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Thanks Tom, a fantastic recounting. It was a day a hero was made and many became cycling fans. I was only watching the stage since I'd skiied in La Plagne 5 months previous, with no great interest in the cycling.
However it fixed a love of the sport for me, listening to the time gaps growing, and fearing the tour would be out of Stephen's grasp. For me Phil's commentary is as vivid as Barry Davies' "where were the Germans".
Chatting now to my contemporaries and cycling friends, it's incredible how many recall this stage and come back to it. Maybe without satellite, the Channel 4 coverage wasn't so minority!

Can't wait for the start of the Tour at the weekend, and hopefully with British heroes to cheer, many more will come to the sport as I did in 87.

The Liggett commentary is obviously etched into everyones mind from that day, but he and/or his production team were very cheeky indeed in the editing suite. When you compare the live commentary to the later recorded versions that they put out, they advanced the audio by about 5 seconds - thus making it appear that Phil is "all over" the situation as opposed to being somewhat slow to pick up what was happening as the Dubliner emerged from the mist.

Also, for those of you who have a bit of time (about 45 mins), i urge you to check out the Hugh MacIlvanney interview with Roche (filmed back in 1988) - you will find it all on youtube.

........I've followed the Tour de France for many years and can remember that stage. Not sure but think it was a highlights only broadcast I watched on C4 as I recall. I can't recall it being live. Can remember thinking he'd blown his chance and was amazed when he came into view behind Delgado as there had been no updates on him closing to that extent. Seem to remember the gap being around 11 secs at the finish. Awesome piece of riding and a dramatic television moment!

no 2.........thank you for the prompt on the you tube video...........just finished watching it.........and the gap was only 4 secs!

I remember this was the year I became hooked on the TDF. Wouldn't happen nowadays would it, with all the communication they have? I think that's a shame.

@comment 5

This isn't true look at De Gendt's attack in the giro, his solo in the TDU. It is possible for these amazing solo efforts to happen. Communication is only half of the battle.

@comment 6

First comment I've ever made on a forum and I'm wrong already ! My point was that he wouldn't be able to come in 'by stealth, unnoticed and ignored by riders and reporters alike.'

Wow, fantastic recall of something I remember watching live

Great man

Excellent article. Sometimes I wish I'd been around in the 80s to see the likes of Hinault, Fignon, LeMond, Delgado and Roche...it must have been a fascinating period.

Looking forward to the 5 live preview tonight.

Great article about something i know nothing about.

After nipping home for lunches last summer i fell upon the TDF on ITV 4 which happened to finish each stage at around 1pm handily. I loved reading about it but had never actually watched a stage.

Took Boardman about 3 stages to explain what on earth was going on and it has now become one of the things i've looked forward to all year. Fascinating race but truly difficult to explain to someone in a short space of time!

Come on Wiggins!!

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Amazing comeback, and tactically brilliant.....
to have the balls to wait until 4 km, big risk...
classic moments of the 80's.....as a kid I stared goggle
eyed at the tv in disbelief. Its things like this that
make me get on my motorbike every year to follow
the Brits make history..

A question for anyone interested:

This year Cav has lowered expectations of stage wins and attempts at the green jersey by saying his main priority is the Olympics and getting Wiggins on the podium.

This is all very well but what happens next year?

How does a team possibly cope with trying to get Cav at the front of the pelton at the end of a stage and get Wiggins safely through all the tougher stages?

There's no way someone with Cavendish's drive and ego will allow himself to play second fiddle. Has he made a mistake not being number 1 in the team anymore?

Many, many thanks for the memories of that incredible stage of the 1987 tour de france. Etched in my memory, as it seems is the case for many people, is the reaction of Mr Liggett, as he spots the lone rider; almost in a split second his emotions go from initial shock when he suspects that lone rider to be Stephen Roche, to utter amazement, to sheer joy....

1987 was a special year for Stephen Roche and to this day we are all very, very proud of him!

