tour de france vrouwen 1985

1985 Women's Tour de France

By owen mulholland.

Back to Rider Histories index page | 1985 Men's Tour de France

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Owen Mulholland was the first American journalist accredited to the Tour de France and he followed and reported on the big race for years. In 1985 he followed both the men's and women's editions.

Owen Mulholland writes:

For 83 years the Tour de France organizers have spared no effort to make their race the ultimate cycling challenge. In creating a women's Tour de France last year they expected it to be on the same level.

That debut was marred by a collision with the Los Angeles Olympics. Most countries sent the second string to the Tour. There was no such conflict this time, however, every one of the ten countries entered sent their best riders.

Except one. The U.S. You have to scratch your head on this one. The U.S. is arguably the foremost women's cycling nation in the world. American rider Marianne Martin won the event last year, and as the defending champion the U.S. was invited to send two teams. What is the USCF [organization managing American cycling at the time] response? They advised our best riders not to go (poor dears can't handle the Tour and the Coors Classic in the same season), and guaranteed they wouldn't by scheduling the World Championship selection races during the Tour.

Only Janelle Parks, tenth in the Olympics, and Debra Shumway, third in the '84 Tour, were what you could call "elite" riders. They and four compatriots from the "Winning" club formed the "B" team.

The "A" team, so called so solicitations for its sponsorship might be more successful, was a last-minute throw-together job consisting of enthusiastic (They had to be; they paid their own way!) but woefully  inexperienced riders. Many were in the first real year of racing.

Rather cavalier treatment of the world's greatest bike race by the world's greatest (female) cycling nation.

Yet these relative beginners provided some of the biggest surprises in an otherwise predictable race. The predictable part was that Jeannie Longo, the leading French rider, would control things on the flat days. But no matter how many bonus seconds she collected winning stages, not she nor anyone cold challenge Italy's Maria Canins. At age 36, the Italian maestra can't match Longo in the sprints, but just give her a little anti-gravity work and she's gone.

With three mountain-top finishes Canins showed she is in a category all by herself. Ten minutes, twenty minutes…she could write her own time gaps. On the second mountain stage which finished above Longo's Alpine home town of Grenoble, Jeannie fought desperately to keep the flying Italian mama in sight. On the last climb Jeannie blew up spectacularly, even dismounting three times. Only her years of experience gave her the courage to continue.

She crawled in in fourteenth place. Ahead of her were Phyllis Hines (U.S. "B") and Carol Rogers-Dunning (U.S. "A"). Phyllis moved up to sixth overall, best American, and Carol soared up forty places on General Classification, from fifty-second to twelfth! Neither lady is especially well known, but the Georgian, Hines, has at least had the experience of having made the eastern circuit. Carol was a complete surprise. She is one of those natural talents the U.S. seems to have in droves. Currently residing in Las Cruces, N.M. while her husband works on his Ph.D., the 27 year old former runner almost literally stumbled into cycling after being sidelined by running injuries. One of her teammates described her as the resident "free spirit" on the squad. She isn't into following wheels closely or shaving her legs, but give her a first category climb and such refinements don't matter.

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The "B" team, experienced enough to have reputations, but at time unsophisticated enough to act as though they didn't, added up to a sum less than its parts. On the emotional cutting edge after two days, tears and screams became endemic. One rider refused to assist her teammate get back to the peloton after a puncture, but a little later she dropped back to assist a French rider she knew.

Before the race even started the "B" team had two bikes and mechanic Steve Aldridge's tool kit stolen. That set the tone for things.

Out of the carnage emerged Phyllis Hines, the kind of rider Europeans never thought could exist. Now 22, she combines classic southern charm with world class talent and pit bull determination. Leavened with experience she could be come another Rebecca Twigg.

Redefining your limits is one of the foundations of Tour survival. Phyllis discovered this the hard way. On the big Pyrenean stage she attempted to match Canins. Even after that was a lost cause she continued to pound a big gear.

On the higher hairpins of the blasted moonscape that is the Tourmalet she began to weave. Refusing all assistance she wobbled on. "I still don't remember going over the top and down the other side," she recalled two days later. She didn't get far up the last hill. Her body had more wisdom than her mind. She slowly toppled over and was quickly scooped up by the ambulance. She shook for the next hour. Dizziness and fatigue were with her for another 48 hours. A lesson for all.

