Stephen Roche Professional career How did he start his professional career? Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Did he have any other major victories? he won Paris-Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris-Nice) despite illness
What kind of illness did he have?
What kind of illness did stephen roche have after winning Paris-Nice?
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris-Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris-Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Etoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.  In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Etoile des Espoirs and Paris-Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.  In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Velo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris-Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.  In 1985, Roche won the Criterium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris-Nice and third in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault. CANNOTANSWER
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Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first was Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.

Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins.  All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.

Early life and amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".

He also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris–Ezy road race and finished 14th overall in the Sealink International stage race which was won by Bob Downs. However, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride in Moscow, where he finished 45th. However, on return to France, August to October saw Roche win 19 races. That led to a contract with the Peugeot professional cycling team for 1981.

Professional career
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris–Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris–Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Étoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.

In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Étoile des Espoirs and Paris–Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.

In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Vélo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris–Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.

In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris–Nice and third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault.

Chronic knee injury
In 1986 at a six-day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at speed and damaged his right knee. This destroyed his 1986 season at new team  with little to show other than second in a stage of the Giro. Roche finished the 1986 Tour de France 48th, 1h 32m behind Greg LeMond, a Tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.

The injury and then associated back problems recurred throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche abandoned after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and a series of operations appeared to only address direct or consequential symptoms of the core injury. Later non-surgical intervention under Dr.Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich made some difference but the injury required constant care.

By the end of his career Roche was unable to compete at his best because of back problem which led to a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th, riding for Claudio Chiappucci).

1987 Triple Crown

In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season. In the spring, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris–Nice. He also finished second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the closest he got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic. He blamed it on tactical naiveté and "riding like an amateur".

In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with  in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and became the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the  time trial downhill on the Poggio into San Remo and stage 22, a  individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is remembered for the stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders, broke away alone early and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his teammate Roberto Visentini, who had been previously leading the classification. His behaviour in the stage gained him the tifosi's hatred. It was said the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him was his domestique Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited Panasonic riders and old ACBB teammates Robert Millar and Australian Phil Anderson to protect him with Schepers on the Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolada Massacre").

Roche finished the Giro exhausted but favourite for the Tour de France. Following Bernard Hinault's retirement, Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with Greg LeMond injured following an accidental shooting while hunting, the 1987 Tour was open. It was also one of the most mountainous since the war, with 25 stages. Roche won the  individual time trial stage 10 to Futuroscope and came second on stage 19.

On stage 21, crossing the Galibier and Madeleine and finishing at La Plagne, Roche attacked early, was away for several hours but was caught on the last climb. His nearest rival Pedro Delgado then attacked. Despite being almost one-and-a-half minutes in arrears midway up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to 4 seconds. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").

The yellow jersey (worn by the leader of the general classification) changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final  time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by 40 seconds, which was at the time the second-narrowest margin (in 1968 Jan Janssen had beaten Herman Van Springel by 38 seconds; two years after Roche's victory, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. He was also the only Irishman to win the Tour de France. Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey joined Roche on the podium on the Champs-Élysées.

Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling. Roche arrived with insufficient training although he worked during the 23-lap,  undulating terrain for his teammate Sean Kelly and escaped in the race-winning break only while covering for his countryman. With Moreno Argentin in the following group, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for a sprint, Roche attacked  from the finish and crossed the line with metres to spare.

Victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was assured.

Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly to finish second behind Kelly.

Post-1987 career

At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers.

The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris–Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.

There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Critérium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut.

In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for  but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.

Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon.

Doping

In May 1990, Paul Kimmage – a former professional and teammate of Roche at Fagor, as well as a fellow Dubliner – published an account of life in the peloton. His book Rough Ride exposed drug use apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about Roche. Despite this, publication resulted in a threat of litigation from Roche.

It was reported in the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, in January 2000 that Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara involved with administering erythropoietin (EPO) to riders on the Carrera team with which Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche denied the allegations. This was further reported in The Irish Times several days later, Roche again denying EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the investigation into sports doctors including Conconi. This official judicial investigation unequivocally found that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.
Files from part of the investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva again alleged that Roche had taken EPO during 1993 but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.

Personal life

Roche lives in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in Majorca, by taking part in race organisations and working as a commentator on cycling events for Eurosport.

He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One son, Nicolas Roche, was a professional until his retirement in 2021, and was the 2009 and 2016 Irish National Road Race Champion.

Stephen's brother Lawrence Roche was also a professional cyclist who completed his only Tour de France in 1991. They were teammates on the Tonton Tapis–GB team.

