Giroscope

The clash between Stephen Roche and Roberto Visentini at the 1987 Giro d’Italia (The Tour of Italy being one of the three major tours including Le Tour de France and The Vuelta Espana) remains one of the most-talked about conflicts at a Grand Tour. What made it more striking however was that they were on the same team.

Roche’s subsequent story is familiar to all cycling fans. It was a momentous year for the Irishman who completed a very rare triple of the Tours of France, Italy and also becoming World Champion. This feat was only achieved by one other, the dominant Eddy Merrckx and arguably in a very different era of the sport.

Behind the history making Roche I have often wondered what became of Roberto Visentini?

It seems that even today, he’s still angry about what happened.

It may be one of the longest held grudges in cycling history.

I was initially under the impression that the handsome and charismatic Visentini was a bit of a poster-boy in his home country. We have all come across similar characters in other sports who just seem to come and go.  However, having read about him more widely he was obviously incredibly talented as a junior rider, winning the Italian championships in 1975 and later that year adding the Junior Worlds title to his Palmares.

Three years on, at the age of just twenty, he turned professional for the Italian Vibor team. Many talented juniors have found the transition to the professional level demanding, but it didn’t appear to have been difficult for the man from Brescia.

He was entered into the Giro in his debut season, and finished in an incredible fifteenth place in addition to winning the best young rider title.

The following years would see him go from strength to strength as he continued to improve on his General Classification  position in the race, as well as winning a number of stages.

He also claimed victories in the major events of the Giro del Trentino and Tirreno-Adriatico, amongst other events.

In 1985 it looked likely he would win the Giro d’Italia, having worn the pink jersey for nine days. However, he had to pull out of the race before the end due to illness. Finally, in 1986, he would win the race overall, beating the likes of Greg LeMond and Francesco Moser.

So, he returned in 1987 as defending champion. But among his team mates on the Carrera team was Stephen Roche, who was in the form of his life. He had just won the Tour of Romandie and amongst an impressive early season had won or placed well in major races.

Visentini had also been at the same events but Roche in his book "My Road to Victory" claimed that the Italian had given no help to him or the team and had not really performed himself. Team management at the 1987 Giro decided they would start with two team leaders but before and during the early stages of the race there were lots of arguments between the two in the battle for supremacy within the team. An Italian on an Italian team and riding on home territory would always be better supported and Roche sensed that Visentini was the golden boy.

In the first week of The Giro, Roche was in the leader's Pink jersey and carried it for a total of 10 days but with no help from the pro-Italian element of the Carrera Team. After a crash, injury and resultant lack of confidence Roche lost the jersey to his Co-Leader and as far as fans and the media were concerned the race was all over.

Roche seized his opportunity to win the race on the fifteenth stage to Sappada. Going against team orders, he attacked early on a descent and was away with two other riders.

The Team Manager (Directeur sportif)  Davide Boifava drove alongside in the team car and  told Roche to stop the attack, but he continued on. Behind, there was the farcical sight of Carrera team chasing their own man. They were quickly exhausted and did a deal with another Italian team to chase Roche down.

It was a gamble that just about paid off for Carrera who recaptured the break but on the final ascent yet more aggressive riding from the Irishman saw Visentini losing over 6 minutes. Roche managed to take over pink by five seconds from Switzerland’s Tony Rominger.

Visentini, his chances of a repeat victory gone was livid afterwards, as were the Italian fans.
Despite receiving extreme abuse from the tifosi over the last few days, and a threat to his lead from Erik Breukink, Roche hung on to win the race overall by nearly four minutes from the Scottish climber Robert Millar.

Roche's main allies were team member Eddy Schepers and his faithful mechanic, Patrick Valke. Their respective roles had been to protect Roche from his own squad or any risk from roadside attack from Visentini sympathisers and to ensure that his bike was not sabotaged. The Italian press called Roche a Judas and with his colleagues being referred to as The Rebel and Satan respectively.

Roche left the Carrera team at the end of the 1987 season. Visentini stayed on but he never won another race. He continued to compete for another three years for a number of smaller Italian teams, but his heart was not in it any more. He retired from the sport in 1990.

The Italian was interviewed a number of years later about his career, and despite the many highlights it seems he still cannot shake off the events of the ’87 Giro.

He admitted it was the biggest disappointment of his career.“Being attacked by opponents was normal, but it was my team mate and I could just not stomach it, I sometimes lost to star riders like Moser and Saronni, but I never complained. Roche’s attack was unacceptable.”

He wasn’t just unhappy with Roche though, but with the team manager Boifava too.

“If the captain is in the lead, the team must help him. Roche, however, attacked me. But the real crime was by the team management; clueless, heartless.

Visentini's reaction to the management was extreme.  “At the end of the race, I went to Davide Boifava with some plastic bags containing the bike which I had sawn into pieces.”

Asked about Roche’s assertion that Visentini had declared before the Giro that he would not go to the Tour de France to help the Irishman, he said it was “All excuses to deflect blame after what had happened.”

In fact, Roche had known early on in the Giro that Visentini had booked his holidays for July and would not therefore be available to offer to help Roche win in France in return for handing over the Giro without any fuss.

Visentini ended up pulling out of the '87 Giro anyway, having broken his wrist on the penultimate stage.

By this time there was some grudging acceptance in the Carrera ranks that Roche was the best rider in the race.