That must have been a very frustrating night for Walsh. Fair play to him for persevering against all the ignorance and emotive reasoning. Somebody give that man a medal.
Of course but people didn't understand that this was built into the culture since 1903 and didn't understand how violent and impossibly hard this sport was to the point that drugs were absolute necessities, especially pre-1970 when the tours were 4,000+ km and then as the modern era began it continued, because it had always been done, finally by the 80s & 90s it looked like the sport was being cleaned up and was no longer so difficult it could kill a mere mortal, but then undetectable epo shows up and it literally took until the 2012 downfall of Lance Armstrong until it finally seemingly came to an end and even the riders finally realized that OMERTA was over.... Maybe, who knows, maybe 16 years from now there's revelations Jonas and Tadej had something undetectable but let's hope not
Pat Kenny is playing the patriotic card, supporting Stephen Roche. David Walsh and Paul Kimmage deserve huge credit for their resilience and reporting. True heroes.
He proved sweet fa against Armstrong it was the masseuse as well as past team mates that outed him. By your logic, the fact that Ben Johnson was a cheating sprinter Bolt has to be one too.There is no EVIDENCE but you and the rest of the lynch mob persist with your witch hunt.
Got to feel sorry for Walsh soaking up the abuse from halfwits. My favourite bits are the phone caller at 27:30 who believes that both Roche and Michelle de Bruin! are innocent, and the woman at 31:10 who thinks Roche is clean like Laurent Fignon (who confessed that he used banned stimulants and painkillers throughout his racing career in 2009, shortly before his death from cancer). I'd love to see a reunion programme, where the same idiots would be forced to face David Walsh now.
The man at 29:50 and the woman at 31:10 are Stephen's parents, Larry (RIP) and Christine "Bunny" Roche. They wholeheartedly believe that Stephen is a "miracle" and that he should be worshiped as a divine human being - despite his serial infidelity, his lifelong parental neglect, his "shady" personal and business dealings... and his May 2022 conviction for 700,000 € fraud. If you are one of the blinded people who still believe that Stephen Roche did not use performance enhancing drugs, then you must also recognise that he is one of the very few professional athletes in history who had their career-ending injury (1986) the year before their standout career year (1987).
BC 74: Now cheating is been taken to a whole new level as the Sports Authorities are making gender doping legal. Transgender "women" competing in Women only sports, IT MAKES A MOCKERY OF DRUG TESTING IN SPORTS!!
@@callaghanhurley4202 Judge for yourself but he basically escaped prosecution due to the statue of limitations (detailed below) in Italian Law. The judge in the relevant case explicitly and repeatedly named Roche and his aliases. He clearly was frustrated that he could not prosecute him but was determined that the public knew. The judge in question, March 2000, Italian judge Franca Oliva, published his judgement/report which detailed his the investigation into various dodgy doctors including Conconi. This was an official judicial investigation that found there was no doubt that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, the file also uncovered Roche's aliases whilst dealing with this 'doctor': Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva reiterated that Roche had taken EPO during 1993, at that point, due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera could be prosecuted.
David Walsh has my respect, not only for this, but the whole Armstrong fiasco. The audience are taken in by Roche's wounded animal act, by Walsh was asking some serious, and pertinent questions.
David was dead set ambushed on that program and I think he dealt with it very well. Ignoring the myopic "contributors" was perfect strategy - and what utter tripe they talked. One thing though, he should have pushed Roche on the relationship with Conconi which Roche sidestepped
David Walsh has always been an honest, sincere journalist striving for the truth to be told. Pat Kenny has always been an pedantic, populist striving for adulation.The mob has always been fickle. Bill Tormey is a twit. Roche is guilty but so were all the other cyclists at the time. I remember watching this all those years ago and i thought the same thing...thanks for putting this up.
walsh shoud be given a knighthood for what hes done to try and clean the sport up , roche is an obvious lier but his softly spoken manner was always going to win over the audience that have no clue whatsoever about the sport of cycling . the woman at 30.21 is just clueless !!
