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

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• @Steampunk
  Attempt started and then possibly abandoned? Just call it reconnaissance and try again when the wind is more favorable. Yeah, yeah. Reconnaissance.

• @Marcus

  @michael

  I like to be the first loser sometimes too.

  Hmmm, Michael, aren't you the same fella who gets altitude training benefits by virtue of your stack height? And now you are dissing a two-time Tour winner?
  Some respect would be nice!

  BAM!!!

• @Steampunk
  In other news, Chiappuicci loses his pedals! Claveyrolat waits for his hour.

  Also digging the Casio wristwatch.

• @Chris O: Absolutely, plus I tell (the few) tri friends I have to see a psychiatrist so they can figure out who the REALLY are. I mean seriously, who are triathletes?? if they took the bike out of tri's...what would they do, would it change them, would they go on, comply? would they quit in a mad revolt?? would they ride scooters? how about substituting a round of tennis? or if they took running out...or take out swimming...what would that do, would it change them?? Just HTFU and put on a little more Rule V please, get over the tri-personality.

  I mean look at Fignon, he didn't give a rats ass about weight, heck, his freaking 56t chain ring weighs in a healthy amount. Screw it, its the prom and he is gonna dance.

  And look at that frame, artisan made, drawn steel by the boys at Pinarello. Drawn down so low w/the right angles into that headtube so he can find the V-Locus and outrun the man with the hammer. So so sweet.

  We need more attitudes that just say 'screw it', I'm riding it and I'm riding it faster than you, I will do more homework and put more saddle time in and over come

• I just went to Wikipedia to read about Laurent - very interesting that he lost that tour by 8 seconds. Thanks for prompting the history lesson.

  @Souleur

  If they got rid of cycling there would certainly be a reduction in swim/bike transition area crashes...

• Did Pinarello make those funny bikes for Raleigh? Man, what I'd give for one with the double discs. Anyhow, here's an old TT frame from that era that's in the project queue. The geometry makes me wince every time I look at it. :)

• The video is awesome. Every time I see this, I wonder if LeMan can pull it off again.

  Despite losing, he still landed 3rd overall in the TT; LeMond set the fastest-ever non-Prologue average speed, but were it not for LeMond and Marie (who got second), Fignon's average would have also set a new record. These guys laid down some SERIOUS V.

• You guys are real touchy for saying that someone got second place.

• @Souleur

  And look at that frame, artisan made, drawn steel by the boys at Pinarello. Drawn down so low w/the right angles into that headtube so he can find the V-Locus and outrun the man with the hammer. So so sweet.

  Were those Raleighs built by Pinarello? Surprising. If that's the case, he could easily be riding a Pegoretti.

  Reading Obree's book recently, I finally understood how they made those carbon frames back in those days. They'd build a steel frame, grind it down a bit, and layer carbon over it. In addition to saying, "Fuck you, crosswinds", they were also saying, "Fuck you, weight weenies."

  I loved that about that era; it was the golden age for componentry. I wrote about it before, but right after they learned to really forge some beautiful stuff, but before they started to care too much about weight, Campa, Mavic, and Shimano really put out some stunning groups.

• @Marcus
  @Cyclops

  I challenge you to get hit by a pickup truck break your back in 3 places and be riding your trainer with a 9.5 cm bar drop 9 weeks later.

  HTFU, he got second.