RIP Laurent Fignon, that was an awesome tour to follow. This was a year after Andy Hampsten became the first American winner of grand tour winning the Giro on Gavia in 1988. It was a really cool time to be an endurance athlete in North America when we were taking on the world in cycling and show casing a new sport (triathlon) to the Euros!!!
Still remember that day…my team was racing at a crit outside Richmond, VA. They announced over the loudspeaker that Lemond had won…we all sat there dumbstruck and then said “We gotta get back home ASAP so we can watch it!!” (Tape delay on ABC). We flew back up to DC and made it just in time.
I wonder how aero his bike was relative to what we have now. I bet you Frodo could win Kona on his set up. Aside from the wide arm placement and the compressed hip angle, everything else is near ST approved even in 2016
Yeah, it is amazing how good his position was back then…but then again, even his road position was always super-aero. Guy was just made to be be on a bike…
RIP Laurent Fignon, that was an awesome tour to follow. This was a year after Andy Hampsten became the first American winner of grand tour winning the Giro on Gavia in 1988. It was a really cool time to be an endurance athlete in North America when we were taking on the world in cycling and show casing a new sport (triathlon) to the Euros!!!
Watch, enjoy, and let’s comment!
Greg Lemond was the first American winner of a grand tour when he won the TdF in 1986.
Yeah, it is amazing how good his position was back then…but then again, even his road position was always super-aero. Guy was just made to be be on a bike…
If I recall correctly he had a long femur and short tibia, which allows you to get a pretty flat back from a slack seat tube angle without hitting your chest with your knees. So yes, he was a built to be on a bike. Note that the year Lemond won the Tour in 89, was the first year that the triathlon bike was invented by Slowman and ridden by Ray Browning to a new IMNZ bike course record. That QR Superform had an 80 degree seat tube angle. Lemond was already behind triathletes, even though he was ahead of Fignon.
How did I forget? Shoot me for that! That the the crazy La Vie Claire internal squabbling year with half the team riding for Hinault and Hampsten + Bauer riding for Lemond and the Alpe d’Huez “truce” stage
what I remember is leaving work at lunch each day, to go out and buy the New York Times, because it was the only thing I could get around here that had daily coverage — with Samuel Abt’s columns (reprint from IHT?). No cyclingnews.com then!
That was my plebe summer at the boat school. My squad leader hated anything that wasn’t baseball. The '89 Tour got me about three weeks of a coverage on sports articles at morning meals and kindled my interest in riding a bike.
Well 1989 was a crazy year to be a baseball fan…Bay area earthquake World Series. 4 game sweep by the A’s. Last World Series game ever at Candlestick was game 4. Now every time I drive up the 101 from SFO airport to San Francisco City, it seems like there is something missing going back with Candlestick “used” to be. This was also the same year that the 49ers won Superbowl 23 so if the Giants pulled it off, it would have been a double for the city. This year Superbowl 50 in 49ers stadium in Santa Clara just seemed wrong. It would be like putting the Alpe d’Huez stage in Spain and saying it was Alpe d’Huez.
OK back to Lemond and the 89 Tour. Any estimates on his wattage from the ST Crew? I heard it was partially downhill and tailwind from Versailles to Paris, at least this would explain his 54 kph speed. Would love to see another TdF end with a Champs ITT.
People forget how epic that whole tour was, not just the final stage.
Lemond and Fognin (and to a lesser degree, Delgado) beat the schitt out of each other for three weeks, almost non-stop. Complete a thesis of how tours are ridden today…team leaders would be off by themselves by the penultimate climb (if not earlier) in the mountains. Lemons and Fognon traded the jersey back and forth the whole race…Lemond would take it in a TT, lose it in the mountains, take it back in the next TT (uphill), lose it in the mountains, etc.
And Lemond’s stage win at Aix les Bains was awesome…
That was the year that got me hooked on the tour. I recall at the start line of the Lake Donner Tri in the Sierras, they announced that Lemond had won the tour by 7 seconds. An incredible roar happened from the athletes!
There has always been talk about Fignon’s ponytail. It has been speculated (even in the current wikipedia) that, " It was suggested afterwards that if Fignon had cut off his ponytail, the reduction in drag might have been sufficient for him to have won the Tour."
Tactics were much more aggressive in the 80’s and the racing was do or die. It seems now riders try to gain back seconds on a mountain stage. Back then, a rider would get minutes one day, only to lose a chunk of it the next day when your opponent attacks and you’re too spent to hang from the previous day’s efforts.
EPO turned donkey’s in thoroughbreds and power meters and radios put the racing in the director’s hands instead of the riders.
That was the year that got me hooked on the tour. I recall at the start line of the Lake Donner Tri in the Sierras, they announced that Lemond had won the tour by 7 seconds. An incredible roar happened from the athletes!
There has always been talk about Fignon’s ponytail. It has been speculated (even in the current wikipedia) that, " It was suggested afterwards that if Fignon had cut off his ponytail, the reduction in drag might have been sufficient for him to have won the Tour."
That would be incredible if the Slowtwitch aero folks could break down that aero drag!
Specialized did a wind tunnel test of different long hair styles. They didn’t compare to short hair and the rider had a helmet on, but a braid might have saved enough time for Fignon to win.
OK back to Lemond and the 89 Tour. Any estimates on his wattage from the ST Crew? I heard it was partially downhill and tailwind from Versailles to Paris, at least this would explain his 54 kph speed. Would love to see another TdF end with a Champs ITT.
Lemond estimated that he rode at 420-430 watts for that final TT. Not sure how accurate that is, but he was one of the early adopters of using the SRM and he had been to the wind tunnel so maybe it’s close?
That was the year that got me hooked on the tour. I recall at the start line of the Lake Donner Tri in the Sierras, they announced that Lemond had won the tour by 7 seconds. An incredible roar happened from the athletes!
There has always been talk about Fignon’s ponytail. It has been speculated (even in the current wikipedia) that, " It was suggested afterwards that if Fignon had cut off his ponytail, the reduction in drag might have been sufficient for him to have won the Tour."
That would be incredible if the Slowtwitch aero folks could break down that aero drag!
There have been various analyses done over the years…lots of pluses and minuses on both sides…Fignon had dual discs (so cool), Lemond had aero bars, etc. However, the general consensus seems to be that had Fignon just worn a helmet, he would likely have won the TdF in '89. And he had worn his aero lid in both of the other flat TT’s that year…