You would have loved the Salem witch trials where you could hurl your ignorant accusations and watch innocents burn.Proof? Why would you need that? Roche is obviously a liar, Burn him. Get a life and stop knocking successful people.
@@bighands69 not many people see walsh for what he is. destroying cycling legends reputations and lively hoods for personal and financial gain. what a fuckin hypocrit
Personal gain? He could very well have found himself blackballed from all newspapers for taking the stance he did on Armstrong. The people concerned about financial gain were all the others that didn't ask the uncomfortable questions.
Met Bill Tormey at the Aviva last year and asked him about this,he said-if you asked me then I'd have said I'm 90% sure Stephen is clean,but asking me now I'd have to say only 30 !
I think if I was Roche and I was innocent I would be a lot more vocal and angry............ Here he is just trying to pick holes in the accusations rather than say clearly that he is innocent
It's 34 years since Stephen's Triple Crown win. Not one rider has repeated the Triple Crown since Stephen, even though drugs eveloved ten told, bicycles, diet, training equipment, but not one rider has repeated it despite a chronic doping culture and massive technological improvements. Stephen Roche was clearly class.
These guys, kimmage, walsh and others like them are true heroes, fighting against the populist tides for so long and finally being vindicated at the end.. true professionalism, courage and integrity, unlike the cyclists, doctors, team officials they were investigating...
7:56 - 8:01 Good bit of camera work, Stephen looked like the boy who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Stephen even wrote an article back in 2014 about how Lance Armstrong should be given his Tour victories back. I guess cheats stick together.
David O'Rourke I don't know who he is but it makes sense he's a poltician. He's clearly a complete cunt and totally biased, even though he's supposed to be the scientific expert. Did he ever apologize to Walsh after decrying and insulting him here? I doubt it.
Imagine having an audience that is so naive, Walsh is a hero, and takes on the onerous task (consciously or unconsciously) of highlighting the issue of doping in cycling. I honestly believe that Walsh has touched on a real issue, but like Lance Armstrong the cover up appears widespread and implies so people involved in that cover-up. We as Irish are uncomfortable because it isn't often we have to cut down the local hero. I hope David Walsh isn't hurt by the experience, there will be many who will want to cut his throat. I was in Paris on the Champs Elysee in the summer of '87 studying french, even then I heard the local population speak of the drug culture that was rampant in professional cycling!
David Walsh is a class act, loves cycling..! Roche doped, pure and simple, the man has to look at himself in the mirror, just like Armstrong he's full of shite...!!!!
First of all: Thanks for giving such a profound analysis of my brain. Secondly: Actually, I`m referring to the way he was running the talk show (no knowledge about cycling, being biased, posing silly questions etc.). As far as his mere intelligence is concerned you are right. He´s not stupid, but even "intelligent" people can be stupid!
It took a long long time for David Walsh and Paul Kimmage to get their dues. They both had a love for cycling and did their very best to help clean it up and got very little thanks for their efforts. Kimmage may come across as abrasive and adversarial but his contribution was massive as well. It takes courage to persist in telling an inconvenient truth (and at a professional and personal cost) because you know it is for the greater good. I don't like to judge Roche or Kelly too harshly, doping was clearly endemic, but that does not excuse either of them and they were revered as heroes in Ireland for a long time. Their legacy is tainted, not completely ruined perhaps (Kelly's case is perhaps less clear-cut), and the reputation of Walsh and Kimmage has rightly soared.
11:30 - Roche - How the level went down so quickly the same day? Well; we all know now. Blood transfusion...WHAT A BUNCH OF LAIRS! Thanks D. Walsh for all you have done to bring cycling out of the dark.
Interesting that they presented a doctor in the crowd who defended Roche, but not a doctor who provided counter testimony ALSO . . . funny how people always say, . . . "you have to give him the benefit of doubt" to which I ALWAYS ask, "WHY"
Very unbalanced handling of the discussion by RTE. They even allowed audience members (Roches plants) to interupt as David Walsh was answering a question. Why do we defend drug cheats? Think of the honest cyclist who finishes far down the field. David Walsh is a man of great courage and integrity.
