Unforgettable Rides: 1986 l’Alpe d’Huez
We tend to look at cycling through rose-tinted glasses; cycling-specific ones that not only give us a cheery outlook on the past, but ones that conveniently hold big black bars over the bits we prefer not to remember as they were because they don’t fit into the picture we’ve formed in our minds. One of the most interesting things about a community like Velominati is all the different viewpoints that come together regarding events past that help remind us of something approaching reality, built from an aggregation international of views. Perhaps even more interesting is how this experience also brings into sharp relief the evolution of the “facts” as we each have seen them at different points in our lives.
A prime example is of the discussion earlier this week regarding the Lenault battle in 1986. The American view predominantly held was that LeMond was short-changed by Hinault, while the Europeans (or at least the French) could see no reason Hinault should acquiesce the Tour should he be in a position to win it. Certainly not from an American. The Aussies, of course, feel Phil Anderson or, barring that, Phil Ligget or someone else named Phil – regardless of nationality – should have won it, and the Kiwis are no doubt still busy looking for a Tour contender who doesn’t ride a bike. At the time, I hated Hinault and characterized him as a cheating douchenozzle; these days, I regard him as one of the greatest examples of a complete rider and a model of what riders today should aspire to be.
The truth is, of course, somewhere in the middle and after we boil the ocean of the ’86 Tour, we’re left with two great riders on one team who were so closely matched they each could have won that year. But the promises made the year before and the reality of the race situation on the road were like water and oil, and by the time the race reached l’Alpe d’Huez, the team, the fans, and the countries had polarized towards one end or the other, each choosing the side that matched most closely the version of the facts that helped them feel more at ease with their loyalties.
As controversies have a tendency to, they overshadow one of the most unique rides to the top of l’Alpe d’Huez in the history of the great climb. In my memory, Hinault attacked on the descent from either the Col de la Croix de Fer or the Glandon. (Maybe he attacked at the base, as WikiPedia suggests, but I don’t remember it that way.) Only LeMond had an answer, and the teammates escaped together to ride the mythical 21 hairpins together. I can’t think of another time when two G.C. riders – let alone two teammates – outclassed everyone else in the race up this climb.
Up and up they rode together – the Badger in his distinct style and LeMan in his – with only their pain, their massive gears, their rocking shoulders, and their resentment for each other as company. Hand-in-hand they crossed the finish line as happy team mates, LeMond gifting the stage to his patron in the end. But beneath the surface boiled a fearsome rivalry and within minutes Hinault and LeMond’s dashing alter-ego, LeMelvis, traded blows in the press. And with that, the great ride was almost immediately eclipsed by polemics.
In the end, LeMond overcame a tampered-with TT bike to win the Tour and Hinault retired as arguably the most successful Tour de France rider at the time. The record is set but the facts become more malleable with time. The rest we see with our rose-tinted glasses.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oIkVNykuuE[/youtube]
Once again His Frankness has bestowed us with insights reserved only for those enlightened few that have been plowed into by a pro rider on the slopes of a French mountain.
Nice piece.
And what is this tampered with TT bike that you speak of?
Fine write up, Frank!
The first pro cycling I remember watching was the 1989 TdF, carried by ESPN, way back when they televised more than the NFL and stories about the NFL. I watched it that summer after mornings at sports camps. I wasn’t a road cyclist at all, but there was something special about the racers that I can still feel and recall.
Didn’t watch the ’86 edition live, but I’ve done my best to watch as many of these old videos as possible.
Absolutely KILLED me when he let Hinault win that stage!!! And then Hinault spoke about attacking again after the stage. I come from a place, and daily live that place with my fellow SF soldiers, that a promise spoken is a given. I still get ALL fired up when I remember this stage and that whole tdf (not to mention the ’85 edition) when Hinault completely backed out of his promise to help LeMan win for letting Hinalt win the year before. Nothing is more important to me than personal integrity and one’s own honor. Hinault sacrificed both to try to feed his own massive ego and in the process, not only lost the ’86 tour, but a lot of what his legacy would be today.
How’s that for an American opinion! :)
I think had Le Blaireau won this edition he would have held a new record for TdF wins. Being French and Hinault, it’s hard to blame him for his competitiveness. He and Lance have things in common; their utter disgust at losing foremost. It’s not unlike Roche and Roberto Visentini in the Giro, two teammates fighting it out for the win. I was rooting for Roche, every Italian was not.
The lead photo says a lot. The young buck marking the older leader, biding his time, waiting to pounce, staying back on his quarter, it’s a great shot.
