As a reminder of the comparison (with some poetic license)…
1985 - Bernard Hinault has won 4 Tours de France and on his team is Greg LeMond - who is, arguably, fitter and ready to over take his senior French teammate. Hinault say’s “Greggy, you work for me this year and next year I’ll work for you”. LeMond rides in support of Hanault and Bernard wins his fifth.
1986 rolls around and LeMond shows up expecting Hinault to be his lieutenant but…not so much. On stage 12 from Bayonne to Paul, Hinault launches an attack with teammate Jean-Francois Bernard, they break away and Hinault takes the maillot jaune from LeMond and puts 5:25 into his lead. The next day, stage 13 Hinault attacks again on the descent of the Tourmalet and tells LeMond that he’s doing this to “wear down his rivals so that Greg can go on to win”. One gets the sense that the La Vie Claire team (French Health Food) was split with some riding for Hinault and some riding for LeMond. On stage 16 LeMond attacks (with Andy Hampsten and others) and wins the stage but Hinault still has the Yellow by 40 seconds. The next day, stage 18, Hinault attacks on the descent of the Galibier, LeMond freaks and scrambles to catch and, in what has to be one of the most bizarre moments in Tour history, these two teammates battle one another with such ferocity that they drop the entire field and wind up climbing Alpe d’Huez together. Somewhere in the switchbacks they figured it out, crossed the line hand in hand and LeMond went on to win.
Greg LeMond left battling teammate Bernard Hinault. Alpe D’Huez TdF 1986
Fast forward to Astana 2009…
Alberto Contador puts all his eggs in the Tour basket. Before the race Lance says, in a bunch of different ways, “I’ll ride in support of Alberto…if he’s the strongest guy on the team”. In stage 3 Lance sees a situation up the road where a turn and a cross wind will create a gap in the field - he doesn’t notify Contador or go back and get him and pull him up to that break - he instead makes the break with Popovych and Zubeldia and winds up 2nd GC with Alberto 3rd GC and in an excellent place where he might be able to say “well, he’s not the strongest guy on the team…so…”. Then on Friday, in the last 2k up Andorre Alberto attacks and flops the GC putting himself in 2nd with Armstrong in 3rd. Afterward Lance is quoted as saying “that wasn’t the plan…but I’m not surprized he didn’t stick to the plan”.
Now we’ve got this guy from Bicycling Magazine quoting “an unknown source close to Lance” that Armstrong is pissed and is now gunning for his teammate.
Add to all this that stage 20 (that’s the second to last day) is a mountain top finish on Ventoux. Armstrong kinda gave that Ventoux stage win to Pantani in 2000 and in a post retirement interview with Phil Legitt, Armstrong said that one of his primary regrets is that he never won on Mt Ventoux.
Some of this might lead us to believe that the battle that’s coming in the Alps might be building to offer more drama than a telenovela.
Armstrong kinda gave that Ventoux stage win to Pantani in 2000 and in a post retirement interview with Phil Legitt, Armstrong said that one of his primary regrets is that he never won on Mt Ventoux
It was also interesting that, that day on Ventoux in 2000, Armstrong kinda gave it to Pantini, but then afterwards, said, “No more gifts”.
Quite frankly the Tour to date has been a bit of a bore - more or less predictable with no real surprises and no serious action. This may have more to do with the terrain - with only one serious mountain-top finish in the Pyranees. The other two had major down-hill finishes. I am guessing that the action and the drama will start to ramp up as we hit the Alps later on this week.
I think the bike riding has rated a collective “Meh” besides the action on Stage 3 where Armstrong split the peleton. What has caused the stir is the drama outside of the race.
Honestly, my favorite moment has been Voeckler winning a stage. Finally a cyclist who has paid his dues got one.
personally when i watched stage three. Lance was on the right side of the peleton near the front, alberto was on the left and was just out of position, its not like lance was like ahhahahahhahahahah i see whats gonna happen. he just did what he had to to stay at the front. It was a mistake by alberto not a dick move by lance. but by all means if you have like a video clip or something that shows it was intentional let me know because i wasn’t really paying attention just happy that the tour is exciting this year.
I was 11 the year of the 86 Tour. I still remember watching what highlights we got on C4 in the UK with my dad. It’s one of my earliest memories of watching the tour on TV; the mind games, tactics and manouvres between ‘that’ young American (that’s how we looked on him in our house anyways, now I know what a great rider Lemond was) and Hinault.
I can honestly say I don’t think I’ll remember this years tour in two weeks, that’s how exciting it’s been so far. If you think it’s building to anything like 86, you’ve obviously not been a follower of Le Grand Boucle for very long.
That’s not exactly what happened in 86. Yes Hinault attacked on the road to Pau, but he already had the yellow, not Lemond and Lemond had a free ride while others had to chase. The next day he did again attack and again Lemond had the free ride while Herrera, Zimmerman, Criqui, and especially a super-fit Robert Millar did the work. They caught Hinault at the bottom of Super B and Hamsten attacked, then Lemond and he took back most of the gap to Hinault. The next week Lemond rode with Zimmerman over the Izoard and up the Col De Granon for Lemond to take his first yellow jersey. The next day Hinault attacked, was quickly joined in the valley by Lemond, Steve Bauer and Ruiz-Cabestany and the foursome blasted into the headwind. Bauer totally buried himself and Lemond/Hinault left the race in tatters behind them. They made a huge gap and Hinault told Lemond to let him set the pace up the Alpe. Lemond said it was the easier climb he had ever done.
Of course, Lemond was then a little annoyed when Hinault said that the time trial would decide things, but in the end Lemond was stronger and might have won had he not crashed. I’m fully convinced that Hinault would have won the tour if he had been able, but could not climb with Lemond. Either way, the team that year destroyed the competition. Hinault finished about three minutes back, Zimmerman was like 8, Hampsten 16 and Criqui was 25 minutes back in fifth place.
That was some epic stuff. If we get half of that, we’ll be luck.
Chad
Quite frankly the Tour to date has been a bit of a bore - more or less predictable with no real surprises and no serious action. This may have more to do with the terrain - with only one serious mountain-top finish in the Pyranees. The other two had major down-hill finishes. I am guessing that the action and the drama will start to ramp up as we hit the Alps later on this week.
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I think this has been one of the most interesting tours since 2003. Columbia has been impressive, not just with Cav but with their ability to control the race. Who would think that a TDF field would screw up and not get a second echelon going? Fabian is always impressive, there’s the AC and LA drama. And the breakaway keeps succeeding.
I agree that the downhill finish is a screwup, they took all the drama out of the stages. And the sprinting has been predictable, but it’s not Robbie McEwen’s fault he got injured and didn’t start.
The tour back then was not as controlled as it is now with the radios and formula of todays racing.
The year before ('85) Lemond could have won it but his director told him Bernard was only a minute behind on the stage that Lemond and Roche took off. He was really several minutes behind and Lemond could have been in yellow in '85 and won it.
The drama in '86 was only heightened from what happened in '85.
I think Armstrong will be a nonfactor after stages 13 and 15.
