10 SPORT SOCCER / CYCLING Sunday Independent 22 March 2015 Ronaldo out to swing Determined to the balance back his way See-sawing battle for supremacy with Messi be his own man comes to a head in Clasico, says Sid Lowe CRISTIANO RONALDO laid down the Ballon d’Or on the plinth in front of him and began his acceptance speech, Sepp in the peloton Blatter to the left of him, Thierry Henry to the right. As he drew to a close, he thanked everyone and then paused. He leant in towards the microphone, clenched his fists and boomed out a long, deep “Si”. This was Ronaldo’s third Bal- lon d’Or but he was determined and off the bike it would not be his last. Only one player has won more and he was sitting in the front row, a runner-up: Lionel Messi. Before the presentation, the two footballers had met briefly. Ronaldo called Messi over to meet his son, telling the Argentinian that Ronaldo junior watched him on Nicolas Roche, his sister television, talked about him. He Christel and their mother also admitted that Messi’s success Lydia: ‘I always felt I was in helped to drive him. “I’m sure the the middle; when I was in competition between us motivates Ireland I was ‘the foreigner’, him too. It’s good for me, good for and when I was in France I him and good for other players who PAUL KIMMAGE was ‘the foreigner’, and I’m want to grow,” he said. meets attached to both sides, but For four years, Ronaldo had there’s a little thing that finished second to Messi but he had NICOLAS ROCHE makes me feel that bit more not given up. Instead, he took the Irish and I felt I had to cut’ trophy two years in a row. A year IX years ago, on the morn- before, his tears had shown what ing of the opening stage it meant to him. Maybe Ronaldo of the Tour de France, I was right; maybe he does motivate Sstepped onto a busy train at Messi too. The Ballon d’Or ceremo- Beaulieu-sur-Mer and was hooked ny was on January 12. Real Madrid by the face of a beautiful woman in had just won the Club World Cup. the crowd. They were top of the league table Is that? . No, couldn’t be . and Ronaldo was the pichichi, La Yes it is . Liga’s top scorer. Messi was second, Lydia! 1 A SENSE OF IDENTITY but she’s a bit older than you.’ I PK: How big an influence was but he was 10 goals behind: 16 to 26. Was she with friends? I wasn’t said, ‘That’s my mum!’ (laughs) your dad in all this? You were three They had met just once, in October, sure. Should I say hello? Maybe I can see my mother standing just PK: I hope you told your mother. years old when he won the Tour and Madrid had won 3-1, the first not. There was bad blood between a few yards away. I stretch out NR: I did, yeah. She was pleased. but you wouldn’t remember too time they had defeated Barcelona her former husband, Stephen Ro- my arms, but I can’t get through PK: You’re 30 years old now? much about that. by more than one goal in six years. che and myself. She would know the throng of television cameras, NR: Yeah. NR: No. Ronaldo had scored, Messi had not. that. photographers and microphones to PK: How would you break that PK: When was the first time you Tonight, they meet again and A few minutes later we arrived reach her. She starts to cry, tears of down in terms of the time you’ve realised he was famous? everything has changed for the in Monaco and took different exits pride. As the TV crews push their spent in Ireland and France? NR: I’d say in the later years . players and the clubs. Messi is from the station. The streets were cameras closer to my face and the NR: The first four or five years I remember watching him in San now two goals in front, 32-30, and crowded with excited bike fans journalists stick an endless row of we were back and forth, not quite Sebastian and some of the post- Barcelona are top of the table. Win and I had just found my bearings microphones under my nose, I too six-months-Ireland, six-months- Tour (races) in the early 90s. I was at the Camp Nou and they will go and cut back towards the port begin to well up. But I’m not crying France, but close enough. on holiday in my French grandad’s four points clear. when I spotted her again, alone out of pride, I’m crying out of fear. PK: You’d come back to Dublin place in Ile d’Oleron when he Xavi Hernandez once described and seemingly lost. ‘Stephen! Stephen! Stephen! . ’ the with your father during off-season? won at La Bourboule (16th stage Real Madrid and Barcelona as be- We exchanged greetings and journalists call out. NR: Exactly. From the age of six of the 1992 Tour de France) and ing like two sides of a scales: there’s chatted for a moment. She had I turn to the man beside me. He to 11 I was in France, outside Paris. remember watching the finish something in the symbiotic rela- travelled from her home in Antibes is dressed in yellow and is carrying My parents separated and got back and realising there was something tionship between them that means to see Nicolas before the prologue. me, but his name’s not Stephen . together, and decided to start over going on. they cannot both be up at the same “Do you know where you’re . It’s Daddy. My name is Nicolas again in Ireland, so we packed up PK: Was that a factor in your time, even if both are playing well. going?” I asked. Roche. I’m three years old and my and moved to Ireland and stayed decision to take up the sport? my dreams was to have a beauti- and starved myself. That has not always been true of “No,” she replied. daddy has just won the Tour de there until I was 15. Alexis was NR: I liked it. Every time I ful house in Tuscany on top of a PK: How hard was that? the two players who define them, “Do you have a pass?” France. actually born in Ireland, and the watched a race I’d get dressed up hill overlooking some vineyards NR: It was hard. I’m pretty sure but it is this time. “Going up, going “I never had a pass for any- Nicolas Roche year we came back Florian was and put on shorts and jerseys that and with a (driveway) lined with that if I had an extra bowl of pasta down,” ran the gleeful headline on thing,” she smiled. Inside the Peloton born here, in Nice. were lying around and race around cypress trees and a massive olive that night I would have been eight the cover of the Catalan sports daily We set off towards the port and PK: So you spent from ’96 to ’99 the house with imaginary oppo- tree.” She said “Well, you’ve got two or ninth in the Tour. El Mundo Deportivo last week, the Quai Antoine where the team Paul Kimmage: I was watching in Dublin? nents. Or create scenarios with choices, change your dream or you PK: Sure, but what I mean is, alongside pictures of the pair. buses were parked. It was a big you in Paris-Nice last week and you NR: Yeah. my sister; we’d pretend we had a change your girlfriend.” how hard is it to deprive yourself of “2015 has already begun and day for Nicolas, his first Tour de race with a small Irish tricolour on PK: You went to school in crash and roll over in the grass and PK: You were living with an food like that? Because the general there are more titles to be won,” France, and Lydia was excited but the sleeve of your jersey. Can we Blackrock? play ‘Tour de France’ in the back Italian girl, Chiara, in Varese? public have no idea about that side Ronaldo had said that night in mostly nervous. I left her at the start please with your identity and NR: Yeah, for one year in ’98. I garden. NR: Yeah, that finished two of the game and what it takes to Zurich. The year started badly for steps of the AG2R bus and wished that sense of Irishness? was 15. PK: So you always had that love years ago. perform at that level? Messi. He was left out as Barcelo- her well. It was the first time I’d Nicolas Roche: Well, I’m 100 per PK: What was that like? or desire for it? PK: And your fiancée? NR: I think it’s the hardest (part na were beaten at Real Sociedad, seen her in almost 12 years. I’d cent Irish since the last time we NR: It was a fantastic experi- NR: Yeah. NR: Deborah. We met before of it); it’s harder than training. The precipitating a crisis in which the never spoken to her son. met when I still had dual citizen- ence. I was in the French school PK: What about the burden of the Vuelta (Tour of Spain) in 2013.