I’m surprised how much of the TT he spend looking down with the tail of that helmet up in the air…
Brad
Back then, everyone rode head down when they wanted to ride fast. In the roadie position, it is the most streamlined. Check Fignon, also riding head down, and let’s forget how fast Fignon rode with pony tail and without the aero gear that Lemond had.
Same year, a few months later, here is a picture of Wolfgang Dietrich riding head down along the QueenK to a 4:37 split:
Yeah, the impact of the length of that TT on the final outcome is underestimated…people just look at the last day. 75m drop on a 27 min TT is still pretty significant…over 200 ft, which would have a reasonable contribution to the fast average speeds. Don’t you think? In reality, it looks like Fignon loses big time on the large climb up the Champs Elyeses to the Arc de Triomphe. By the time he gets there, he’s pretty well given away the race and there is no way he is making it up on the downhill back to the finish. People forget how much uphill is on the Champs. It is by no means flat!
I had a Trek 1200 (the black and neon pink with Shimano 105 in that cool grey sort of like Ultegra SL today)…, then a Nishiki Altron in neon green, and then a Trek 2300 with neon yellow and green lugs and graphics around the carbon tubes. So yeah…I was full-on tri-geek even back then. I also had the scott clip ons with the neon yellow-green armrests too. I probably had neon helmet and seat lycra covers too.
One thing is for sure…I NEVER got hit by cars while I was wearing that stuff!
I know old Greg a little bit as a fan. He’s a Midwesterner too so I’ve had the pleasure to rub shoulders with him on more than a few occasions. I like him very much. Nice man, his wife is a delightful lady, poised and pleasant. They are a nice couple because Greg is rather, ahh, “candid” while Kathy is a good bit more diplomatic.
I think a few factors contributed to LeMond’s success that day. It was the “Perfect Storm” of complex competitive motives that fueled LeMond to an optimal state of competitive arousal combined with other factors that produced an anomolistic result. The chances of that outcome occuring were very remote. But they did, making it all the more special.
This is what I think combined to create the incredible synergy that helped LeMond win:
LeMond had Boone Lennon with him, the aerodynamic expert behind the Scott aerobar. Lennon was persistent about attending to aerodynamic details such as the aerobars and aero helmet. In the moments before the start of the TT LeMond was warming up, pulling up so hard on the aerobars that mechanics had to shim the clamps with aluminum cut from Coke cans. Because of LeMond’s response to people who are “experts” or have higher education he listened to Lennon’s counsel on the technical aspects of the race. More educated men may have tried to think for themselves, and they likely would have been caught in the “paralysis of analysis”. LeMond simply did what he was told by Boone Lennon when it came to equipment. Greg LeMond is a fine man, but he is an uncomplicated man. The best athletes are. They have pure, almost child-like motives. They have a simple sense of justice and right and wrong. It was this polarized perspective that enabled LeMond to see the day as a gunfight: One man squaring off against another. LeMond felt cornered, as though it was his last chance. Because of his hunting accident and recovery from it he felt that emotion for the entire year prior to this day, and he had learned to harness that emotion and make good choices about how to respond to it. The worst thing Fignon could have done to LeMond was act nonchalant about winning- to act as though he had it in the bag. LeMond sensed that and like an injured cat backed into a corner he simply bolted. LeMond’s personal emotions hovered between two poles that day because his dad and Kathy were there. Kathy is a delightful woman, pretty and kind, good sense of humor, polite and poised. She reminds me of Princess Diana. Just a wonderful, wonderful woman. She was dressed in a fetching polka-dot dress with her hair done. She looked like royalty. Very pretty, very dignified. Kathy always knows what to say and she has supported Greg without fault since day one. Good people, those two. Greg’s dad was there also, a tough businessman and… well, ah, did I mention how nice Greg’s wife Kathy is? You get the picture. Greg had something to prove and someone to please. He was racing with the lilting thought of his wife at the finish and the scorn of a son with something to prove once and for all. LeMond was a metallic object balanced between positive and negative poles. For the moments he was on the course in the time trial, the balance was perfect. Fignon was a trifle too large for his breeches. Cyrille Guimard had inflated his ego and I think Fignon, a gentle and soft spoken man, simple felt he was on a victory lap. When Fignon began to realize he was giving up big chunks of time everything became very chaotic for him. The shouting over the loudspeaker from the follow car must have been maddening. The course into Paris was intensely distracting with all the buildings and road furniture and tunnels and the Eiffel Tower looming. Too much stimulus. Fignon did not have the focus he needed to defeat LeMond- at least not during those few moments, and that was all it took.
Interestingly, although they don’t like each other, LeMond and Armstrong have a lot in common. The one ominous difference is that LeMond has a very child-like sense of right and wrong. Everything is black and white. Both men find a deep well of motivation out of being “put down” or subjected to adversity: LeMond’s hunting accident, Armstrong’s cancer. Their response are similar: Fight.
