Please enjoy this excerpt from Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team by Tim Lewis.
Please enjoy this excerpt from Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team by Tim Lewis.
The excellent critic Feargal McKay has reviewed Greg LeMond: Yellow Jersey Racer for Podium Cafe.
When Sean Kelly turned professional in 1977, cycling was a very different sport from the one we know today. With its impenetrable language and customs, it required an apprenticeship that, even for a French national, was tough.
A gallery of photographs from Greg LeMond: Yellow Jersey Racer.
In the chapter American Flyers, Greg LeMond's rival Jeff Bradley shares what it was like to race against the young LeMond.
Cycling journalist Richard Moore asks, "What are the most memorable Tour de France stages of all time?", and poses the 20 stages he thinks earn the mark. Includes excerpts from all 20 stages.
Here's how you can replay excerpts from Slaying the Badger to enjoy coverage of the entire 1986 Tour de France.
Enjoy the entire first chapter from Richard Moore's book Slaying the Badger.
VeloPress is not affiliated with the ESPN documentary film that is based on Richard Moore's book Slaying the Badger, but here's what we know about it.
Greg LeMond awoke in Paris on Sunday, July 23, the final day of the 1989 Tour de France, and wondered what the next 12 hours held in store. The previous evening he had told his soigneur, Otto Jacome, that he thought he could do
We had two and a half weeks to go,” says David Millar, reflecting on the situation he and his team, Garmin- Sharp, found themselves in, just one week into the 2012 Tour. “So we had to pull our heads out of our arses and find a new way of racing.”
It was a stage destined for the history books. But that was the whole point. On the 100th anniversary of the Tour’s first expedition into the Alps, the 18th stage finished at the top of one of the most mythical of mountains, the Col du Galibier.
Climbing the Col du Tourmalet, Mark Cavendish slips out the back of the group. His loyal teammate, Bernhard Eisel, remains at his side and tries to encourage him. “Big effort, Cav, come on, stay with the group."
Lance Armstrong is angry. “I mean, listen, look. Travis Tygart and his band of haters can say what they want. Those Tours happened. . . . It was an unfortunate time, most of us if not all of us played by the same set of rules. . . . I consider myself the winner of those seven Tours.”
“Anyone who says they can do it naturally is a liar,” says Maertens, meaning racing without drugs.
The biggest winning margin by an individual rider on a stage of the Tour de France? That would be José Luis Viejo, on stage 11 in 1976.
“Every day, including the stage to Plateau de Beille, he was just sitting at the back with his team,” recalls Bobby Julich, the American who was fourth in the Dublin prologue. “This is before race radios, and when you’re going back to talk to the team car there’s Marco sitting at the back, in last position.
Ten minutes later, the electronic gate clicks and whirs and begins to slide open. Instantly recognizable, the cyclist once known as “El Diablo” (the devil) appears behind the wheel of an SUV with a 20-something girl in the passenger seat. He is 50 but looks and dresses about 30 years younger.
There’s a photo of me washing his face at the finish,” says Shelley Verses, “but really I was trying to cover his face, to hide it.”
Herrara, the little bird, is set free. Now he is flying up l’Alpe d’Huez, while Hinault labors, and a little lower down the mountain, Laurent Fignon, in the tricolore of French champion, sets off in pursuit.
It wasn't that Urs Zimmermann didn’t like his fellow cyclists. It was just that, after two weeks in their company, he felt like he needed a change.
The trouble with Merckx is that there are so many deeds to choose from. The pick for many is 1969 and his Tour de France début, specifically the stage that tackled the “Circle of Death” in the Pyrenees—Col de Peyresourde, Col d’Aspin, Col du Tourmalet, and Col d’Aubisque. Merckx attacked over the top of the Tourmalet, then rode alone for 140 km—about 87 miles—to win in Mourenx. That performance prompted the Tour director, Jacques Goddet, to coin a new word, Merckxissimo.
The trio was over 15 minutes clear of the peloton; now there were only 35 km remaining, just 22 miles, and it was certain that one of them was going to win. Then one of the three, having spoken to his team car, stopped working. He moved to the back. When he moved forward to do his turn on the front, he soft-pedaled. The speed dropped dramatically.
The memory is as vivid as the stain that could be seen darkening the road. It was a damp patch, a small puddle emanating from a stricken rider’s head, expanding on the asphalt as riders sprinted past, rubbernecking at 45 mph to catch a glimpse of the figure on the road. He was lying on his side, curled up in the fetal position.