Janelle Parks picked up the baton, and in a measured ride that stayed just a breath away from overload she soared to the top of the American standings, finishing seventh.

The Tour was full of surprising talent. Who would have guessed that China could have produced such a super rider? Wang Li (8th) showed once again the marvelous international face of cycling. With 10,000 licensed women racers we can be sure that she will be followed by others.

West Germany's oldest rider was 19 year old Petra Stegherr. Eighth team overall, they can hardly do anything but get better.

Last March, Debbie Jensen, 20, escaped the frozen landscape of her native Calgary for her first serious racing at the Tour of Texas. Three months later she was doing the ride of her life to be team leader. Fans back in Calgary got so enthusiastic that the local radio station managed to pull strings to get an interview with her broadcast on the national radio network.

The Tour de France Féminin, 1985, showed women's racing to be in transition upward. Fears of too high and too far proved groundless. Nor will it turn slim lasses into chunky chargers. Tooling along at a steady 25 mph through crowds of cheering villagers, the race radio crackling with reports of attack and counter-attack, the Tour has put the sport in a spotlight as no other race could.

1985 Tour de France Féminin final General Classification

The race was broken into two parts, the first consisting of twelve stages and the second had five. At the end of the first part Maria Canins was first, Jeannie Longo second and Phyllis Hines was third. The organizers converted the riders' elapsed times into points.

1. Maria Canins (Italy) 17,141 points 2. Jeannie Longo (France) 15,810 3. Cécile Odin (France) 15,052 4. Imelda Chiappa (Italy) 14,906 5. Roberta Bonanomi (Italy) 14,821 6. Chantal Broca (France) 14,797 7. Janelle Parks (USA) 14,738 8. Wang Li (China) 14,737 9. Dominique Damiani (France) 14,732 10. Heleen Hage (Netherlands) 14,688

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U.S. WOMEN A TOUR DE FORCE IN CYCLING

By Samuel Abt, Special To the New York Times

• June 30, 1985

Charlene Nicolson-Ford, a 23-year-old bicycle rider from Berkeley, Calif., fell during a race in Colorado last Saturday and, she recalled: ''I got up immediately and said I don't care if anything's broken. I'm still going to the Tour de France.''

Sitting in a hotel in Brittany, she lifted her right hand to show a wrist cast and an elastic bandage. The radius bone was indeed broken, and she indeed is riding in the second women's Tour de France. ''It seemed like the chance of a lifetime,'' she said, ''and nothing was going to keep me from it.''

Despite the obvious problems, she made it through the prologue here today, finishing next to last in the field of 72 women, divided into 12 teams of 6 rides each. France and the United States have each entered two teams, with one each from The Netherlands, Britain, Canada, Belgium, China, Italy, West Germany and Sweden.

Dutch Rider in Lead

A Dutch rider, Henny Top, won the 2.7-kilometer (about a mile and a half) prologue. Finishing in 3 minutes 22 seconds. Valerie Simonnet of France was second, Jeannie Longo of France third.

''I think I can do it,'' Mrs. Nicolson-Ford said of her chances of finishing the race, which will cover 1,079 kilometers before finishing in Paris on July 21. The women's course is about one fourth as long as the men's and includes the final 70 or 80 kilometers of the men's course most days.

Today, for example, a few hours after the women's prologue, the men swept over that course in a sprint finish at the end of a 256-kilometer race from Vannes. Rudy Mattys of the Hitachi team finished first, edging Eric Vanderaerden of Panasonic, with the rest of the 180-man field close behind. Vanderaerden collected enough bonus time to take the overall leader's yellow jersey from Bernard Hinault of la Vie claire. Hinault is second, 32 seconds behind, with Phil Anderson of Panasonic third.

Such early exchanges of the yellow jersey are common. Last year, in the inaugural women's Tour, the Dutch also took an early lead before Marianne Martin of the United States won the race in the mountains.

Much Larger Field

Miss Martin, who has not not been riding well this season, is not here this year, but the American teams view her absence not as a weakness but as a sign of how deep their talent is.

''Last year, American women won the world championships in the sprint and pursuit, won the women's Tour de France and took the gold and silver medals in the Olympic road race,'' said Paula Andros, a 33-year-old from New York, who is a coach here. She said the United States has a larger talent pool ''because women are allowed to do more in the United States.''

She said she was looking forward to a strong race, with a field twice the size as last year's.

