spain? The road network has totally renovated the last 25 years, and for cyclists and group cycling, the road surface is very important. Even the smallest, secondary roads are very well maintained in Mallorca. Also, the hotel infrastructure which is and was at the time really good, were looking to fill rooms during the off season – so this was a great opportunity for us to set up base in Mallorca for cycling. Furthermore, the accessibility from most European and American countries with most airlines having direct flights to Palma was a key element.
Often called the little brother, how do you think the Veulta compares with the Tour de France and the Giro? Despite the Vuelta and the Giro upgrading their tour, the Vuelta will
always be in my opinion number three – after the Tour and Giro. However, the change of dates from April to August/September, meant that any of the top riders that have missed out on Giro or Tour (for injury or any other reason) have the opportunity to save their season with a last tour. Also it’s great for young riders that want to start a major tour as it is less demanding than riding the Tour de France, and the fact that it is at the end of season, means they can give it all and have time to recover after
What do you think of this year’s route? I thought 2015 was a hard tour with nine mountain finishes, but this year there are ten mountain top finishes! The first mountain top finish being only three days in, with 13% average finish and a steepest part of 29%. I am not too fond of too many top finishes, as it restricts the race to only a few riders. The first mountain finish will already eliminate a few guys. One of the good things is that the tour is kept in the north, which will limit the transfer times. This is one thing riders often criticise, is the length of time spent in transfers, arriving late at the hotel, having a late massage and late night. I am also glad to see there is a team time trial for opening stage and individual time trial two days from the finish of 39 km. It will also be a tricky route for these riders that will be doing the Tour and the Olympics. It will be hard for them to keep good form for such a long period of time. A rider that wants to do well in the Olympics may jeopardise his training for a good Veulta
Any predictions of who will win? For the moment Quintana has confirmed riding it – but it will majorly depend on the results of the Tour who will be riding it and who will be a favourite. We should also see riders like Dumoulin, who had an excellent Vuelta 2015, coming back with a revenge mission.