Saddled with debt, cycling star Roche has uphill battle
Tour de France winner reveals his firm owes €600,000 in Spain
CYCLING hero Stephen Roche has acknowledged that he owes hundreds of thousands of euro in Spain but says he is doing his best to manage his finances.
In an exclusive interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday, an emotional Mr Roche, 59, acknowledged the debts, some €600,000.
The Dubliner, who won the Tour de France in 1987, struggled to hold back tears, saying he felt he had let down friends and family who have tried to help with his financial problems.
‘I have been very upfront with the people I owe money to,’ he said. ‘When I hear I’ve run away or I’m trying to get away without paying, that’s not me. That’s not me. Never.’
However, Mr Roche – whose Tour de France heroics made him a national hero – confirmed that his cycling tourism business in Mallorca is in grave difficulty.
At present, those wishing to make a booking on his website – www. stephenrochecycling.com – are redirected to another site called www.vipcycling.com.
According to Mr Roche himself, his business now owes in the region of €600,000 to various creditors – much of this dating back to 2017.
The first public indication that something was amiss came on March 1 when one creditor – travel firm World Spry Services – took legal action against Mr Roche and his Spanish firm, Shamrock Events SL. World Spry Services was owed in excess of €30,000 for organising the transfer of cyclists from around the world who had booked holidays in Mallorca via Mr Roche’s site.
That case was dropped when he paid the money owed in mid-March. However, on March 20 the owners of two hotels in Mallorca filed a separate case over unpaid debts of €392,446. This case – being taken by the Ponent Mar Hotel and the Hotel Son Caliu – is seeking to have Mr Roche’s firm declared bankrupt and put into enforced liquidation.
Last night the lawyer acting for the Ponent Mar Hotel – José Luis Lopez Morey – said: ‘I anticipate the judge will appoint a bankruptcy administrator in a very short space of time with all the consequences that carries.’
However, Mr Roche said he is determined to clear his debts. He hopes to do so by selling a French investment property and via new cycling projects he is currently negotiating in Switzerland and Hungary. ‘Going back with my hands empty is not going to do anything,’ he said. ‘If I can get something together and I go back and pay all my bills, I can keep things going. The hardest part is I have always been straight-up and honest with people I owe money to and the hardest part was to accept their reaction.’
‘Hardest part was accepting reaction’