In addition to Mrs. Nicolson-Ford on the United Sates ''A'' team, are Nancy Walker, who lives in France, Carol Rogers-Dunning of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Mary Verrando of Ocala, Florida, Ramona d'Viola of Berkeley and Harriet Heim McCoy of los angeles.

Miss d'Viola, who was not here last year, summed up the general feeling:

''I'm really honored to be in the race. It's great for women's bicycling that we''re not treated like a joke any more. We're being accepted as athletes.''

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Women Cyclists Change Tour de France Forever

PARIS, July 21, 1984 -- Women's bicycling never again will be the same. Not only have women been admitted to the 1984 Olympic Games, women cyclists also are competing for the first time in their own, shortened version of the Tour de France.

American Marianne Martin, 26, from Boulder, Colo., now is leading this Tour de France race and may well become the first American ever to win any tour.

The women's tour is modeled on the men's race, but is about one third the length. The 991 kilometer, 24-day race follows the same route as the men's event, and will end in Paris on the same day (Sunday). But the women cyclists preceed the men by about two hours at every stage, and are transported every morning to their next day's start. International cycling rules limit women riders to a maximum of 76 kilometers (about 46 1/2 miles) a day. There are no professional women cyclists -- all are amateurs.

"It's very exciting, the whole thing is an incredible experience," said Martin, who leads her closest opponent, Helene Hage of Holland, by 3 minutes 17 seconds. "I've never done anything like this before. people have a lot of respect for the Tour de France . . . I feel honored to be here."

The announcement of the first women's tour attracted some controversy in France, where women's cycling has yet to achieve the same prestige as other women's sports such as tennis and skiing.

Jacques Anquetil, a cycling commentator for the sports daily L'Equipe, and a five-time Tour de France winner, wrote, "I have absolutely nothing against women's sports, but cycling is much too difficult for a woman. They are not made for the sport. I prefer to see a woman in a short white skirt, not racing shorts . . . I am sorry to see women suffer. On a bicycle, there's always a lot of suffering."

Dr. Gerard Nicolet, the women's tour physician, disagrees. "Women are capable of racing the complete Tour de France, although not as fast as the men. Ninety percent of the medical problems we've had so far are unisex -- tendinitis, over-fatigue, falls . . . that sort of thing.

"In fact, of the 36 women who entered the race, 35 are still here, which I think shows that the women can do it."

This women's race lacks a good deal of talent since all the Olympic cyclists are training for the Games at the Coors Classic race in Colorado.

"These are not the best athletes available. The Soviets aren't here and the best Americans and French are in Colorado," said Pierre Dufour, a veteran Tour de France journalist from Agence France Presse. "A Tour de France is always magic but this is not a true test of women's cycling. We will have to wait until next year."

Martin agrees that the absence of the best women is a serious problem for the race. "The strength of these riders is definitely different and they just aren't as experienced, so the strategy is not the same. These racers aren't used to thinking in terms of team strategy," she said.

Still, the United States team, which until recently did not even have a coach, has done spectacularly well in this year's Tour, capturing first and third positions in the overall ratings so far and a total of four places in the top ten.

Debra Schunway is currently running third, seven minutes 59 seconds behind Hage, and has a strong chance to maintain that position. Betty Wise-Steffan, 32, of Salt Lake City, is currently in sixth position.

One little-noticed star of the U.S. team has been Patty Peoples, 27, from Gaithersburg, Md., currently running 10th. Peoples, who first started serious racing in January, acts as the American team's "domestique." Her job is to ward off threatening attacks on the leaders from other teams, and to help the top Americans come to the front.

The task of a domestique is a thankless one. "When you are thinking of somebody else, you're not thinking of yourself at all," Peoples said. "You're placing twelfth, fifteenth, but you work your tail off more than anyone. I do have the satisfaction of knowing that Marianne has the yellow jersey (signifying she is the leader). That means I'm doing my job. But I do want to be able to come home and say I did well too."

Because this is the first women's Tour de France, almost none of the riders' names -- including even those on the two French teams -- are very well-known to the cycling public. That often means that most of the crowd lining the road at the day's finish line are waiting for the men who will finish two hours later. And apart from a spate of articles to signal the Tour's beginning, the women's race has received very little space in the French press.