“It’s bollocks, this race. You’re working like an animal, you don’t have time to piss, you wet your pants; you’re riding in mud like this, you’re slipping. It’s a piece of shit. . . .”
I ask Mark Cavendish to discuss his best-ever stage win in the Tour de France and he is transformed. He sits upright. First, he must decide which one was best.
In the morning of the first road stage of the 1989 Tour de France, Joël Pelier told his team director, Javier Mínguez, “I would like to attack today.”
They are sprinting for the line in Armentières at 70 kph (43 mph): a heaving, jostling bunch, a slightly downhill finish, a right- hand bend with 400 m to go, another right-hander with 150 to go; then the road kicks slightly up. All heads go down.
"At the 1994 Tour, everybody went for a three-week race,” says Chris Boardman. “I went for seven minutes.”
Cycling enthusiasts are invited to a talk and booksigning with award-winning sports journalist Richard Moore at Rapha Cycle Club New York City before the worldwide film premiere of Slaying the Badger, Moore’s retelling of the 1986 Tour de France rivalry between American Greg LeMond and Frenchman Bernard Hinault.
The photo on page 215 of Merckx 525 is among the most telling in this amazing tome. The setting is the 1977 Tour de France, a race the great Eddy Merckx did not win. Not even close.
Some of Merckx 525's best material are the lifestyle shots both before and after Merckx found fame.
Merckx reflected on his sixty-minute ride. “Never before had I had such pain,” he said. “And I have never felt such pain again.”
“Cannibal” is not a nickname that conjures images of grace and respect. Yet when the young Eddy Merckx began to discover his greatness, he did so with dignity.
Except in the earliest years of his career, Merckx knew he would be the winner more often than not.
Before the Tour de France this summer, Discovery News posted an interesting story featuring Tour de France 100: How the Tour de France Has Changed.
Award-winning author Richard Moore was just interviewed about le Tour, present and past.
An aerial view of the peloton as it passes through Brest during the 1974 Tour de France. Among the teams represented are Peugeot, Kas, Molteni, and Brooklyn, sporting some of the iconic jerseys and small peaked caps from what many agree was a golden era for the sport.
Defending champion Cadel Evans leads Bradley Wiggins and Vincenzo Nibali, who would eventually finish third, at the end of stage 7, to La Planche des Belles Filles, the first summit finish of the 2012 Tour.
Chris Froome Leads Bradley Wiggins During the 2012 Tour de France
Cadel Evans is comforted by fans after stage 19 of the 2011 race, which finished atop Alpe d'Huez. He had done enough to remain in contention; the next day, he would claim yellow to become Australia's first-ever winner.
The great comeback: Perhaps the most famous time trial in Tour history.
The riders of the 1987 Tour scale the majestic Col du Galibier, which, at 2,645 meters (8,678 feet), is often the highest point of the race. Close to the top is a monument to Henri Desgrange, the Tour's founder, and ever year that the race visits the Galibier the "Souvenir Henri Desgrange" is awarded to the first rider to reach the summit.
The gift: Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani climbing to the summit of Mont Ventoux in 2000.
Louison Bobet on the Bald Mountain, Mont Ventoux, at the 1955 Tour de France
Podium Cafe on Tour de France 100: "Like a 60-inch plasma screen" of Tour photographs
Greg LeMond, in the rainbow jersey of world champion, leads a young Miguel Indurain on their breakaway to Luz Ardiden on stage 16 of the 1990 Tour.
Marco Pantani at Stage 12 of the 1998 Tour de France
Poulidor and Federico Bahamontes lead the bunch through the mountains during the 1963 race.
Hinault keeps a wary eye on his former protégé, Laurent Fignon, as the two go head-to-head in the 1984 Tour.
Henri Pelissier, his brother Francis, and Maurice Ville Speak Out on Drugs
They started at 2 a.m., when the Pyrenees were shrouded in darkness: Lapize pushes his bike up the Col de Peyresourde, helped by the headlights of a following car.
The three five-time Tour winners meet at the 1987 race: Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Jacques Anquetil. Anquetil would die just four months later of stomach cancer.
“There is such great depth in the writing that you will not simply thumb through the book and be done with it, but will instead be drawn in by the stories being well-told.” — BikeRumor
Tour winner Fausto Coppi leads his archrival, Gino Bartali, through the high mountains of the 1949 Tour de France.
“If you're looking for one on the greatest race of them all, you need look no further than The Tour de France 100. The photography is stunning and leaves no stone unturned.” — Active.com
The Tour crossing Vannes, in the cycling heartland of Brittany, toward the end of the 1937 race. It was Jacques Goddet's first Tour as director.
