I love the days when the tour went on without race radio keeping riders within seconds of each other. There was more riding by gut, more cross-team, on-road alliances, and outcomes were more unpredictable to the audience.
I watched this ABC special over and over as a kid. Still have it on VHS; will digitize it when I go home the next time. Would love to ride these climbs someday.
RE: Handlebars I have a couple sets of Scott Drop-In bars. I got one set new but storage-worn from a bike shop on eBay for $15.00. Nice deep drops, the extensions are comfortable, BUT they flex a lot. The LeMond years were when I first got into cycling. Great moments to get started out with!
the most difficult to understand is why a year later Greg LeMond could no longer keep up with the peloton when he had just won the last two Tour de France
So true ,I remember it clearly, a golden era, when racing was still about racing and not slick management and marginal gains! Lemond always amazing, if ever there was someone who knew how to dig deep when climbing it looked like Lemond.
Out of all Lemonds Yellow Jerseys I think 1990 was his best. 10 minutes behind and a lot of the big names dropped out over the course of 3 weeks. Lemond persisted and passed up the Precocious Cup of Chia
10 min against well known quality riders (except no one knew Chiappucci would perform so well. His only real threat was possibly Breukink before this stage (and he might won given he was ahead of LeMond by the start of this stage, and stronger than LeMond in time trial (he won the time trial stage 20
I love the crouched labouring body movements, rinding in front for 50 kilometers, no helmets, mano-a-mano bravado of the 80's. All the things we now know are pure idiocy, yet somehow feel more emotional and 'sportlike'. It is ironic that in order to win, you should do exactly the opposite of what feels like "the true spirit of cycling" : be cold, calculated, sit as stiff on the bike as possible, wear as much earo stuff on you as is allowed and NEVER EVER ride in the front unless you are absolutely sure nobody will follow.
The main reason those guys were grinding huge gears compared to what is ridden today. You had to lay your body into it - if it pitched more than 10% on the road
7 hour stages in the Tour. Boy, it's a lot easier today. They should return to these longer race days then we'd see true mano a mano rivalries, no Sky trains. It would be slower but a far better race.
The next year...half the peleton was EPOed up. Lemond rode the same speed up all the same climbs. The same speed that put him at the top 85,86,89,90. Except in 91...he was getting DROPPED. Do the math.
EPO had nothing to do with Lemond's demise, that 91 tour he attack to much on the first week tour, he wasted too much energy and he came up tired to the mountains, the next year, he did the same mistake.
@@tab6496 I see the same as yours. But, also imo, lead poisoning started to really took toll on LeMond. Look at some riders he lost that year, Chiappucci and Bugno were suspected. Mottet, Leblanc (not yet), and Fignon were for the most parts, clean
@@tab6496, he didn't say the LeMond demise was due to EPO...but that it explained the ascendance of the riders LeMond had previously crushed, like Indurain, whose prior Tour performances hardly presaged his winning years.
only indurain can hang on to the greatest natural talent ever; lemond. Indurain: full of epo. Yes even in 1990 when very few were (capucinno was also). Lemond was the second biggest talent the sport has ever seen, only beaten by epo...
+nonfictionone then explain why delgado wasn't on epo in 1990 tour? he only got on later. indurain was a helper and they only doped him for that tour? yeah right
American -great talent, Spaniard -EPO. Lol, Indurain was a physiological monster, researched by exercise physiologists. Lemond was of course also a special specimen genetically.
Banesto alone gave this tour Lemond as a present. If Indurain would have trained, prepared the tour, to win, would be the easiest one of his cereer. Indurain el mejor ciclista de la historia con diferencia.
I don't think they mention Miguel indurain until a couple of hundred yards from the Finish. They make this the Greg lemond show despite the fact it into rain when's the next tours in a row. But to hear Lomond tell it he should have won every Tour de France since he was a child.
Clearly the sport was at a lower level then (just like any sport, really). His VAM and W/kg don’t compare to what we are seeing presently. Believe he rode up ADH slower than 45 mins
Top 35...no LeMond, no Hinault, no Indurain. Makes sense. Jesse Owens’ time not faster than Bolt’s. Doesn’t say anything how they compared to their peers, but sports is like anything else in life...faster, bigger,, better
Good god, don't shoot your half knowledge into youtube! Your sounds are mixed up. Kee-a-poo-chee. Also, it's got nothing to do with "hard", and if so, cc IS hard, namely as opposed to gi, which is soft.