"I was a little surprised to see how little coverage we are getting," said Martin. "But just to put women in the Tour is a big step. Nobody knows who are the strong women. They have no one to identify with. Certainly the women's Tour will take some time to evolve."

Six teams are taking part this year, two from France and one each from the United States, Canada, Holland and Britain. The women race 991 kilometers compared to the men's 4,019, and get five days of rest instead of one.

They are competing for a more modest reward. The winner will earn 100,000 French francs ($11,700). The first-place male will receive almost fifteen times that. Nonetheless, the motivation in the women's camp is as strong or stronger as that in the men's.

"They are doubly motivated," Dr. Nicholet said. "They feel they have a flame to carry all around France. They want to win the race, but they are proud just to take part in the first tour."

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Marianne Martin: Remembering the magic of the 1984 women's Tour de France

Exclusive interview with trailblazers Marianne Martin and Patty Peoples, plus rarely-seen photos from John Pierce

Stage Results

The following exclusive feature includes a rarely-seen photo gallery from the 1984 Women's Tour de France by John Pierce, PhotoSport International UK.

1984 was a ground-breaking year for women's sports and a special celebration for Americans. Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first women's marathon and Connie Carpenter-Phinney won the first women's road race at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Marianne Martin secured the yellow jersey at the first women's Tour de France in the same summer.

More than three decades later, and as the women's peloton prepares for the highly-anticipated Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in July, Cyclingnews spoke with Martin and her former teammate Patty Peoples about their experiences as trailblazers in women's cycling. 

"I'm just so excited that they are bringing the race back. I want it to be fabulous. I want the press to be all over it. I want to see women get an opportunity to race that amazing event. To me, there is so much history there, and the Tour de France is what bike racing is about; it's part of the magic," Martin told Cyclingnews .

Marion Rousse: Leading a lasting Tour de France Femmes La Grande Boucle, La Course and the return of the women's Tour de France Marianne Martin inducted into US Bicycling Hall of Fame 37 years after women's Tour de France win

The men's Tour de France is rich in history, with its beginnings in 1903. A women's version found its roots much later, and under a different organisation, as a one-off multi-day race won by the Isle of Man's Millie Robinson in Normandy in 1955.

The Société du Tour de France, which later became part of ASO in 1992, hosted an official women's Tour de France, alongside the men's Grand Tour, from 1984 through 1989. Other versions of the event followed it: Tour Cycliste Féminin and the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale , all managed under different organizers.

Martin described what it was like to race 1,059km across 18 stages the year she won and revelled in having climbed over many of the iconic mountain passes in the Alps and the Pyrenees. She said the women's peloton followed the last 80km, or so, of the men's route, and they would finish two hours before the men at the same finish line.

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"We had a few more rest days and 18 stages held over 22 days. We did the last 60-80km of the men's race, so we didn't have huge mileage, but we had all the big climbs. The Tour de France is a climbing race, and its history is the drama in the Alps and the Pyrenees. I would love to see the big climbs added to the [Tour de France Femmes] in future because that's a big part of it," Martin said while also understanding the route limitations of an 8-day race compared to an 18-day race.

"Of course, I am so attached with how it was organized when we did it in 1984 because everything about it was completely fabulous."

"We knew we could do it"

Martin competed in the first women's Tour de France as part of a six-rider team that included Patty Peoples, Deborah Shumway, Betty Wise, Yolanda Goral and Betsy King. They competed against six other national teams: Netherlands, Great Britain, France A, France B, and Canada. 

"I didn't know a lot about racing, but I knew about the Tour de France. It was an unknown, and it had this magic to me. It wasn't just a one-day thing, but it would show the champion because there were so many days of racing. Anything can happen in one day, but nothing can happen in 18 days if you're not on your game."

Peoples recalled that upon arrival in France, much of the media surrounding the event published stories with headlines that questioned whether the women would be capable of completing all 18 stages, especially when they hit the mountains.

"When we first arrived, we weren't initially welcomed by the French papers. We were all excited, but in the papers, they were saying that the women shouldn't be doing the Tour; it was too difficult, too hard, and they predicted that not one woman would make it to the end," Peoples said.

"We felt that this notion of the race being too hard for us was crazy. We didn't fear it, and we knew we could do it well, and we were definitely going to finish it. 

"Our stages were parallel to the men's, but there were rules to have shorter distances, we were able to do the limit for women, but we did every stage, and more importantly, every mountain stage. When they cut our distances, it wasn't the mountains that were cut."