All Seasons Cyclist reviews Tour de France 100
Shelley Verses at the 1986 Tour de France
“Were this a slide show, Moore’s text would make for the perfect narration, reminding us of the storylines that dominated each year’s race. He not only covers the racing action, he brings in the present…” — Red Kite Prayer
A rare color image from the 1959 Tour showing three of the best riders of the era: Bahamontes, Gaul, and Riviere.
Before Graham Watson, there was British photographer Bert Hardy.
Francois Faber in the 1909 Tour de France
L'Auto created the Tour de France. Here's the front page on the morning of the first ever Tour.
Normally he would collect bidons (water bottles) from the team car, but in these days they would take what they could, often raiding bars or shops to collect cold drinks.
Joseph Thomin battles to rejoin the peloton after a nasty crash in 1962.
Gaul won two mountain stages, finished third overall, and claimed the King of the Mountains.
Team cars, packed with spare wheels, at a stage start during the 1951 Tour.
A stark illustrations of the poor quality of the Tour de France road surfaces at the time.
The first double winner after Maurice Garin was stripped of his second Tour.
Octave Lapize at the summit of the Col d'Aubisque in the 1910 Tour de France.
Jacques Goddet with the first five-time Tour de France winner, Jacques Anquetil, in 1963.
Henri Desgrange had been a racing cyclist before becoming a journalist with L'Auto and the first organizer of the Tour.
We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of the 1986 Tour de France, which we feel will go down in history as the greatest ever Tour.
Shimano ad for Greg LeMond, 1986 Velo-news
Excerpt from 1986 Velo-News about Greg LeMond's win at the 1986 Tour de France
Greg LeMond appears on the cover of Velo-news magazine after winning the 1986 Tour de France!
Ad from 1986 Velo-news magazine showing readers where to buy Velo-news books
After Bernard Hinault was weighed so he could be given his weight in coffee by cycling trade sponsor Cafe de Colombia, it was on to stage 22, a 194km ceremonial march from Clermont- Ferrand to Nevers.
1986 ad that ran in Velo-News magazine during the Tour de France
Today's stage 21 was a hilly one that finished atop the Puy de Dôme—the spectacular dome-shaped volcanic plug in the Massif Central. The Puy de Dôme is a climb of rich symbolism and incident, where Hinault had fancied claiming his first yellow jersey in 1978, where Eddy Merckx had been punched in the kidneys three years earlier. This year, the mountain's role is to perhaps allow a challenger to make one last, desperate bid for the yellow jersey.
Today’s stage 20 looked to be a critical one in the Tour de France, a 58km individual time trial in Saint-Etienne. This stage presented the last time trial of the Tour, one which Hinault said would seal the victory of the strongest rider.
Greg LeMond's first day in the yellow jersey was not an easy one. Stage 18 almost immediately ascended the Col du Lautaret then the Col du Galibier en route to a summit finish on Alpe d'Huez.
Greg LeMond dropped an injured Bernard Hinault on today's mountain stage to become the first rider from the United States to wear the yellow jersey of the leader of the Tour de France.
On today's stage 16, the peloton faced strong winds on the roads from Nimes to Gap, winds that forced the riders into echelons.
Team 7-Eleven's sprinter Davis Phinney has dropped out of the Tour after crashing heavily on today's Stage 15. This leaves the team relying on Phinney's usual lead-out man Ron Kiefel to contest the sprints. Fortunately, Kiefel has shown that he has the legs for the Tour, narrowly missing a stage win to Peeters on stage 7.
Battered by wind and torrid heat, much of this stage from Carcassonne to Nimes was spent riding in echelons.
After two dramatic days in the Pyrenees that saw a big shake up in the overall standings, today's stage traveled 154 km across the south of France into the foothills of the Alps.
Did Hinault give LeMond permission to attack? “I’m not his father,” replied Hinault. “He can do what he likes. What’s important is to keep the jersey in the team.”
Team 7-Eleven's Alexi Grewal, the winner of the 1984 Olympic road race, described Hinault’s solo attack on this second day in the Pyrenees as “undoubtedly the most stupid move of the race so far.
Greg LeMond won his second Tour de France stage today after his La Vie Claire teammate and race leader Bernard Hinault cracked spectacularly on the climbs leading to the finish in Superbagneres. LeMond's win is the first ever mountain stage win for an American in the Tour de France.
