Le Tour memories

stuf

Given that it all kicks off tomorrow - what are your favourite memories of Le Tour.

Mine has to be Le Monde and Fignon battling through the alps in 1989 only to be seperated by 8 seconds on the Champs Elysées

In particular Fignon's incredible climbing on unbelievable gears in the alps to make up time and Robert Millar forsaking the King of the Mountains under team orders to get Le Monde through.

Was one of the first tours I watched and the drama of it all was incredible.

Anyone else?

Danbo!

waiting for 3 hours outside my grandmothers house in walkinstown for it to come by in 1998, and it passing by in a matter of seconds.

AndyP

Chiappucci's break in 92(?) on the first mountain and the chase from Indurain and Bugno . I remember Eurosport showed virtually the whole stage live.

dedon

Armstrong letting Pantani win!!! Two greats but both flawed!!

stuf

Have to add seeing Pantani scream past me on the corner of Kevin St and Patrick St - saw lots of riders that day but I was there for the pirate - another great mountaineer and a sad end

dedon

Landis absolutely trashing everyone in 2006!!! On that infamous 17th Stage. Remember telling everyone that I would bet he will test positve. And he did. Un-natural it was. Unreal cycling but obviously doped to the hilt. As was later found out as we all know

Caroline_ie

Not sure what year ... but one man ran butt naked after the Champs Elysee sprint

Other than that, my dad bringing me to the stages to get freebees and see the team cars pass back home in Bordeaux when I was small.

jefferson73

http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/2008/06/john-pierce-revisiting-roches-triple.html


John Pierce: Revisiting Roche's Triple Crown




I was there.

Following many years in the 1970s as the event photographer for the Raleigh Dunlop Tour of Ireland, I became friendly with many of the Irish race organisers and riders. In the 1979 season, one of the organisers from the Tour of Ireland— Noel Hammond invited me to his Dublin home. It was here that the winner of that year’s Ras Taileann, Dubliner Stephen Roche showed me a small letter from AC-BB France, signed by Mickey Wiegants. The letter invited him to join the club in the western suburb of Paris; unusually it came direct from the club’s owner/president in the South of France.

He had been invited to join the French club, designated to accept English, speaking riders. The list is enviable and included some riders from my own club, and thus considered a confidant on the possibilities. I asked the 20-year-old Roche some straight questions, regarding home, job, languages and of course girlfriends.

At that time the answers were favourable for living abroad for a while. He was at the end of an apprenticeship as a diesel vehicle fitter. We decided that first he should finish the apprenticeship so he had something to fall back on. Over the coming winter he should take French lessons, then he should pack his handlebars and saddle for a spell in France.

He went to Paris to meet with Claude Escalon, the manager of the AC-BB. Escalon was a hard taskmaster; in training riders were given points, not just for being on the front, but also for related efforts. Roche had an unusual talent as a rider—he simply ‘floated,’ such was his smooth pedalling action. He hardly ever fought the bike. In his first season at AC-BB in 1980 he found success as winner of the amateur Paris-Roubaix. He turned pro for Peugeot—a sponsor of the AC-BB—and won 10 races in the 1981 season, including Paris Nice.

In 1987 Roche achieved an amazing triple, becoming only the second rider in history to win the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the World Championship Road Race in the same season.

The Tour de France was a special landmark moment for myself. Firstly, it started in the centre of Berlin, two years before the wall came down. It was also my 21st Tour, a moment not overlooked by the Tour’s then owner, Jacques Goddet, who made a personal presentation to me. In his speech he talked about how he had been educated in Britain where Cricket and Football were more important than cycling. In his presentation he noted that I was the first to take images of their beautiful sport outside of France. He also noted that the race leader was also an English speaker, and indeed shared the same path.

There were some great moments, but two incidents were the foundations of a fantastic Tour de France victory by Roche. Some would say tactically brilliant, others would say he made his own luck; I wonder if there is a difference.

On the stage to La Plagne, won by Laurent Fignon, Pedro Delgado was in yellow, and second on GC was Roche, but Roche couldn’t climb as fast a Delgado. Instead of fighting to stay in contact, Roche ‘regrouped’ and set his own pace. On the 15km-long climb, Roche lost 1 minute in the first 5km; if this continued the race for him would be over. Then a strange thing happened, and was realised by Roche, and this is the clever bit. Delgado was of course receiving time checks, via motorcycle as there were no radios in 1987, and had been told that Roche was at 1:40, so the race was his, as Fignon was not a danger. In Roche’s head he had to make a big effort to contain Delgado, so at 5kms he let go with his biggest effort of the Tour.