Roche's nephew Dan Martin is also a professional cyclist with Israel Start-Up Nation, and was the 2008 Irish National Road Race Champion.

Roche completed the 2008 ING New York Marathon in a time of 4:21:09.

Advertisements
Roche featured in a well-known Irish television advert for Galtee cheese in 1987, shortly after winning the Tour De France.

Career achievements

Major results

Main Source

Amateur 
1978
 1st  Road race, National Junior Road Championships
 1st Isle of Man - Manx Viking Trophy
1979
 1st  Irish National Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships
 1st  Overall Rás Tailteann
1st Stages 2 & 9a
1980
 1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
 1st GP de France (ITT)
 2nd Road race, National Road Championships
 2nd Overall Route de France
 2nd Paris-Mantes
 2nd Grand Prix des Nations (amateurs) 
 3rd Paris – Ezy Source

Professional
1981
 1st  Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
 1st Overall Tour de Corse
1st Stage 2
 1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Prologue
1st Stage 4b
1st Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 (ITT) Tour de l'Avenir
 2nd Grand Prix des Nations
 2nd GP Monaco
 3rd Critérium des As
 3rd GP de Cannes
1982
 2nd Amstel Gold Race
 3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
 3rd Trofeo Baracchi
1983
 1st  Overall Tour de Romandie
 1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
 1st Paris–Bourges
 1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
 2nd Tour du Haut Var
 3rd  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 3rd Overall Route du Sud
 3rd GP Ouest–France
1984
 1st  Overall Tour de Romandie
 1st Nice – Alassio
 1st Subida a Arrate
 2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6 
 2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
 2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
 3rd Overall Critérium International 
 3rd Grand Prix des Nations
1985
 1st  Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
 1st  Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
1st Stage 1a
 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Prologue & Stage 9 (ITT)
 Tour of Ireland
1st Stages 3b & 4a 
 1st Bol d'or des Monédières
 1st Critérium Loudéac
 1st Critérium Les Ormes
 2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
 3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18a
 3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1986
 2nd Cronostaffetta (TTT)
 7th Trofeo Baracchi
1987
 1st  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 1st  Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 10 (ITT)
 1st  Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 1b (ITT), 3 (TTT) & 22 (ITT)
 1st  Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stages 5a & 5b (ITT)
 1st  Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
 1st Stage 7b (ITT) Paris–Nice
 1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
 1st Critérium Dublin
 1st Critérium Kortenhoef
 1st Critérium Aalsmeer
 2nd Overall Tour of Ireland
 2nd Overall Critérium International
 2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1989
 1st  Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stage 5b (ITT)
 1st Stage 3a (ITT) Four Days of Dunkirk
 2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
 3rd Overall Critérium International
 9th Overall Giro d'Italia
1990
 1st  Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
 1st Critérium Calais
 2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1991
 1st  Overall Critérium International
 1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
 1st Critérium Brioude
1992
 2nd Giro del Piemonte
 2nd Critérium Vouneuil-sous-Biard
 3rd Bol d'or des Monédières
 9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
1993
 1st Critérium Chateau-Chinon-Ville
 9th Overall Giro d'Italia

General classification results timeline

References

Further reading

External links

Official Tour de France results for Stephen Roche
Stephen Roche's Cycling Camp in Majorca
Stephen Roche's Charity Cycling Race

Irish male cyclists
Tour de France winners
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Irish Giro d'Italia stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
Olympic cyclists of Ireland
Cyclists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from County Dublin
1959 births
Living people
Cycling announcers
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish expatriates in France
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
People from Dundrum, Dublin
Super Prestige Pernod winners
Drift hypothesis, concerning the relationship between mental illness and social class, is the argument that illness causes one to have a downward shift in social class. The circumstances of one's social class do not cause the onset of a mental disorder, but rather, an individual's deteriorating mental health occurs first, resulting in low social class attainment. The drift hypothesis is the opposing theory of the social causation thesis, which says being in a lower social class is a contributor to the development of a mental illness.

Support 
A study by E. M. Goldberg and S. L. Morrison looked at the relationship between schizophrenia and social class. They wanted to find out if men, before they had been admitted to a mental hospital, drifted down the occupational scale to unskilled jobs because of their developing illness, or if it was because they were born into families with a lower social class attainment, that they developed their mental illness. They looked at men who had their first admission in a mental hospital between the ages of 25–34. They also looked at their fathers' occupation, in order to see if the social class they grew up in played a role in the development of schizophrenia. They found the men had grown up in families whose social class was similar to the general population. So the social class they grew up in  did not seem to be a contributor to the development of their schizophrenia.