A big battle between the Netherlands and USA

The Dutch team won 15 of the 18 stages between Mieke Havik, Petra de Bruin, Heleen Hage, Connie Meijer and Hanneke Lieverse. After the first week, Canada's Kelly-Ann Way broke the Dutch winning streak by claiming the win on stage 8.

Martin's strength shone on the mountainous stage 12 into Grenoble where she netted the day's win and the overall race lead. She went on to also win the mountainous stage 14 into La Plagne.

"When I got over to France, I wanted to win the polka dot jersey, and I motored on the climbs, and when I got to the top of one of the climbs coming into Grenoble, I was 10 minutes ahead of everyone. I still had 50km to go, and I didn't think I could do it alone, so I wasn't killing myself. I thought that I would ride until they caught me - but no one caught me."

Asked what she remembers most about the mountain stages that year, Martin distinctly recalled the challenging climb up the Col de Joux Plane.

"You've had children, right? Was childbirth horrible? But you did it again, right?. So, I think it's kind of like that. I don't remember it being horrible, but maybe it was. I remember Joux Plane only because I looked up and saw that, and I will never forget that vision in my mind. I saw the climb, and I thought, 'no fucking way'. If I didn't have that experience, maybe I wouldn't have remembered."

Peoples recalled the day Martin took the leader's jersey and the fans who cheered for the US National Team along the sides of the roads. Many camped out overnight to catch a glimpse of the women's race and then the men's race that followed. She said even the press members began to show some enthusiasm in their reporting of the women's event.

"The only women who didn't finish the Tour de France were the same as the men; they were either sick or injured or crashed out. The fans loved it. The US team … when we became the leaders, fans were shouting 'Allez, Allez, Allez États-Unis,' and we wore our yellow caps to signify the winning team, and it was unbelievable. The crowds loved us, and the newspapers came around because we were proving them wrong."

On the roads into Paris on stage 18, Martin said it was not a parade but a full-blown race for the overall title between herself and Hage. Hage was positioned in second place overall and attacked several times. Martin had all but secured the title when they reached the final circuits. "I stayed right on her wheel so that she couldn't get off the front, and the Dutch riders were a strong team," Martin said.

A gift to Dad

Martin remembered the cheers coming from the side of the road while racing along the Champs-Élysées. They were from her father, James, who had flown into Paris to surprise her on the final stage.

"We did a bunch of miles and then came down the Champs-Élysées where I heard someone say 'go Marianne', and the next lap I saw my dad. I turned and said to Heleen Hage, 'that's my dad,' like she gave a shit," Martin said.

"I grew up in this little town. Everyone knew me as Dr. Martin's daughter. I couldn't get into any trouble because everyone knew me. After I won the Tour de France, we joked that now he was Marianne Martin's father. He surprised me and flew over there, and he took a week and travelled around France. He took my newspaper article clippings with him everywhere to show the people at the vineyards and said, 'moi papa,' and they would make a big fuss over him. It was a treasure to be able to give him that win."

Martin went down in the history books as the first woman to win the women's Tour de France. She won the race by 3:17 ahead of Hage and 11:51 ahead of her teammate Shumway. In addition, Martin also secured the polka dot mountains jersey, and the US National Team won the best overall team classification.

"They did all the women's podium first, then the men's podiums, and then at the end, they put Laurent Fignon and me up there together. It was surreal," Martin said.

Martin was inducted into US Bicycling Hall of Fame 37 years after winning the women's Tour de France. She accepted her induction at a ceremony on November 6, 2021, at the USA Cycling Headquarters in Colorado Springs.

"It feels like I've been getting more press in the last five years than I did right after winning. It's in my heart, and I'm very proud of that win, but it's a personal thing, and I'm proud of that accomplishment whether anyone else knows about it or not," Martin said.

Martin, now a professional photographer, told Cyclingnews ahead of her induction ceremony that her victory at the 1984 women's Tour de France was largely unknown to most people in her life outside of close family and friends. 

While she is honoured to have been inducted into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame, her accomplishment isn't something she speaks about very often.

"Half my friends don't even know that I was a cyclist. It's not something I carry out in front of me. It's not who I am; it's something that I did. That's how I feel about people, whatever their accolades are, that's not who they are, it's something they did, and it's more important to be a good person than doing something fabulous," Martin said.