@Gianni
Yeah, it would have been his 6th tdf title, the first to do that. Still not an excuse, in my mind, to scarfice one’s integrity and honor.
@Buck Rogers
I hear ya and I agree but Hinault was the King and what the King promised last season is hard to swallow when the Tour is on the line this year.
Promises unkept, like a friend of mine said on the subject of off-season “romance” on Martha’s Vineyard island, which is a real empty place in January. “Winter can get you into things that Spring can’t get you out of”
@Gianni
Yeah, I hear ya and totally respect you but that is where the chance for greatness in character lies and he missed it.
I’ve also got to call bullshit on your friend’s “Winter” quote. There’s no wiggle room with promises, no matter how you try to jusitify it, at least in my opinion.
Nothing personal, though. Good discussion!
Frank, your first impression on him was the right one, in my opinion.
I’m with Buck Rogers on this.
We need the photo of them kicking back in their track suits & Diadoras…
The only person who actually thought LeMond’s TT bike was tampered with was LeMond. And Hinault always maintains that he did keep his promise to LeMond, but that he wasn’t going to gift a Tour to anyone who didn’t deserve it. The final result tends to back him up, and shows that his honour and integrity remained intact.
@Oli
Paaahhhhlleease, Oli. And Lance never doped either. :) (said in a sarcastic, but respectful, voice that is hard to communicate over the net)
In fact, that is one of the lamest parts about the whole thing in my opinion: That after he pulled those stunts he thought up that bullshit excuse to try to make it look like it was honorable. Loses even more points with that one. I had forgooten about that. Unbelieveable.
@Oli
@Buck Rogers
Oli, I reckon only Hinault felt he kept that promise, most everyone else thought him a dick.
Buck, I’m not defending him but I can see how this happens with egos like his involved.
We need a French perspective…Alpin?
@Gianni
I’m sure that a French opinion would be to relax, drink a little more vin, maybe watch a Renoir or Cocteau film and then go for a ride. Man I love the French!!!
@Gianni, @Buck Rogers, @Pedale.Forchetta
I’m with Buck on this one as well – especially in regards to the revelation of character, even though Gianni’s “Winter can make you fuck people you can’t unfuck in Spring” quote, which is absolute gold.
I’m just happy for Greg that he won the Tour outright, and didn’t have a Schleckanical – the Chaindrop attack (oh no, not that again!) by the Bertie was a similarly classless move from my view, and it’s a shame that Andy couldn’t just win the Tour despite the mishap and put the issue to bed. But the fact the LeMond won despite the infighting and broken promises is a major good on him.
@Oli
I’ll go with you on that one, but over here on the right side of the planet, we all take Greg’s word for granted. And that’s almost the same as it being true.
That’s what he’s always said, but I think the classic interpretation of helping someone win the Tour doesn’t involve the person “helping” attacking and proving that the helpee is the honorary victor. It’s a gray area at best, and – to Buck’s point – I personally believe there’s not a lot of gray area in a promise like that.
It’s kind of like a husband and wife promising each other to start saving and then having one of them buy a whole bunch of cycling gear and saying that those purchases were an investment in trying to save. Not that I’m speaking from experience here. STRICTLY HYPOTHETICAL.
Gianni’s thoughts, modified by Frank: “Winter can make you fuck people you can’t unfuck in Spring”
Hmm, spring is always the most taxing part of the year on me…warmer weather, more skin, females working on tans for the coming summer…It’s sheer torture.
Anyway, wasn’t I supposed to be talking about cycling?
@frank
God DAMN, Frank, you are trying to fire me up today, aren’t you?!?!?! :)
@frank
“respect”, to quote Sasha Baron Cohen when he was playing that idiot English rapper
@frank
Next you’ll be telling me that Merckx was the picture of class when he stated that a lesser man had broken the hour record!
Why did Hinault attack on the way to Superbagneres? He already had the yellow jersey and it was hardly his style to make colossal fuck ups like that.
“As long as I breathe, I attack.” – Bernard Hinault
(pass the popcorn please)
R E S T E C … P I believe is the exact quote from Ali G.
He said that, but still he wasn’t renowned for futile attacks (1984 Alpe d’Huez notwithstanding)…
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle of Hinault’s hubris and LeMond’s paranoia.
@Oli
I feel like I read something like that somewhere…OH. RIGHT.
Joking aside, that’s what’s so cool about the different nationalities…everyone has another view.
The climb up l’Alpe in ’84…what a day…Have any of you read Robert Millar’s account in Rouleur? Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic.
