Anatomy of a Photo: Laurent Fignon, 1989 Tour de France

I know the feeling, Laurent. Sometimes I just want to give the cross winds a big, “Fuck You”, too.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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Alex says:

Aug 11 2011 at 4:02 am

Fignon was awesome, full stop.
Classics, Grand Tours, bold attacks and panache! Even though he lost the tour in '89 he still finished like 3rd on the stage and rode 50km/h.

@sisyphus969
Dr C says:

Aug 11 2011 at 8:03 am

@Alex

@Dr Cfair point, that was a ridiculous bridge up, but they had covered his moves each time before, perhaps that last one was the bridge too far or not motivated to chase for 4th?

probably an everyday activity during the fab 70's and 80's, but I haven't seen someone handing out such a heavyweight beating so repeatedly with his attacks, as Faboo did that day - especially the bit where he tried to use the camera bike as a chicane and nearly crashed into it himself - still makes me tingle when I watch it (firmly in my Keep selection on Sky+, and Dave Harmon's commentary was epic on Eurosport) - Thor, and Ballan too, were mighty for hanging on as long as they did, by which stage it was too late and JVS was gone - awesome stuff, race of the year