Fast forward to 2012 and I cannot see anybody beating Bradley Wiggins in this years TDF - come on Brad!!!!!

@ 13 Cav wont be playing second fiddle to Wiggins next year the team will have more balance. This year with the course as it is and the proximity to the Olympics its clear that Cav's focus is elsewhere whilst Wiggins will probably never find a course more suited to his style and sky have loaded their deck accordingly. I would expect next year Geraint Thomas to come back into the team and offer sprinting support to Cav giving him more opportunities in the flat stages

One thing I will say about future attempts on the Yellow and Green at the same time - whilst it may be difficult by virtue of wearing/aspiring to the green jersey you always have to be at the front of the peloton even on the flattest of stages because if you get stuck behind an accident the other favourites will make there teams work to put distance between you. So it may not be ideal for either rider for the team to challenge on both fronts for the green jersey contender its often a case that the work to keep the peloton under control is being done anyway and its just finding a formula for the end of the stage that poses a problem.

Magic moment! A classic sporting memory. I, like so many others got into road cycling thanks to C4 evening highlights and Phil Liggetts voice coming over in total shock & disbelief. Brilliant.
As for this year well....Surely it will be Bradley's year. Cav won't go on past the time trial from Arc et Senans to Besancon (9th July) which will give him about 3 - 4 weeks to recover for the Olympics. This will leave the Sky train with just one leader to get to the top of each mountain stage. The two time trials plus the prologue are the right distance for Bradley so here's hoping. No Contador and no Andy Schlek means that things are all coming into place. Franck Schlek may have something to say about it and Cadel won't give up his title easily but if Bradley can repeat his time trial in the Dauphine and nearly pass take two minutes out of Cadel then here's to Paris.

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Yes, one of the best bits of Tour riding since Merckx's exploits and second only in excitement to Lemond's final stage time trial ride when he had to make up a 50 second gap on Fignon. Reading this article brought back lots of memories, I find it hard to realize that this was 25 years ago.

Nice article. There were some classic tours in the mid to late eighties. Can't help pointing out however that neither picture is actually from the 1987 tour. Both are from the early nineties around the end of Roche's career.

just something else to add about the '87 tour. whilst roche is rightly portrayed as a valiant winner i think it is very wrong to remember this race as a two-way fight between him and delgado. for me at least the strongest rider in this race finished third - jean-francois bernard. holding more than a two minute lead following his demolition of the field in the ventoux TT (which included a tactical bike change from low profile TT machine to climbing bike), he was "done over" the very next day through bad luck (an ill timed puncture) and a multi-way ambush by the other teams - all in costing him 4 minutes 16 at the finish - he finished third overall at just 2m13s....

also, regarding comms in races - as you can see from roche's own story - he had all the information on time splits he needed going up la plagne, so no different than today. this was true for delgado too, who was just unable to re-raise his pace over the last 4k.

Team Telekom (subsequently HTC-Highroad) were the last to achieve the Green/Yellow double (Zabel + Riis/Ullrich) in 96 & 97; though Zabel had to win relatively few stages to achieve this. Clearly Team Sky have the best chance yet of emulating this, but with the priority on Wiggins.
Cav appears to have dropped some weight which will help him in the hills and will mean he scores more consistently across all stages (as per the Dutch Ster ZLM race), but without necessarily picking up ALL the stage wins. Last year he was also competing in the intermediate sprints to pick up points; given he is competitive even without a lead-out, I think he'll have a fair crack at green regardless.
However HaveAClue rightly points to the work that Shitsou, Knees, Porte et al will be asked to do at the front of the peleton each day, since no-one else will want to help Sky.

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I've never been a cyclist and never will be but I do remember watching Roach in the TDF that year. It was incredible and I've watched every year since. My father in law knew Stephen Roach in Ireland and would tell all these tales of him as a young kid beating all comers in Irish races.
Now I'm lucky enough to live on one of the more popular Pyrenees stages and the Tour is coming through our village again this year !