+AllyWheels Walsh is making a claim on the basis of an Italian researcher who has very questionable ethics. The fact that no body wants to deal with Francesco Conconi ethical methodology is just mind boggling. Italian politics is toxic and it invades into all manner of investigations.
Fair play to David Walsh , when his and his families lives would have been so much easier if he'd just gave up , he persevered and finally everyone nowadays knows he was telling the truth all along , 👏 chapeau David
Not once during the interview does roche admit there is a doping problem in cycling. sorry, stephen your just like the rest of them admitting to nothing but guilty as sin. walsh got the better of him here in this interview but typical irish stick behind the hero. Even roches figures proved he was doping of season. Would love to hear the two of doing a interview now and this clown called 'doctor tomey' making his defence against the so called great champion!!
I have to agree with Dan here. Roche's answers are lame at best. He doesn't actually dismiss his presence in the files, he continues to say things like 'I can sleep easily at night'. Of course he can, because like so many riders in that era he has convinced himself that they had to dope in order to compete against other dopers whom they knew would not get caught. Throughout the entire interview Roche looks nervous, none more so when the woman gives the impassioned speech in his defence.
EPO didn't come out until '87. It was unlikely used by any cyclist until at least '88, but more likely '89 at the earliest. There were plenty other ways of cheating available in '87, but its almost certain that EPO wasn't used then.
Walsh is perhaps the greatest sports journalist of all sports, of the last 25 years. What an eloquent and informed man. Has he recently died, as some posts suggest? So sorry to read that. His reputation lives on.
+mheslop Like all modern journalists he is full of him self. He has not even questioned the ethical nature of Francesco Conconi research. First of all if there is doubts to the researcher and the methodology why would it be taken as 100% fact. These researchers in of them self are very shady. I would take very thing they say with a pinch of very large salt.
david walsh is truly a hero.......and roche hung himself with his manipulative attempt to invoke his family suffering----a classic move of a con man, playing on the emotions of the audience......greg LEMOND is the only clean winnner in the 1980's
Amazing to watch this same show where years later Walsh is celebrated for taking on lance Armstrong. And yet here he is vilified for the simple reason that Roche is irish. Roche never tested positive, but lance never tested positive (not quite true obviously), and Michelle Smith never tested positive. There's only one reason why Roche is in those files. ONE.
spybaz Do you find them dreamy? But seriously if you watch even closer you will see Roche trying to text Dr.Evil in Italy to warn him to get out of town before the police turn up!
I read an article one time where he refused to cast doubt on his teammate's performance (Chiappucci) at Sestriere in 1992. Everyone else who rode that day was quoted in the article as saying it was impossible what Chiappucci did that day....multiple teams rode hard on the front to catch him over 250 kilometers and they couldn't. Roche was the only one quoted who was evasive, he just made some silly point about if we were going to cast doubt on Chiappucci we should cast doubt on the guy that finished 2nd that day as well. Should we also cast doubt on the guy that finished 20th that day? or 40th? How about 67th?
Worst part about this is at the end Walsh is actually trying to salvage Stephen's Reputation to a point by articulating the dilemma he and other elite riders found themselves in during the 80s if they wanted a realistic chance of competing. Lemond truly must have been exceptional.
omg wat a disgrace. same like the quinn slapping on the backs! poor guy - david walsh. reall difficult to watch him remain civil and polite amidst all that aggression. fair play to him
I came very close to turning this off so many times. It's absolutely disgusting. Fair play to David Walsh. The only person to come out of this farce with credit. And a lot of it.
Also, Roche said words to the effect "no ones ever produced any hard evidence of my doping...unless David is going to produce something out of his sleeve." Damned by his very own words, I think.
Minute 8:22 Stephen Roche says "EPO" twice, both times he blinks his eyes in a particular way, exactly while pronouncing "EPO". A clear sign that there's something hidden there.