Today's stage 12 to Pau saw Bernard Hinault launch a sneak attack on the overall favorites.
During the early miles of Stage 12 from Bayonne to Pau, the peloton rode calmly, saving their legs for the first major climb of the Tour, the first-category Col de Marie-Blanque, until something unexpected happened.
Thinking that this longest of Tour stages from Poitiers to Bordeaux was to be a hot, lazy, flat slog, many Tour journalists went 130km ahead to take advantage of a sumptuous Bastille Day buffet put out free by the rich brandy burghers of the French region of Cognac.
According to riders interviewed after today's Stage 10 from Nantes to Futuroscope, the stench was overpowering: a rotten, putrid smell, so bad that several riders looked around, their faces screwing up as though they were sucking on lemons. The peloton watched Greg LeMond, fourth in line, being led back to the pack by a string of his La Vie Claire teammates.
Was it his failure to mount disk wheels, the accumulated fatigue from riding 1,000km at the front of the bunch, or simply "un jour sans," as a French report has suggested?
American hopeful Greg LeMond is disheartened. When asked about the significance of losing 44 seconds to Hinault, LeMond acknowledges that Hinault expected this stage to determine La Vie Claire's team captain.
Hinault’s attack on the road to Cherbourg only served to make Greg LeMond even more uncertain and edgy. They have barely left the blocks, but already the pledge that Hinault made to help the American seems as believable as Santa Claus.
"I should have been in my 12," commented a frustrated Ron Kiefel after finishing second in Stage 7 to multiple classics winner Ludo Peeters.
Stage 6 to Cherbourg witnessed a surprise attack by a GC favorite. En route to Brittany, Bernard Hinault's stomping grounds, the Badger attacked the peloton.
After a 100km breakaway in the company of Frenchman Joel Pelier, Dutchman Johan Van der Velde won the sprint at this seaside resort and as a plus took the yellow jersey.
"La Tournée des Accidents" or "The Tour of Crashes" headlined one regional newspaper after this long but flat transitional stage.
VeloPress has begun telling the inside story of the 1986 Tour de France on the book's website SlayingtheBadger.com.
An American has won a Tour de France road stage!
Saturday afternoon’s stage is a 56-km team time trial, an event La Vie Claire dominated in 1985, winning by over a minute. But now, in 1986 on the road from Meudon to Saint Quentin, something very, very odd happened.
Just hours after becoming the first North American to win the race lead at the Tour de France, Alex Stieda has lost the yellow jersey after a disastrous team time trial performance by the 7-Eleven Team.
The first stage of the Tour de France marked an historic achievement for North American cycling: Alex Steida, Team 7-Eleven's Canadian rider, has become the first North American ever to wear the yellow jersey of the leader of the Tour de France.
Frenchman Thierry Marie (Systeme U) won today's opening stage of the Tour de France, a 4 kilometer individual time trial snaking through Boulogne-Billancourt.
"Next year it's you who will win the Tour, and I'll be there to give you a hand." -- Bernard Hinault to Greg LeMond
A week out from the start of the 1986 Tour de France, five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault, the Badger, has responded to rumors swirling in the peloton about his upcoming retirement and who -- if anyone -- might fill his spot on the La Vie Claire team.
Felix Magowan of Velo-news offers this preview of the 1986 Tour de France
Drawing from his book Team 7-Eleven, Geoff Drake interviews Andy Hampsten on his Giro d'Italia win which was just months before the 1986 Tour de France.
Amaury Sport Organisation, organizer of the Tour de France, has kindly released the stage map and schedule for the upcoming 1986 Tour de France to Velo-news.
The injury list is ominous -- broken ribs, broken noses, sinus infections, stress fractures, bronchitis, and dysentery. Not exactly an auspicious start for the first American-based professional team to compete in the Tour de France.
American Greg LeMond, captain of the La Vie Claire team, placed fourth in the 69th Giro d'Italia, behind winner Robert Visentini, Giuseppe Saronni, and Francesco Moser.
Ad ad from a 1986 issue of Velo-news magazine
"This was definitely the biggest win of my career," said Thomas Prehn after outsprinting Jorgen Marcussen of Denmark to win the CoreStates USPRO Championship in Philadelphia on June 15.
“Dave, I’m going to win the worlds tomorrow.” Dave was Dave Millar and I was already the world champion in my own imagination. It was midafternoon on Saturday, September 24, 2011, and we’d just watched Giorgia Bronzini from Italy win the women’s world championships road race on a TV in our hotel room.
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