At this point Delgado would have been at 4kms to go, much too late to receive any more time checks on the whereabouts of Roche. I was at the 1km banner making pictures—it was my chosen place. I made a time check for Stephen; he was 40 seconds down on Delgado. The final 600m of La Plagne is a false flat; Roche caught former teammate Denis Rous and as he passed him Roche threw the chain onto the big ring, and his bike stopped. Rous went back past him, wondering what on earth he was doing. Then Roche got his momentum back and sprinted past Rous for the second time, this time to within sight of the cars
behind Delgado. Minus 5 seconds. Incredible.


The other stage that comes to mind where Roche deployed superb tactics, or simply got lucky was into Morzine-Avoriaz, a stage won by Edouardo Chozas. Delgado—the better climber—had to drop Roche on the climb of the Joux Plane before the descent into Morzine; he didn’t, either because he was tactically unsavvy or because he simply couldn’t. Additionally, Roche knew that Delgado had crashed out of the Tour on the descent of the Joux-Plane in a previous year, breaking his collarbone. So, when it came to the descent, a long and sinuous 16kms, Roche attacked and Delgado faltered. Roche descended so fast that he caught the red Race Director’s advance vehicle that precedes the battle for the Yellow Jersey. That had never happened in the Tour de France before and was quite outrageous—Roche took the Yellow.

Roche was a huge natural talent, but to win the Giro d’Italia he was assisted by Careera teammate Eddy Schepers and also to a great extent by his former AC-BB and Peugeot teammate and friend Robert Millar, who in Italy won the mountains classification. Schepers was again there for him in France, as was Sean Kelly. Kelly would later sacrifice his own chances in the World Championships at Villach, when in the last kilometers Roche streaked away to victory, robbing either Kelly or Moreno Argentin of victory. It would be prudent to note that these performances were achieved when the performance booster EPO did not exist.

Muller_1

Has to be Roche and Delgado on La Plagne in 1987, never get tired of hearing Phil Liggets commentary.

FrankGrimes

My favourite Tour de France memory has to be pulling an all-nighter at a party the day before the stage ending in Dublin, then getting a brainwave at 6am and getting a bucket of white emulsion and a four inch brush then hitting the Tallaght bypass at the Esso just before the M50 roundabout at Tallaght to write names on the road. Mostly pisstakes but there were a few proper ones in there too, but seeing the pisstakes from the helicopter shot on Eurosport was class.

All was good till the old bill arrived and we got an awful telling off from the Gardai. Turns out the French folk that write names on the road use chalk, not emulsion and they were thinking of doing us for defacing public property but took the defence that we were just getting into the spirit of it. We nearly wet ourselves when one of the Gardai after we'd all made up "so whos this Gowler fella yous seem so keen on?". Hey, we were 17 afterall

I just had time to bail into the stores in the Esso for a 20 minute kip before my shift on the till started at 8am. And then when the road was closed off and the cavalcade came we were graced with the presence in the shop of the yellow jersey girls talented ladies that they were. Then we got prime spots to view the race as it went by, topping off a quality weekend nicely!

Funkyzeit

Roche's comeback on La Plagne is the obvious - esp with the spine tingling commentary.

Another recent one was seeing Beloki nealry crush ever bone on one side of his body and in an effort to avoid him Armstrong swerves into the field and carries his bike back down to the roadside.

Adbdu's crash also a memory....Think I'm a sadist....

nitsujj

chiappucci's break for the last 2 hours of this incredable stage, bugno & indurain chasing and franco vona coming from nowhere to get second on the stage. pascal lino's strenght trying not to lose the yellow jersey _ sheer courage, the crowds that day were incredible, chiappucc nearly didnt make it to the finish as the mostly italian crowd were going mental! watched it on sports stadium! ahh remember the days!

justfortherecor

Not so much a specific 'moment' but I thought Tyler Hamilton's tour in 2003 when he broke his collarbone was amazing.

No matter what, the guy was on of the toughest bastards in sport. Grinding down his teeth to the nerves in order to try and overcome pain and keep competing. I still find him an inspiration.