David was always right-more of his kind would have been needed to keep our sport clean. Imagine a young rider at the age of 18,who at this point already invested 7-8 years of his childhood not going to parties like their friends,but training very hard,learning to be disciplined,and then,when he’s at the point to step up to the amateurs,recognize that his idols all cheat,they ly,they’re just like actors on a stage! What does that to you?! Will you give up your dreams and goals? Only the very seldom self assured people with extraordinary character will be able to,the rest will continue by accepting the secret rules of this sport. Nobody willhelp them,people want to see circus and the mountains cannot be steep enough and the track must be long enough to be spectacular! panem et circenses People wanna see drama while sittin fat on their couch-that’s the way it is,and there’s too much money involved to change a thing. There has been no clean tour de france in the past,and there will be no clean tour in the future-because this way of racing 3 weeks in a row is not possible without performance enhancing drugs at the speed they do it.Just take a look at the average speeds over the decades and that will tell you everything!
If it was clean we would see slower rides and riders blowing up and stopping in the mountains we would see sweat dripping noses in handlebars and shoulders rolling ..but even today they are getting faster and come over the line hardly breathing many riders have died because of taking stuff they did not mention that
yes, he worked in a hospital. It's called Beaumont; a hell hole and its gobshites like the good doctor who have helped make it like that. Roche was a sporting hero of mine and I can remember tuning into the Channel 4 highlights every evening during that tour and of course the stage at La Plagne when he collapsed after the finish line. But as far as I am concerned he doped. Professional sport is like this. Give it a week before we find out another hero of mine is crossed of the list.
+Martin Dillon In fairness Martin, a close friend of mine, had his life saved in Beaumont.I visited and, the staff there were fantastic. I was making a retrospective point, on a Dr who attempted to 'bad press' David Walsh. I agree with your fear, of seeing another hero exposed ...Lets hope not.
Mark Wright I suppose our views are coloured by our experiences Mark and I have had a few members of my Family enter Beaumont. The staff on the ground are asked to work under 3rd world conditions so nothing but the greatest of respect. As it's a training hospital most of the staff are under 30 and are passing through. All that said, a place like Beaumont isn't going to get the cream of the crop when it comes to doctors.
@@markwright7021 I have to agree.. For all of Beaumont Hospital's infrastructural faults the staff are phenomenal according to anyone who has gone there with serious injury
OMG he basically said the same thing as Armstrong I've been charged with nothing Armstrong said I've not ever had a positive test Yes that guy on the phone was right why doesn't Roch sue
At the time, it was unproven and although many were willing to vilify Michelle de bruin, Roche was untouchable in the Irish psyche, we dont achieve so often but when we do we do it with honesty and hard work. Up until 5 weeks ago there was websites fervently defending Armstrong. We live we learn
Pat Kenny unable to control the crowd. Walsh went to answer Kenny's question about whether or not he believed Stephen was telling the truth, and then the audience butt in and take over?
GOATAli David Walsh recently explained that the people in the crowd were actually Stephen Roche's parents and he could understand their passion. They should have explained who they were as it gives it context.
Go on Roche ,Irish legend. Get in there Armstrong 500 million raised for cancer , preventing the deaths of thousands of lives , alot more important than cycling.
Roche was a triple crown champion in 1987 and won an awful lot more besides but he doesn't come out of this interview looking too good. Everyone knows doping was rampant in the 80's in cycling so to win you had to be talented and take EPO or the like to succeed. Conconni has a proven history of doping athletes as proven by Italian courts
Merckx introduced Armstrong to his doping doctor, Michele Ferrari who was giving EPO to Merckx's son. Merckx tested positive a couple of times, but this was in the days before EPO and blood doping, so although he did dope in all probability, it wasn't the high tech doping that his son used.
How Walsh kept his calm when smug Dr Bill dismissed his work I will never know. I suppose he knew one day he would have the last laugh. Yes there are many other drug cheats in the sport but Walsh went for the biggest cheat of the lot and should be applauded. It was up to the UCI to do something but they never did. We shouldn't knock Walsh for only concentrating on Armstrong
