CyclistTour de France history: Stephen Roche does the Giro/Tour double in 1987It was in October 1985 that the organisers of the Tour de France announced that the 1987 race start would take place in West Berlin. Still divided by its famous wall at the time, Berlin would be marking the 750th anniversary of its official founding that year and the western part of the city wanted the Grand Dpart as part of the celebrations. Felix Levitan, then co-director of the race, said he hoped the move would encourage teams from the Eastern Bloc to enter the Tour and promote understanding between peoples, although it turned out that no such teams made it to the 1987 start line.Among the teams that did make the start was the Carrera squad of Stephen Roche. Just weeks earlier the Irishman had won the Giro dItalia in controversial circumstances after getting himself into a break in the Dolomites and taking the pink jersey from his teammate and nominated leader Roberto Visentini. Related Posts Tour de France history: The first foreign Grand Dpart in 1954 Tour de France history: Jan Ullrich triumphs for Germany in 1997 Tour de France history: Coppi triumphs on debut for first Giro/Tour double Tour de France history: Coppi christens Alpe dHuez en route to second Giro/Tour double The Power of Three: Stephen Roche profile Riders made a point of posing by the Berlin Wall when the Grand Dpart visited West Germany. In this case its the Madiot brothers, Yvon and Marc.L'EquipeHis team managers were furious, as were the tifosi, who spat rice and wine at him in the days that followed. Journalists repeatedly asked when he was going to leave the race but Roche hung around and won by more than three minutes while Visentini, who fell away, abandoned before the final stage with a broken wrist.If you were to describe this scenario to me now and ask me how I would react, I would say that Id be on the first plane home, Roche said in 2016. But there I was, in that real-life experience, and Im saying do what you want, Im not going home.Now Roche was in West Berlin to try to add the Tour to his palmars. Huge crowds turned out to watch three days of racing while riders posed for photos by the Berlin Wall. While those in East Berlin were unable to cross the threshold, the impact still resonated on the other side of the Wall, especially when Polish rider Lech Piasecki wore yellow after that first road stage.Ill never forget watching the start of the race from my little television in my dorm room, with my little antenna pointed towards West Berlin, Jens Voigt writes in his autobiography Shut Up Legs. All those colourful jerseys with all sorts of different sponsors were just so beautiful, so rich, compared to my solid-grey East German national jersey! I remember thinking, wow, if a guy like Piasecki can come from a Communist country and ride the Tour de France, maybe I can too someday.That looks like Stephen Roche!Exactly three weeks after the Tours opening, the race convened in Bourg dOisans. Ahead was a 185km stage to the La Plagne ski station that would also take in the Galibier and Madeleine. Roche, who had entered the race wondering how his physical and mental efforts in the Giro would impact his performance, had been riding well. In the first week Carrera had won the team time-trial and Roche had later taken the 87km individual time-trial into Futuroscope. He had even worn yellow briefly as the race headed to the Alps, only for Pedro Delgado to take the jersey from him on the slopes of Alpe dHuez.Going into the stage to La Plagne, Roche was second on GC, 25 seconds behind Delgado. The Irishman had been riding better than the Spaniard against the clock and so, with a 38km time-trial still to come, he was well placed.In such circumstances it would have been understandable if Roche had opted to simply mark Delgado on the stage and wait for the time-trial to seize back yellow. Instead, Roche surprised everyone and made a move in the Maurienne valley with some 90km still to ride. At the foot of the Madeleine he was part of a group that had over a minute on Delgado. He maintained his lead over the top but as the race came back together on the flat roads leading to La Plagne, it seemed clear he had ridden too hard too early. Then, on the climb to La Plagne, Delgado rode away from a shattered Roche.As the climb to La Plagne progressed so Roche fell further behind. While Laurent Fignon rode to the stage win, Delgado built a lead over the Irishman that touched a minute. Television coverage of Roches effort to claw back time was sporadic and so, as Delgado approached the finish, no one knew exactly how far away Roche was, but most expected it to be at least a minute before they saw him arrive. Then, as Delgado crossed the line, a rider appeared around the corner.Just who is that rider coming up behind? asked television commentator Phil Liggett, because that looks like Roche! That looks like Stephen Roche!In one of cyclings great race-saving rides Roche had limited his loss to just four seconds. He promptly collapsed before being given oxygen as he lay on the road. Four days later he stood wearing yellow in Paris with an overall margin of 40 seconds.If race radio would have been there that day, and my sports director had told me when I was at 30 seconds, I would have backed off because I knew I could probably beat Delgado by one minute in the time-trial, Roche said in 2016. While I was killing myself on La Plagne I could have backed off, but because I didnt know where Delgado was I just buried myself.Reportedly 300,000 people lined the streets of Dublin to welcome him home.The reaction was unbelievable, Roche reflected in his book commemorating his 1987 season, My Road To Victory. An experience that can never be forgotten.Six weeks later Roche added the rainbow jersey to the pink and yellow he had already claimed in a year that also included his third victory at the Tour de Romandie. Only Eddy Merckx had won the Giro, Tour and Worlds in the same season before. No man has done it since. This article originally appeared in issue 139 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe Related Posts Tour de France history: The first foreign Grand Dpart in 1954 Tour de France history: Jan Ullrich triumphs for Germany in 1997 Tour de France history: Coppi triumphs on debut for first Giro/Tour double Tour de France history: Coppi christens Alpe dHuez en route to second Giro/Tour double The Power of Three: Stephen Roche profile The post Tour de France history: Stephen Roche does the Giro/Tour double in 1987 appeared first on Cyclist.