"Just because I [won the Tour de France] doesn't mean that I have to shout it out. Some people ask, 'aren't you proud of it' or 'why don't you tell people?' It's not like it comes up in conversation with a new friend; you don't say, 'oh, by the way, I won the Tour de France'. I almost don't want people to know because that would be who I am to them, instead of just being me. It's a very exciting thing for me, and I'm very proud of it, but just because I don't go around shouting about it, doesn't mean that I'm not proud of it."

The women's professional peloton will, once again, compete for the prestigious yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift from July 24-31. The eight-day race will cover 1,029km beginning at Eiffel Tower and concluding with the summit finish of La Planche des Belles Filles.

Peoples hopes that the women who raced in the 1984 women's Tour de France will be remembered as the trailblazers that have paved the way for those who will be competing for the yellow jersey this July.

"The 1984 peloton - all of us - we were all pioneers. People thought we couldn't do it, but none of us felt that way. We all knew that we could do it. We were just there to race our bikes. I'm more excited now about being one of the first because when you're in it, it doesn't feel so historic or like you're making history," Peoples told Cyclingnews .

"Now, I look back and realize how important it was to be racing at the 1984 Tour de France. We won the yellow and polka-dot jerseys, placed first and third on the overall podium, and won the best team classification. It was an opportunity, and we took it and rose to the occasion."

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Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews , overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.

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Tour de France Féminin

Amateur, 2nd stage, 1st July 1985, France

Information.

2nd stage | 73.8 km

Vitré -> Fougères

H.Hage | Leader

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The Day LeMond and Roche Nearly Upended the 1985 Tour

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Stephen Roche, who turns 59 today, is an Irish cycling legend and one of only two riders to have won the sport’s fabled Triple Crown, winning the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the World Championship road race in 1987. In honor of his birthday, we present a scene from the 1985 Tour de France between Roche and American cycling legend Greg LeMond that proved decisive for both men in that classic contest. The following is adapted from The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France , by Daniel de Visé , published in June by Grove Atlantic.

Greg LeMond entered the 1985 Tour de France as an overpaid, overqualified lieutenant to Bernard Hinault, the Badger, hired with explicit orders to help the great Frenchman win a historic fifth Tour victory.

LeMond had finished third in his very first Tour, a year earlier. By 1985, many thought the upstart American more than capable of winning the Tour. But he had been hired to ride for Hinault, an arrangement that left LeMond’s American fans perplexed and outraged, though it seemed perfectly natural to cycling buffs in Europe. That was how professional cycling worked.

In hindsight, the 1985 Tour might well stand as the high water mark of the so-called Anglo-Saxon invasion, an era of unprecedented feats by cyclists from English-speaking nations in a sport that had been utterly dominated by France, Belgium and Italy. Irish sprinter Sean Kelly had won two stages in the 1980 Tour de France and had twice finished the Tour inside the top ten. Australian Phil Anderson had been the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey of Tour leader in 1981 and had logged four consecutive top-ten finishes between 1981 and 1984. Irishman Stephen Roche had ridden well in the 1983 and 1984 Tours and looked capable of outdueling both Kelly and Anderson one day. And when the 1985 Tour was over, English-speaking cyclists would occupy four of the top five places on the leader board.

For Hinault and his La Vie Claire team, the first two weeks of the 1985 Tour unfolded very much according to plan. Hinault seized the yellow jersey on Stage 8, a 75-kilometer time trial, completing the course more than two minutes faster than LeMond, Roche, Kelly or Anderson. Hinault gained another two minutes on Stage 11 in the Alps and more precious seconds on Stage 13 in a time trial. Hinault now led his closest rival, teammate LeMond, by more than five minutes.

The race approached the Pyrenees, and Vie Claire coach Paul Köchli finally let LeMond off the leash. Hinault’s lead looked insurmountable, and other men lay within a minute or two of LeMond’s second place. Köchli didn’t want the American to slip to third.

Colombian climber Luis Herrera attacked on Stage 14, on the day’s major climb. Behind him, LeMond launched a counterattack, joined by other cyclists who posed no threat to Hinault’s lead. The play worked brilliantly, bringing LeMond to the finish minutes ahead of the men in third and fourth place, firming La Vie Claire’s hold on the two top places on the podium. Behind him, Hinault played the role normally assigned to LeMond, blocking the other favorites from breaking free to catch the American. All worked to plan until four hundred meters from the line, when the Badger became ensnared in a suicidal mass sprint. The jostling brought one rider down, and then another, six men in all, hurtling to the pavement at fifty kilometers per hour. One of them was Hinault.

