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.
Not to mention the loss of the John Tesh soundtrack.
I remember watching it live. I like the part when Fignon gets off the bike at the finish. It looks like he is gonna die. It was a awesome and painfull TT. On one hand Lemond looks like its the best day of his life (the thrill of victory) and Fignon looks like its the worst (the agony of defeat)
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.
Hard to say, but you could make a case for it. IIRC, he lost somewhere around 2:50 for that? And ended up 3:10 or something behind, in third?
Also, they had a horrendous TTT. If that had clicked, he might have made up the time regardless of the early prologue penalty. It for sure would have changed the tactics on some of the stages.
John
I think people forget just how fast Fignon rode himself. He finished 3rd on the stage ( I believe Thierry Marie was 2nd) with an average speed around 32/33 miles an hour. He rode himself inside out which just makes what Greg did that much more amazing. You can evaluate the aero equipment choices each made, aerobars for Greg, front disk for Fignon, helmet no helmet but the lesson to take from that race was that for three weeks you must fight for each second every single day. LeMond and Fignon went back and forth the whole time. What if Greg had not fought so hard to limit his time loss on Alp D’Huez after being dropped by Fignon’s group? What if Fignon had gained more time into Villard-de-Lans? He attacked solo and stayed away for the win that day but what if had gained 9 more seconds that day?
That win is special for many reasons but you can’t have an epic battle without having a worthy opponent. Fignon pushed LeMond for three weeks, lets not forget Fignon is a two time Tour winner, 2 great athletes giving everything, that’s what makes the Tour so special and Greg such a special winner.
I also had the scott clip ons with the neon yellow-green armrests too.<<
I still have some of these somewhere. And the final stage of '89 on VCR. An amazing stage.
clm
from what I remember about that was, not only did the stage have a negative elevation gain, but; the Bottechia bike LeMond rode was in the neighborhood of 25+lbs. I could be wrong, but; it was heavy. They figured with the downhill sections the added weight would be a bonus.
Wish I was home and could ride now instead of being at work.
I still want to know, how did LeMond average 35 mph? I have trouble GOING 35 mph without a decent downhill.
I just watched the Alpe d’Huez and the last ITT stages (pure coincidence) - Lemond said there was a strong tailwind and was worried it would make it more difficult for him to take time from Fignon.
With apologies for reviving and ancient thread, here is a nice position of Lemond from side on - is his position ‘approved’ by the Slowtwitch masses?
And here is Fignon, side on:
I tried to find an image of Thierry Marie, 2nd to Lemond that day, but couldn’t 
When did you add the nipple rings to that flamboyant ensemble?
The big question is why didn’t Guimard do anything about Lemond using those aerobars. At the time, according to Fignon, they were totally illegal. Guimard knew well ahead of time Lemond was going to use them. He could have prevented it.
Not taking anything away from Lemond’s fantastic Tour, not sure Fignon would have lost that race otherwise.
That TT is the reason I think every TdF should end with a TT.
Nope.
It is a time trial position and a very, very early one for use with aerobars at that. He wasn’t running off the bike- except to grab Kathy… 
LeMond vs. Fignon, 1989. The beginning of the arms race. Aerobars. Aero helmet. Disk rear, bladed spoke front. It contributed to a culture of people measuring grams of drag, counting watts and worrying about the very little things that can make a man and bike faster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvwtOQYQ-E
Yep. Got that whole stage on vid on my laptop.
John
…and Fignon’s seat is too high.
I actually thought Larry’s seat was too high too… No kidding.
Fantastic day. I was still riding for Gatorade class A team at the time and we were helping out with the pro team. Go-fers and such. As for Fignon and Guimard they were just old school pig headed. Lemond and crew gave a set of clip ons to them the night before the tt to try them out. Fignon rode/tested them and came back and said he was still faster with out them. Because they were offered to be used, the officials called it legal since the oppotunity for a level playing field was given.
I remember that day well, couldn’t have been scripted any better. Up there with Julie Moss crawling across the line at Ironman…And what is funny was all the roadies thinking that LeMonde invented the aero bar that year…Of course we all had been using them for 3 years before that…But what isn’t funny is that I now talk to triathletes that think the same thing, that LeMonde was the 1st to use aero bars…
And to the guy that asked why did’nt they not allow Greg to use the bars, it is simple. They did not think they worked. It was some triathlete fad/gimmick thingy, so no big deal…Come to think of it, there is not one new invention that triathletes did not use and make popular first, before roadies adopted it later on…I got one of the 1st pair of Look pedals around 82 or so, a couple years before I swaw any roadies using them. Aero helmets were 1st seen on Scott Tinley in 83 or 84, roadies in the last 6 or 7 years caught up with the position to ride those aero bars. All the tricky wheels we used 1st, aero bikes, ect… Very traditional lot those roadies, but when it takes food out of their mouths, for the 10th time, they finally get it…(-;
Thanks for the trip down memory lane Tom…
Oh, was not aware of that version.
I was just refering to Fignon’s comments on his book where he was still wondering, after all those years, how those clip ons were allowed.
I take it you were in a great spot to know the bottom line of that story.
As I recall, Fignon’s camp made a protest after the race, claiming that the clip-on gave an extra “pushing point.” Obviously, they were unsuccessful.
Just one of the go-fers. Spent the last week with the team. Saw just how much faster those guys were compared to what I thought was fast. As a class “A” I wasn’t slow, but there was such a quantum leap to how the pro’s rode. Not just speed, but intensity. We all know on this forum what riding hard is and we know how lacticacid hurts so we slow up. But these guys were like prize fighters. They lived for the hurt. More the better. The taste of blood in your mouth, the weezing of your lungs, the rumble hush in your ears, like gravy for the Jackel.