Amazing ride and amazing coverage. I do not think that any commentator is better or more informed than Phil Liggett. Why on earth don't the ´óÏó´«Ã½ buy the coverage? The theme tune alone is the sound of summer.

Phil Liggett has been in cycling since I can remember. First category rider, organiser of the milk race when that was around and then into commentating on TV. Does tend to miss things a little bit but his knowledge (and that of David Duffield) or cycling and cyclists is "quite good."

Truly one of the "100 Great Sporting Moments" (remember that?) - indeed IIRC it was featured on said programme once. I was a keen cyclist in the mid-1980s and watched the TDF without fail every year. Roche's extreme effort to the point of collapse awed me then and still gives me goosebumps now. High drama indeed and reading about the judgment call that SR made whilst on the climb makes it even more impressive. Awesome stuff and thanks Ben for bringing it to life again.

@wirral18: As someone born and bred to road cycling, having lived close to the Flemish border all my life, I can assure you that it's eminently possible to have both a top sprinter and a candidate for the yellow jersey in your time. The rewards for the team that successfully pulls it off are immense (probably close to half the total earnings of all participating teams) if they manage tow win five or six stages and manage to bring home both the green and yellow jersey. So the riders will be motivated to the crankshaft, so to speak.

Team instead of time, of course.

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Legendary. A great article.

As for le tour this year. I think sky will occupy the top 5 positions with Wiggins on top.
Wiggo, Rodgers and Froome are immense this year and would be worthy of leading any protour team.

I can't wait for it to start!!!!

'a whirlwind of drama, high chance and extraordinary bravery that remains one of the great iconic displays his sport has seen.'

I'd go further and say ANY sport has ever seen. Absolutely epic - I can even remember watching it in my bedroom!

We did something getting close to this in 2011, twice in my opinion.
Stage 18 from Pinerolo to the top of the Galibier.
Andy Schleck put all the pressure on Evans, and Voeckler. Cadel and Tommy rode there own tempo and pulled a 4'00 gap back to just over 2'00.
Also De Gendt's ride up the Stelvio in the 2012 Giro was comparable in measuring efforts to keep/gain time, he damn nearly won it as well.

Cav's wont go for the Green Jersey at the tour, he has said this himself. He will ride the first 2 weeks for stage wins, then make his decision about staying on.

I'm far too young to remember these great times, but i've watched this stage many times and it still gives me a great feeling to see the effort, then to go and finish the Triple, just awsome!!

Excellent article Tom - although I'm devastated that you won't be covering monkey tennis. How about Inner City Sumo?

Oh, and Evans to retain the Jersey - sorry Wiggo.

This has been my inspiration for many years now. Fantastic effort by Roche.

I was there that day, on the final hairpin. We weren't there to watch Le Tour we were just on a family holiday and heard there was something happening down the road. I stood for hours watching what seemed like chaos culminating in some blokes going passed on bikes. I have been hooked ever since. It was ages before I actually found out what happened.

This is a really powerful and beautifully-written article. It really brought back memories. Arguably Ireland's greatest sportsman?

Still gives me goose-bumps remembering that stage. Phil Liggett almost wetting his pants when he realised that it was Roche just behind Degado as he crossed the line. "That...looks like Stephen Roche. IT's STEPHEN ROCHE!"

Classic.

Great piece Tom on a great moment in sport. You have becoming essential reading ever since you and Mr Dirs at RWC 2007. Keep up the great work.

36. Arguably Ireland's greatest sportsman?
He was Irelands second greatest cyclist. That honour would have to go to Sean Kelly. While he never wont the TDF he was ranked number one in the world for 6 years and won nearly 200 professional races.
However this article is about Stephen Roche. A great day in a great year for Roche and one that will never be forgotten. An unprecedented era for Irish cycling when you consider Martin Earley's stage win in the 1989 TDF was barely worth a mention. Very good article Tom.