The m aillot jaune sat on a curb, stunned and bleeding, for several minutes; race rules dictated that he would not be penalized for a crash so close to the finish. Finally, he staggered to his feet, remounted his bicycle and pedaled limply to the line, blood dripping from his bowed head.

Hinault would blame the crash on Phil Anderson of the rival Panasonic team, LeMond’s closest friend in the peloton, whose body and bicycle had brought the Badger down; Hinault suspected Anderson had taken a spill to improve LeMond’s chances. Anderson blamed Steve Bauer, LeMond’s Canadian training partner (and another soldier in the Anglo-Saxon invasion), saying Bauer’s back wheel had slipped on a plastic reflector in the road.

The impact had driven Hinault’s Ray-Bans into his nose, breaking it. A pedal had clipped his head. Yet, after a visit to the hospital and a few stitches, the Badger looked no worse for wear. Television cameras pictured him cavorting with his young children later that day, images meant to relieve the French public and to intimidate his rivals.

“Any other racer would have abandoned,” recalled Maurice Le Guilloux, the assistant team director. “But against medical advice, and against everyone’s recommendations, Hinault was there the next morning.”

The injuries gradually took their toll. The broken nose forced Hinault to breathe through his mouth; this, in turn, brought on bronchitis. Hinault limped into the Tour’s seventeenth and most difficult stage: two hundred kilometers over a pair of climbs so steep they were rated hors catégoire , beyond categorization.

On the slope of the Tourmalet, the highest Pyrenean pass, Hinault began to falter. He was dropped by a group containing Roche, who stood in third place overall. LeMond was riding with Roche and, according to team etiquette, was permitted, even compelled, to follow him, provided he didn’t help Roche. Follow he did, and suddenly the time gap that separated LeMond from Hinault in the race standings began to dwindle.

This was before the era when cyclists wore earpieces for constant contact with their teams. From the moment he slipped ahead of Hinault, LeMond never knew precisely where his teammate sat on the road behind him. He knew nothing at all, in fact, until he and Roche approached the final ascent, up Luz Ardiden, and a passing television crew told LeMond that Hinault sat several minutes behind.

Roche turned to LeMond. “I’ll take the stage,” he proposed, “and you’ll take the yellow jersey.” [1]

For the first time in his life, LeMond stood poised to claim the lead in the Tour de France. He had started the day roughly three and a half minutes behind his team leader. Now he sat ahead of him. If he were allowed to attack, he might easily take the race lead. Of course, that triumph would come at the expense of Hinault.

LeMond’s team expected him to follow Roche to the finish, an unfortunate but necessary hedge, lest the Irishman ride away with the race. But he was not permitted to help Roche, to take turns setting the pace and blunting the wind as they crawled up the mountainside. If LeMond and Roche worked together, both men would reach the summit that much more quickly; but then Roche might end the day in second place, ahead of Hinault.

Shortly after LeMond’s exchange with the television crew about Hinault’s whereabouts, and the subsequent invitation from Roche, a Vie Claire team car rolled up behind them. LeMond drifted back for a talk with Maurice Le Guilloux. LeMond had two questions: “Where’s Hinault?” and “Can I ride with Roche?” [2]

Le Guilloux relayed LeMond’s queries by walkie-talkie to Köchli, who sat in another team car behind Hinault. Le Guilloux conveyed Köchli’s reply: “You can’t ride with Roche. Hinault’s coming up. You need to wait for him.” Köchli envisioned La Vie Claire claiming first and second places at the Tour; he would not risk aiding the interloper Roche.

Video footage did not betray the content of the conversation that followed, only that the perpetually sunny LeMond had finally lost his temper. He waved his arm angrily; he shouted at his coach; he wore a visage of righteous outrage. LeMond pressed Le Guilloux: Exactly how far back was Hinault? About forty-five seconds, Le Guilloux replied.

LeMond and Roche rode together; but in a tactical sense, they rode apart. Roche was setting the pace, slogging up the mountainside and into the wind, while LeMond rode beside him, matching his pace but never lifting it, never aiding him. Roche was conserving his strength, lest LeMond should launch his own attack.