Opposition 
The main opposition to the drift hypothesis is the social causation thesis, which says social class position is causally related to the probability of mental illness. John W. Fox, from the University of Northern Colorado, conducted a study in 1990 that looked at previous studies concerning the relationship between social class and mental illness. These studies he looked at supported the drift hypothesis, but when he examined them, he found their conclusions were "based on assumptions and methods that lacked empirical support." Another statement in Fox's study was, in studies done on social class and mental illness, "identify drift as an individual's downward intergenerational social mobility after the onset of mental illness, rather than as residential drift from higher to lower class status areas". So depending on what one's definition of drift hypothesis is, there will be data either to support or refute the validity of it.

From an economic perspective of social class and mental illness, the social causation thesis is the ruling theory. People who are unemployed have been shown to have an increased amount of distress; have more physical health problems, which are often seen to be contributors of depression; and experience more frequent and more uncontrollable life events, which studies have shown increase the risk of developing some form of mental illness.

When looking at the gender differences in people who have mental illnesses, women are overly represented. Women are also the majority of people who are in poverty. Deborah Belle, a professor at Boston University, did a literature review on poverty and women's mental health and examined the psychological stressors that poor women and mothers experience. "A number of community studies conducted in the 1970s reported that mothers who were in financially strained circumstances were more likely to develop depressive symptoms than other women.

A person with mental illness, particularly if more severe, may suffer from loss of income.  With this may come the need to accept public housing or food or utilities, if the person can find them.

References 

Sociological theories
Social classes
Social problems in medicine The Other is the 40th book in the Animorphs series, ghostwritten by Gina Gascone (as K. A. Applegate). It is narrated by Marco.

Plot summary

The Animorphs meet survivors of Elfangor's Dome Ship, the GalaxyTree. One Andalite called Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad suffers from a genetic disease called Soola's Disease while Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, is crippled, or a "vecol", as Ax puts it, missing half of his tail.

Gafinilan attacks Marco when he gets too close to the human home he owns, while Ax comes to his defense.  Both enter his home and Gafinilan asks to meet Ax's prince, not realizing his "prince" is human, as Visser Three had captured Mertil and had offered his release only if Gafinilan brought him a healthy adult Andalite (as Mertil was a vecol, and Visser Three discovered through Mertil that Gafinilan had a fatal disease, rendering them both as useless, in the Visser's perspective). The Animorphs assume that since Soola's Disease is genetic, and the only 'cure' is for Gafinilan to acquire and morph another Andalite, this is the reason why Gafinilan wanted to meet Ax's "prince", not wanting to acquire Ax himself because he would prefer to morph the adult Andalite he believes Jake is, as Ax's body would take too long to reach physical maturity.

Jake agrees to meet with him, with the intention of laying a trap for Gafinilan, and they overpower him by force of numbers. When they tell Gafinilan what they assumed his plan was, he is shocked at the mere thought, as Andalites consider using morphing to escape an illness as an act of cowardice. He confesses his real intentions, justifying his attempt at betraying one of his own kind by saying he cares deeply about his partner Mertil, and he did what he was told to do by the Visser in order to ensure Mertil's safety. Although still skeptical of Gafinilan's motives, they join forces with him and help rescue Mertil from Visser Three.

Ax, who is so far in the series seen as an honourable character, shows his open disapproval of Mertil and the thought that he should be treated with as much respect as other Andalites, on the grounds that he is disabled, which may have been a trait he picked up from his Andalite upbringing, as Andalites as a whole are shown in this book to not take their handicapped kind seriously. However, when Marco accuses his kind of being unfeeling, Ax points out that humans are similarly flawed, as people with handicaps are often pushed away from the limelight and kept hidden away in hospitals and institutions, instead of being allowed to live the kind of life they would have had, were they not disabled.

The softer side of Marco's personality is also shown in this book, as he shows concern about how Mertil, a morph-incapable Andalite, would survive in a human world once his partner Gafinilan succumbs to his illness and passes away. He visits Mertil at the end of the book and offers his support and company, should Mertil ever feel he needed it. Although he fears that Mertil might regard his offer as impertinent, as Andalites are a proud race that do not like to be seen as vulnerable, Mertil thanks him, and appears to consider his offer.

Morphs

References

Animorphs books
2000 science fiction novels
2000 American novels
Disability in fiction