McQuaid: EPO claims against Roche beyond belief

PAT McQUAID, now one of the most powerful cycling administrators in the world, has come to the defence of Stephen Roche in what he has described as an attempt to besmirch the Tour de France winner's character.

Roche joined an elite band of cycling legends when he won the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the World Championships in 1987.

But, yesterday his name was linked to investigations into the Italian medic, Professor Francesco Conconia, and two associates, Dr Ilario Casoni and Dr Giovani Grazzi, accused of administering the performance enhancing drug, erithropoietin, otherwise known as EPO, back in 1993 ­ the year Roche retired.

Roche had already denied any involvement in the programme when the case first came to light in 2000 but he had to defend himself in public again yesterday when it emerged that the judge involved in the case had acquitted the defendants due to implementation of the Statutes of Limitations.

But Judge Franca Olivia said she was nonetheless convinced the defendants were guilty of carrying out fraudulent acts intended to achieve artificially effected improvement in athletes.

Mr McQuaid, who is tipped as the next president of cycling's world governing body, the UCI, insisted that if the judge had a case she would not have allowed the Statute of Limitations to halt the proceedings.

"She would have bought into it," he said. "Those investigations have been ongoing for five years and, at the end of it all, there is nothing to report.

"She was well aware the Statute of Limitations was coming up and if she had all the facts and all the evidence she needed then she would have made sure the case went ahead."

He said Roche had already defended himself and to bring it up again now looked like an attempt to damage his achievements.

"There was no such thing as EPO back in 1987 when he won the Tour of Italy, the Tour de France and the world championships, in the same year," he said.

"All his accomplishments were achieved through class, ability, determination and sheer guts and to put a slur on them at this time is beyond belief.

"His achievements were such that he was being tipped as a future Tour de France winner long before 1987," he said.

Stephen Roche's name was on a list found at Conconi's biomedical Study Centre in Ferrara in a police raid in 1998. There were four other cyclists on the list, Rolf Sorenson of Denmark and three Italians, Claudio Chiappucci, Guido Bontempi and Mario Chiesa.

Roche queried yesterday why he would be involved in doping at a time when his career had virtually ended.

"Why go out there and start taking EPO in 1993 when I had no pressure?" But he said that since he finished cycling he had become aware that blood samples he gave at Ferrera were subsequently used for experiments without his knowledge.

"I can look anybody in the eye," he said. " I know what I've done in my career. I know nothing will ever come back and haunt me."