The two men had ridden themselves into a stalemate. As LeMond awaited a resolution to his argument with his coaches, other riders loomed ever closer behind. Le Guilloux pressed Köchli: “Greg is telling me he wants to ride. He’s asking to ride.” LeMond wanted permission to go all out, to collaborate with the Irishman for joint victory or to break away and win the stage alone. Thus pressed, Köchli reluctantly relented: l’Am éricain could attack. “But you tell Greg, he attacks once, full gas, and drops Roche. And then he can go and win the Tour.”

It was ambiguous counsel from a coach trapped between competing priorities. His job—indeed his governing philosophy—was to seek victory for the team, not for any one cyclist. Yet this was a French team, and the French public demanded a fifth Tour victory for Hinault. Allowing LeMond to seize the race lead would serve the first agenda but not the second.

The element of surprise is key to any attack in a bicycle race. Alas, the man LeMond had been instructed to attack had heard the instruction, broadcast over a loudspeaker mounted inside the team car. LeMond made a few tentative jabs, accelerating away from Roche. The Irishman patiently reeled him back.

“Stop this,” Roche pleaded. “You can ride with me.”

Finally LeMond gave up, fell back, and let Roche set the pace. Roche limited his own efforts, still fearing LeMond might sprint away from him. Pedaling side by side, the two looked as if they were out on a recreational club ride.

Before long, a swifter group containing several race favorites came up to join them. To LeMond’s surprise, Hinault was not among them. Clearly the gap that had separated the two Vie Claire stars was greater than forty-five seconds. As LeMond and Roche bided their time, a Spaniard and two Colombians sprinted off up the slope. LeMond was not allowed to bridge the gap and join them, because it was Roche, not they, who posed a threat to Hinault.

LeMond finally rolled across the line with Roche and most of the other contenders, nearly three minutes behind the eventual stage winner, Pedro Delgado of Spain. A minute or so after that, Hinault rolled in, a wounded hero, breathing through clenched teeth. An indulgent Bernard Tapie, the flamboyant team owner, draped a jacket over the Badger’s shoulders. LeMond’s slowed pace had allowed Hinault to regain much of the lost time. LeMond now stood two minutes and twenty-five seconds behind in the standings.

Hinault had lost time, but LeMond had lost so much more. Had he been permitted to ride his own race that day, “Greg would have won the Tour, easily,” Le Guilloux conceded.

American television crews, covering Le Tour for the first time as legitimate news, awaited LeMond at the finish; they found him before his Vie Claire handlers could intervene.

“I had my chance to win today,” LeMond despaired. “My team stopped me.”

Later, a camera caught an anguished LeMond bickering with Köchli, his coach. “All I have to say is, if Hinault was in my place, he would not have waited,” LeMond said, as the cameras closed in. “That’s all I have to say.” Then, his frustration boiling over, he turned to an intruding reporter and cried, “Do you want me to punch you in the face? Get outta here.”

When the dust had cleared, a CBS television interviewer asked LeMond, “Still think you have a chance to win?”

A dejected LeMond replied, “It’s over now.”

Recalling that fateful day in the Pyrenees three decades later, Roche remains convinced he and LeMond could easily have changed the outcome of the 1985 Tour on the slopes of the Tourmalet.

“I believe that Greg was definitely the strongest in ’85,” Roche said. “If he had ridden with me, he could’ve won the Tour.”

With LeMond neutralized, Hinault would pedal to a relatively carefree victory at the 1985 Tour, despite a comparatively narrow margin of 102 seconds over the American. Roche would finish in third place, four and a half minutes back. Kelly would finish in fourth, more than six minutes behind Hinault. Anderson, the Australian, would claim fifth place.

The Badger had seized his historic fifth Tour victory. Yet, as Hinault stood on the podium in Paris, the future of professional cycling stood at his flanks. LeMond would win the Tour in 1986, Roche in 1987, fulfilling the promise of cycling’s Anglo-Saxon invasion.

[1] Roche recalled this exchange to journalist Samuel Abt.

[2 ] This scene is based on author interviews with LeMond, Roche, and LeGuilloux, and accounts by John Wilcockson in VeloNews and Richard Moore in his book Slaying the Badger .

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Tour de France féminin

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• Date: 22 July 1984
• Start time: -
• Avg. speed winner: 40 km/h
• Race category: WE - Women Elite
• Distance: 67.3 km
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