@Oli
In seriousness, though, his attack in ’84 was, I think, part arrogant determination and part hail-mary to overthrow Fignon. I think it was the same up Awesomebagneres. My favorite climb ever, by the way.
But I said it better. :p
I have nothing but respect for LeMan the younger. However (and this is a bit OT), isn’t LeMond the current kinda akin to Vegas Elvis? Has this been discussed before, and I can be pointed to that thread? Or have I just committed blasphemy (like highjacking centuries)?
OK Frank – you asked for Phil Anderson (very obliquely, but you did), you get him (once again). Excerpt from an article written by Rupert Guiness about Anderson’s duel with Hinault in the ’81 Tour. Bolding mine – and you need to imagine Phil’s quotes in your best ‘Strine accent:
It was even worse when Anderson just sat on his wheel – still hoping for news of Bernaudeau (his teammate) who had been long dropped – until Peugeot directeur-sportif Maurice De Muer told him he could work ‘a bit’ at the front.
“It was just as well, as Hinault was going off his block,” said Anderson, who had four other riders with him in the front group: Van Impe, Belgian Claude Criquelion, and the Spanish pair of Marino Lejarreta and Alberto Fernandez. Without knowing it, Anderson was to earn even greater wrath from Hinault by naively offering him a swill from his bidon (drink bottle). The Frenchman, taking the gesture as an insult, promptly swiped it from Anderson’s hand.
“I didn’t even know who Hinault was. I couldn’t even pronounce his name. But I was there with him and when I gave him my bidon. I was only trying to be sportsmanlike. I figured something was really up when he hit it away. I suppose I should have been intimidated by it all, but I wasn’t. Heck, I was Australian and couldn’t even spell Hinault, let alone know who he was,” says Anderson.
Still our coolest Australian cyclist. Phil can often be seen riding around Melbourne. And often you might pass him – rest assured he still looks in super shape (still races MTBs) and could rip your legs off. But he doesn’t. So fellas think about that next time you think you are “handing out the V” to some stranger you pass on the road. Odds are he probably doesn’t give a fuck about you…
Uncanny.
I watched this last night whilst avoiding study.
Hinault’s logic of “I was helping” makes sense subjectively. As the caption on youtube for the video above states (rough guesswork with the french, sorry Alpin): Zimmerman, 5 minutes back, everyone else, heaps more. From Hinault’s point of view, he went and blew up the tour for Greg, laying waste to any GC pretenders. Now should LeMond be unable to take advantage of this assistance, that was hardly his problem, no? Regardless of the sulkfest to follow, that euphoric gesture as they crossed the line seems more genuine than any recent Schleck-Contador mutual appreciation image development. Huge stage, huge tour.
Oh yeah – to my mind the above footage shows a super rider pacing LeMond all the way to the top. If LeMond didn’t gift him the stage, it would have been very bad form indeed.
Imagine Sherwen commentating,
“And look, all who remain are the two undisputed heads of state. The venerable French king doing all the work for his young protege, blah blah.
Hinault was definitely playing the team man in that stage.
Love the gears they were pushing and the rocking shoulders – wonder whether today’s more stable upper bodies relate more to smaller gears, lighter bikes or improved core strength (pretty sure le Blaireau wouldn’t have been found doing planks in his hotel room after stages…).
Pardon the shift of the topic of the thread to a different tour, but could someone lend some historical perspective to the stage that, at least to Lemond’s recollection, was the source of Hinault’s promise to ride for him in 1986 – stage 17 from Toulouse to Luz-Ardiden the previous year.
Lemond claims conspiracy between team owner and coach (Kochli). Kochli claims otherwise saying he gave the “thumbs up” to an attack from Lemond. However this message may have been lost in translation through Hinault confidant Le Guilloux in the team car.
The 1985 tour was a year before cycling started to penetrate my consciousness, so all I have are retellings.
Regards.
Great history lesson, thanks for the discussion folks.
@Mike S
I think from memory the reasoning was that if LeMond had persisted in his attack he would have put Stephen Roche into a close 2nd place, and made him a much more dangerous threat for the Maillot Jaune.
Despite Greg’s innate belief in his abilities, the classy Roche was running red hot that year – even though LeMond most likely could have beaten him there was no guarantee yet that he would, at least in Koechli’s eyes.
As it turned out Roche finished in third behind Hinault and LeMond.
@mcsqueak
Agreed. Its the history that keeps me coming back. I am still very new to the sport.
