Tour de France — Exciting History!

Dramatic Soap Opera in the 1980s

Later, maybe in late 2010, this page will have more content, with a brief introduction and links to history pages.

1986 - http://www.torelli.com/owen/1986tdf.html

HINAULT -- http://www.answers.com/topic/bernard-hinault

1989: Delgado (winner in 1988) lost 2:40 before the Prologue began (all he had to do was show up), ...

Phil Liggett-isms: http://www.liggettfan.com/main.htm

the TdF in 2006 and The Mystery of Floyd Landis (who did and didn't do what?)

The table below shows relationships between three key riders (Hinault, Fignon, LeMond) plus two others.  Notice that Hinault was dominant early, then Fignon was king (with a 10:32 margin of victory in 1984) but he was injured from 1985 thru 1988, while Hinault and LeMond traded wins (literally?) in 1985-86, before Hinault retired and LeMond was shot with a shotgun, and 1989 was the closest race in TdF history, when Fignon (finally healthy again) entered the final day with a 50 second lead but lost the race to LeMond by only 8 seconds, maybe because he refused to wear a modern aerodynamic helmet, prefering to let his pony-tail flop in the wind!  In addition, there are fascinating stories about Pedro Delgado (in 1986-1988 and 1989 when many people thought that "all he had to do was show up" but he didn't show up on time for the prologue) and others.

 Bernard 
Hinault
 Laurent 
Fignon
Greg
 LeMond 
Pedro
 Delgado 
Miguel
 Indurain 
comments
 1977 
-
-
-
-
-
 
1978
WON
-
-
-
-
 
1979
WON
-
-
-
-
 
1980
 ( drop as #1 ) 
-
-
-
-
 
1981
WON
-
-
-
-
 
1982
WON
-
-
-
 
1983
 - knee -
WON
2 ( + 1:42 )
-
-
F won by  7:52
1984
2 ( + 10:32 )
WON
3 ( + 11:46 )
-
-
F won by 10:32
1985
WON
- knee -
2 ( + 1:42 )
-
-
 
1986
2 ( + 3:20 )
[injury/stress]
WON
-
 
1987
retired
7 ( + 18:24)
- shot -
2 (+ 0:40)
-
 
1988
-
[drop]
- recovering -
WON
-
 
1989
-
2 (+ 0:08)
WON
3 (+ 3:34 )
17 (+ 31:21)
1990
-
[drop]
WON
4 (+ 5:01)
10 (+ 12:47)
1991
-
6 (+ 11:27)
7 (+ 13:13)
9 (+ 20:10)
WON
1992
-
23 ( +41:51)
no finish
6 (+ 15:16)
WON
1993
-
-
-
9 (+ 23:57)
WON
1994
-
-
-
-
WON
1995
-
-
-
-
WON
1996
-
-
-
-
11 (+ 14:14)
 
1997
-
-
-
-
-
-

 
this page is http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/teach/tdf-1980s.htm