Armstrong is different. He feels very isolated and persecuted. He is a loner except for his mother. He has a laser guided intensity and focus subordinating all else to the task at hand. That may be his undoing. I believe Lance Armstrong is, in the depths of his heart, a good man, but a solitary man who feels the world sometimes tries to put him down. Because (he feels) the world is against him I think he feels he has to do whatever he can to fight back, and in that, there is rationalization… He may actually win the Tour de France again, especially if the race organizers try to keep him out. They will only make hm angry. Anger to Armstrong is like plutonium to a nuclear reactor: The potential energy is limitless.
The whole 1989 Tour was incredible:
- Delgado missing the Prologue start
- Lemond being back in Yellow after the TT
- Lemond “cracking” on Alpe D’Huez
- Fignon attacking the next day while in yellow and winning the stage
- A group of 5 of the top riders working together the next day with Lemond outsprinting Fignon for the win (I believe Larajetta crashed and they waited for him)
- The final TT
I would put the final TT down as definitely one of the greatest single days on the Tour (one which I then compared Landis’s “comeback” stage to…which now I don’t).
As for changing everything, I agree! I had just started tris the year before (I was 16) and I promptly went out and bought some Profile clip on bars after Greg’s win.
Man, I forgot all about Marino Lajaretta. You’re right. An Epic. The Tour has a habit of producing epics. We’re in line for one this year too…
and the commentary.
I remember listening to Phil Liggett shouting,“Fignon’s bouncing off the barriers (as he came down the stretch) he’s lost the Tour de France, he’s lost the Tour de france.”
Commentary from Phil and Paul has gone way downhill since they started to work for OLN/VS. They are now forced to speak about only one person all tour regardless of wether it is pertinent or not.
Lemond must have been doping more than Fignon.
Incredible stage but Fignon’s position is not bad and I’m intrigued how much of Lemond’s aero advantage was countered by Fignon’s FRONT disc - as I understand it that’s a huge benefit
I remember this well, as I had just gotten into biking in the late 80’s as a teenager because of LeMond. After this race there was an article in a bicycling magazine that supposedly annalyzed all the aerodynamics and positions of both riders. LeMond with the helmet, bars and rear disk and Fignon with his dual disks, no helmet and bullhorn style bars. Their supposed ‘findings’ with all things being equal was that LeMond’s equipment/position equated to an 8 second advantage over the course, or the final winning margin.
Here is a video clip of Lemond and Fignon in 2007. Its in French but you get a sense of the two of them. A bit bittersweet for Fignon perhaps but Greg is humble and kind and they seem to be friendly.
As a side question, referring to Landis’s ride. Before that stage Landis talked to Mercxx. Ws there not a Tour or Giro were Mercxx was up by 10 minutes, and (I can not remember who) the guy in second attacked and gained 9 minutes and Eddy came close to losing? Do you remember?
This one is pretty good also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBIV2gXV2tM
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A day I’ll never forget. I remember the TV feed cutting in an out as Fignon came up the Champs on the (CBS?) anthology show with Phil calling out “Fignon’s drafting off the barriers, he’s lost it; he’s lost the Tour de France”.
Absolutely my favorite sporting moment ever. Time to pop in that DVD for this afternoons trainer session 
This one is pretty good also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBIV2gXV2tM
Another great battle between Roche and Delgado, especially after Roche was taken off LaPlagne in a stretcher after absolutely burying himself to limit his losses that day.
Holy shit! I felt like I was 16 again sitting on the couch finally understanding what my brothers and dad felt like when they watched sports. Greatness.
Roche emerged out of the fog at the summit and the announcers were stammered by how much he limited his losses to Delgado. I think it was a crippling blow to Delgado’s confidence as I think Delgado felt that ride was a *coup de grace *to Roche.
Roche spent the night in the hospital taking IV fluids and recovering as best he could. It turned out to be enough. If my memeory serves me correctly, that was the same year Roche won the Giro, The Tour and the World Championships- all in the same year. One word: Domination.
Yup - the big 3, then tendonitis in his knee set in the following year and he never regained his form.
Roche emerged out of the fog at the summit and the announcers were stammered by how much he limited his losses to Delgado. I think it was a crippling blow to Delgado’s confidence as I think Delgado felt that ride was a *coup de grace *to Roche.
Roche spent the night in the hospital taking IV fluids and recovering as best he could. It turned out to be enough. If my memeory serves me correctly, that was the same year Roche won the Giro, The Tour and the World Championships- all in the same year. One word: Domination.
The La Plagne stage
The TT was just an incredible cap to an incredible tour that year.
/Delgado would’ve won if he’d shown up at the prologue on time.