@Buck Rogers
Hey Buck,so you’re a door-kicker, eh? Well back in my day with the thump in my hands at the doorway…winning was what counts. Yeah,don’t get me wrong integrity to your word is vital, but this is bike racing not polly-anna’s tea party.
@Buck Rogers
excuse my ignorance, what is an SF soldier, special forces? If so mucho respecto. Our Aussie soldiers, esp the special forces equivalent, have had a really shit run over the last month…
*thumper*
Where was I???
And the Badger did what it took to win, kinda like a gunfight, don’t bring a knife, bring friends with more guns. Did Boston score again…
And Frank, respectfully, in the words of Carlos Sastre,”don’t talk to me about no chain…”
@Buck
Just knockin’ the piss eh
@Dan_R
Good stuff, Brother! I am actually a surgeon for 5th group out of Campbell (2/5th SFG(A) with 2 trips to OIF) and was with 3rd Group for a while in Afghan in ’06. Yeah, the team guys let me into the stack once in a while but mostly have me hang out in the Alpha’s vehicle in case they catch something on target.
As for “And the Badger did what it took to win, kinda like a gunfight, don’t bring a knife, bring friends with more guns” the best quote I have learned yet from my days running with the ODA’s is that “If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, you’ve done something wrong.” I think the Badger would agree with that quote! :)
As for Aussie SF, I worked with those dudes in Afghan in Tarin Kaut in late summer ’06. Fuckin hardcore and totally crazy. I LOVE those guys!!!
When it comes down to it, I realize it is not a firefight but the whole integrity thing always gets me. I had such trouble in SERE school at McCall b/c I could not lie for shit. Now I am not a saint by any means, but I just have a thing about promises and lying.
Great discussion, even with all the crazy sidebars!
@Marcus
Yes Marcus, SF is Special Forces. As I said above, I love the Aussies. I also climbed with an Aussie in the Himalaya in the spring of 2000. Absolutely batshit crazy guy by the name of Sammy. Crazy-ass dude but also such an awesome guy. Met him in Lukla and we climbed a few 6,000 meter peaks together. Man, Aussies rock!
@Dan_R
And Yes, being from Vermont and my wife from Boston, GO BRUINS!!!
@scaler911
See the Lexicon entry for LeMelvis.
@frank
Pretty amazing how he came up with that on his own, eh? Guy definitely belongs here!
I was lucky. In 1986 I lived in Connecticut. I rode everyday (’cause I was too young to have a job or responsibilities). And I had a neighbor who introduced me to Euro style racing.
I watched CBS’s John Tesh infused coverage and salivated. I bought a subscription to Winning. It was awesome. That Tour made me love cycling.
@Buck Rogers
Thanks,
I have been thru the Lexicon, but musta missed that. I need to study harder……….
What I love about this place is that I don’t have to go on some diatribe every time I want to talk about cycling (history) at the workplace. When ‘the guys’ want to wax poetic about baseball (a la Billy Crystal), I wanna choke em with the bandana with the trail map of my town that I won ’cause “I’m a biker”. Christ.
Great article Frank!
I have just travelled back in time 20 years from your future. Behold! The Schleck/Contador rivalry from arguably the greatest tour in living memory, 2010, has been given the full works by Velooominati head honcho “Son of Frank”. What a joyous read. Should Bertie have waited? Was Frandy’s bike tampered with? Is eating really cheating (Bertie I’m looking at you)? Did Frandy take his hate filled heart and place it in a heart shaped box, never to reach the giddy podium heights again? I cannot reveal, oh peasant beings of 2011, for this much is true – at least 2 (preferably 3) decades must pass before the truth gets revealed. Goodbye pitiful beings from the past and remember – you don’t mess with the Zolance!!!
@Buck
I hear ya dude! And a doc, hey I think my EPO levels are low, can you set me up with a script…
Friggen classless Canuck fans…sorry, I am not a fan of them, they booed our national team in 1972 and I have never forgiven that city…
Oh yeah Frank, you sure write pretty….
Le clip de velo est tres bon, et le comments des Greg LeMan apres l’etape son quite the fucking thing, eh nes pas?!?
J’ai besoin de practicer mon francais, donc continuer de poster les clips en francais Francois!
Fetcher la vasche! Quoi? Get the cow!
Quick question for those with much more knowledge than I:
Seems I remember El Diablo in maybe the ’92 Tour riding up Sestrieres with big Mig on his heels, and a rabid fan crashed him. As I recall, the fan tried to help him up and Claudio popped the man in his face with his front tire. Did I kill too many brain cells from anoxia from being anaerobic over the years, or the facts wrong? Goggle isn’t helping on this one……….