THE TEAM THAT TOOK STEPHEN ROCHE TO THE TRIPLE CROWN

No24: Carrera. With the likes of Stephen Roche, Marco Pantani and the Tashkent Terror on the books, this Italian team rode high for 13 years

With one stage of the 1991 Tour de France remaining, Carrera sports director Davide Boifava could reflect on a successful race for his team. After three weeks of racing Carrera’s Claudio Chiappucci had a stage win, third place overall and the polka dot jersey to his name, while their main sprinter, Uzbek Djamolidine Abdoujaparov – an unconventional rider in his first season with the team – was firmly ensconced in the green jersey having claimed two stages.

Described in 2009 by TV presenter Gary Imlach as having ‘the most homicidal sprinting style in Tour history’, Abdoujaparov had upset rival sprinter Johan Museeuw earlier in the 1991 Tour, with the Belgian claiming the Carrera man had forced him into the barriers on Stage 4.

‘It’s always the same with him,’ Museeuw said later. ‘It’s not fair.’ Riders complained that Abdoujaparov, nicknamed ‘The Tashkent Terror’, was an accident waiting to happen.

Despite an unassailable lead in the points competition and taking the green jersey onto the Champs-élysées for the first time in his career, Abdoujaparov wanted to crown his Tour with a third stage win, and was determined to make himself the centre of the story. As it turned out he would do just that, although in a very different way than he had hoped. As the final sprint of the

1991 Tour reached its peak, Abdoujaparov – head down and legs pumping in his distinctive style – was close to the barrier. Too close as it turned out. Fully focussed on going for the win, he clipped the barrier and was propelled over his handlebars and through the air in one of the most spectacular high-speed crashes the Tour has ever witnessed. He took down a number of other riders, breaking his own collarbone and suffering concussion in the process. Nearly 20 minutes later he was helped over the finish line and straight into a waiting ambulance.

In limping across the line, however, the Tashkent Terror officially secured Carrera’s first and only Tour points jersey – even if, instead of standing on the podium and celebrating, he was whisked straight to hospital in agony.

Roche’s Triple Crown

The Carrera team was born out of the Inoxpran squad, which had raced from 1979 and claimed a series of big wins through their star rider Giovanni Battaglin that included a 1981 Grand Tour double at the Vuelta and Giro. Carrera, an Italian jean-making company founded by three brothers in 1965, took on title sponsorship in 1984 with Guido Bontempi registering the team’s first win with his success in the TirrenoAdriatico prologue in March. Less than a month later Bontempi also claimed Gent-wevelgem, bringing the team its first Classics win.

Other Classics wins followed in later years including two Milan-san Remo successes (Erich Mächler and Chiappucci, in 1987 and

1991 respectively) and a victory at LiègeBastogne-liège (Rolf Sørensen, 1993).

The team’s best season of all, though, was without doubt 1987. Ireland’s Stephen Roche had signed the previous year after taking third at the Tour in 1985. Having been signed as

Instead of standing on the podium and celebrating, Abdoujaparov was whisked straight to hospital in agony

a well-paid potential Tour winner his first season with the team was, in his own words, ‘a flop’. He had been hit by a serious knee injury and while he rode in support of Roberto Visentini at the 1986 Giro, helping his Italian teammate to the win, he didn’t ride anywhere near as many races as the team expected and notable results were virtually non-existent.

In the winter of 1986 Carrera management called the Irishman and told him they wanted to reduce his pay. Roche asked the team for time, agreeing that if things hadn’t improved by Easter he would renegotiate. Having found a good surgeon and enjoyed a strong preseason, Roche entered 1987 confident he could prove himself worthy of the cash. As it turned out, the returns would be better than anyone could have dared hope.

First he won the Tour of Valencia. Then, after narrowly missing out on Paris-nice and Liège-bastogne-liège, he won the Tour of Romandie before going to the Giro. There, he fought a titanic battle with his teammate Visentini, enduring the wrath of both Carrera management and the tifosi to emerge as the first Irish winner of the race in history.

‘The journalists were asking when I was going home,’ Roche reflected in 2016. ‘I said, “Do what you want. I ain’t going [anywhere].” I spent 16 days being escorted back to my room every night, bodyguard on the door, my masseur making my food, my mechanic looking after my bike, being escorted down to the start line, at the finish line being escorted back to the hotel. It was amazing, you know?’

But Roche had barely started. Six weeks later he added the Tour title, embarking on a desperate, race-saving ride to La Plagne that has entered cycling lore for his subsequent collapse after the stage. Then came the Third Act when he claimed the rainbow jersey in

Austria. Pink, yellow and rainbow – the Carrera rider had secured cycling’s three most coveted jerseys in a single season. Only Eddy Merckx had done it before. No one has done it since.

Pink, yellow and rainbow – Roche had secured cycling’s three most coveted jerseys in a single season. Only Eddy Merckx had done it before. No one has done it since

Enter the Pirate

Roche left the team at the end of the year only to return in 1992 – the same year that a certain Marco Pantani signed. Pantani joined midway through the year and would remain with the team until its demise in 1996. It was with Carrera that he claimed his first Grand Tour stage win, taking back-to-back Giro stages on two unbelievably tough days in the Dolomites in 1994 when he won stages into Merano and Aprica, soaring over the climbs of Monte Giovo, Mortirolo and Santa Cristina in the process.

‘A 24-year-old boy, born in Cesena, is perhaps the great climber that Italian cycling was waiting for,’ wrote Gianni Ranieri in La Stampa. Pantani would take his first Tour stages the following year, winning atop Alpe d’huez and Guzet-neige and finishing 13th overall.

Carrera pulled its sponsorship at the end of 1996 after 13 years in the sport. Switzerland’s Markus Zberg took the team’s final win – a stage of the GP Wilhelm Tell.

This jersey is part of Paul Van Bommel’s collection of memorabilia, on display at the

Bike Experience Centre in Boom, Belgium.

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