My life was so wrapped up in cycling I could barely send a formal email when I retired
Dancing With The Stars contestant Nicolas Roche on f inding a new purpose in life and why he’ll never rule out moving back to Ireland
FORMER cycling pro Nicolas Roche has revealed how taking part in Dancing With The Stars has helped him to stave off ‘post-career depression’. In a candid interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, the son of cycling legend Stephen tells how the show has been a welcome distraction from his recent retirement from the sport.
And he admits his whole life up until now has revolved around cycling, so much so that he still ‘can’t type a formal email’.
Nicolas, whose Italian girlfriend Sofia Cortese was in the DWTS audience to support him last Sunday night, tells the MoS: ‘I definitely think the show is preventing me from having that post-career depression.
‘The racing started about 10 days ago, so although it was my decision to retire and I was ready, if I was at home watching it on television, I would still be thinking about it and I would still have that moment of “what have I done and what will I do now”.
‘I’m sure it would have just hit me. Now I have the show and that has more than kept me occupied.’
The 37-year-old – who has a daughter Chloe with his ex-wife Deborah Robles, a Spanish woman he married in 2015 and separated
‘You need something occupy you’
from two years later – also opened up about the harsh financial realities he and other professional sportspeople must face up to when they do eventually decide it’s time to call it a day.
‘Even if you want to work, it’s finding the work,’ he said.
‘We are only qualified at what we do. At the end of the day, I was a good cyclist, but I can’t type a formal email. And pundits’ roles are limited – people have been there for 10 years or so.
‘Even if something is financially doable, it’s more that you need something to occupy you and provide focus.
‘There are very, very few cyclists who can afford to not work after their career. It’s not like football or the bigger sports with the huge revenues.
‘You can have a period of transition when you don’t have to work, but then you have to go out and find work. The money in cycling just doesn’t allow for a life of retirement.’
And while the four-time Olympian and new sporting director of Cycling Ireland is open to all offers, Nicolas stressed he would be very happy to leave Monaco, where he is based, to work in Ireland full-time.
‘It’s a question that hasn’t been asked yet and I am happy you asked,’ he admits. ‘I haven’t spent more than two months in Ireland in a row since I was 15… that’s a long time. I came back in 2018 for four months but I was gone every weekend.
‘So when I had my depression in 2018 I thought it would be great to come back to Ireland to my grandparents and get totally away from everything.
‘But now I’ve been here for two months straight – and I love it.
‘I love being here so if something came up I would definitely consider it,’ he said.
As the son of one of the greatest cyclists of all time, Nicolas had some very big pedals to fill.
But he says he never let being the son of Stephen Roche cast a shadow over his own life choices.
‘I realised from a young age that there was no point in fighting it,’ he tells the MoS.
‘I have met a lot of “sons of” or “daughters of” throughout my career, and in different sports and different fields, and some choose a very different path from their parents.’
Nicolas spent his formative years in Ireland before the Roche family decamped to France.
The young Nicolas showed an aptitude for all sporting disciplines, but admits no matter what sport he was playing he could never escape the attachment to his famous father. He recalls: ‘From a young age I played sports. I played rugby, soccer, I ran... Whatever I did, even from a very young age, I was always linked to being the son of Stephen Roche. So I thought, well I might as well just be proud of that.
‘There is no competition between me and my father. I have been lucky enough that my dad was the best in the world and number one in his day. But I was never there to beat my dad or compete with his records, I was always there just to make my own way. So a lot of people understood that very quickly.’
Nicolas turned professional in 2004 and enjoyed much success over the course of his 17-year career which included two individual stage victories on the Vuelta a España.
At the beginning of his career, especially during the first three years, he explains
‘There is no competition between me and Dad’
how he was always asked the same question during interviews: ‘How was it being the son of Stephen Roche?’
He said: ‘After a while people get bored asking that question. They are just curious, and I understand that.’
Nicolas’ parents both live outside
of Ireland, but his mother Lydia made a long-overdue return to the country last weekend to watch her son compete in a very different field.
He said: ‘My mother came to the show last weekend. She hadn’t been in Ireland since 1999 since we left Ireland the first time.
‘So, she thoroughly enjoyed being here and catching up with my grandparents and aunties and uncles. I got to see her after the show.’
His famous father, however, had to turn to a streaming service online to see Nicolas light up the dancefloor on DWTS.
The cyclist reveals getting the call from the Dancing With The Stars team was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse, coming just after his retirement from professional cycling last October, and as he was pondering life after racing.
‘It was an instant yes,’ he continues. ‘I just needed a start and finish date as if it was later in the year it would have been more difficult.
‘The timing could not have been better.,’ he said.
‘I retired in October. I wanted to retire, but you always have that thing of “maybe I could have done another year”. Then this came along and I thought it would be the adventure of a lifetime and bring me out to different levels I never thought I could get to.
‘So I saw it as a real opportunity to go and improve myself and do something I never thought I could do.
‘I jumped out of an aeroplane in November and that was something else I never thought I could do!
‘I just needed something to shake up my life and frustrations or fears – anything like that.’
And shaking it up he certainly is. Last week’s show saw Nicolas and his pro dance partner Karen Byrne come into their own on the floor with their take on Gene Kelly’s iconic Singing In The Rain.
Although he admits he’s not the best dancer still slogging it out for the coveted DWTS glitterball, Nicolas hopes his competitive edge will see him stay the course.
‘The competition is very tough and there are better dancers,’ he said. ‘I am here to fight and give it 100%, and go as far as I can.
‘I’ve moved here for the show and I’ve put other life stuff aside so I want to give it my all and stay in for as long as I possibly can.’