The early eighties saw the tide change in the European Peloton. Components were taking on a new, curvy shape as they left their boxy forms behind. The glint of toe clips in the sun would become a rarer sight as the move towards clipless pedals would take hold in 1985. English speakers were winning the big races classically won by continental Pros.
The 1984 Tour could be my favorite edition of the race. In 1983, the rookie Laurent Fignon had won in the absence of Le Patron, Bernard Hinault. The 1984 race saw the two go head-to-head, with Fignon becoming the one and only person in history to have laughed at Hinault and lived. He did more than live, he won. The new guard was here, and they were making their presence known.
This photo is from the stage to l’Alpe d’Huez. LeMond was riding in support of Fignon, and Robert Millar, in his second Tour, was leading the King of the Mountains competition, which he would eventually win. Millar wrote an account of this stage in Issue 13 of Rouleur, which everyone should make an effort to find a copy of. He describes the attacks that come fast and furious on the penultimate climb in such vivid detail, it makes my guns ache. But worse than that is his and LeMonds effort to hold on to Fignon and Hinault’s wheels in the ride through the valley to Le Bourg d’Oisans and the base of the final climb. It is the perfect description of the suffering of the Cyclist. LeMond, in service to his leader, is on the front one moment as he reels Hinault in after an attack, before being cast into the gutter and the back wheel a moment later when the next attack comes.
Just as 1984 was a watershed moment in the Pro peloton, 2013 is a watershed year for the VSP. This year we are offering five amazing prizes from five amazing partners.
Prizes
First prize is a Veloforma Strada iR road frame, painted in an exclusive Velominati color scheme with the newly-designed Velominati Super Prestige logo. Please note that this is a brand-spankin’ new frame for Veloforma. The geometry can be reviewed here.
Second prize is a pair of Café Roubaix carbon tubular wheels. The winner of this prize will be given the choice between the sub-1000g Haleakala wheels or a road version of my beloved Arenberg wheelset. As an additional incentive, anyone who enters their picks in the Tour VSP will get a $200 discount on any wheelset at Café Roubaix.
Third prize is a pair of Bont cycling shoes. The winner of this prize will be assisted in selecting the size, color, and model of shoe.
Fourth prize is a Flandrian Best kit from DeFeet consisting of a wool U-D-Shirt, Arm Skins, Kneekers, Slipstreams, and a pair of V-Socks.
Fifth prize is a wool jersey from our Keepers Tour tour partners, Pavé Cycling Classics.
Many thanks to each of our sponsors for providing such exciting prizes.
Rules
Enter your picks for the top five riders on G.C. by the time the countdown clock goes to zero; Grand Tour scoring rules apply. Check the mapping of your picks by the end of Stage 1 and use the dispute system should it be mapped incorrectly.
We will be enforcing Piti Principle rules much more closely. We will be accepting pick disputes through the start of Stage 2. After that, it will be at The Keepers’ discretion as to whether or not we allow the dispute. If your pick is ambiguous and we map them to the wrong rider, make sure you check your disputes before the deadline; we may reject the dispute after that time. For example, should both Tony and Dan Martin take the start and you enter “Martin” as your pick, we will pick one for you and you will have to live with it if you forget to dispute it before the deadline.
Good luck, and Merckxspeed.
Update: This is the same paint scheme that the winner will have, except the VSP Winner’s Badge will be replacing the V-Lion.
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View Comments
Froome has come along way since getting towed uphill in the Giro. Sky done good.
Fucking hell. Guilt by dodgy numbers? There isn't this much speculation when other riders target stages and win, like Gerrans or Kittel? At 86 Kilos Kittel should be out the back on any stage that isn't dead flat, so he must be on the juice to keep up. Ridiculous isn't it. I have no doubt that Sky are prepared to within the letter of the law, with a range of supplements that we can only dream of that are nonetheless legal, but they're available to other teams as well. I had more hope for humankind before Bretto posted that fucking Bicycling article and a bunch of you lost your critical facilities and forgot that Bicycling Magazine is more commonly referred to as toilet paper than a reliable publication.
I for one think Froome's doing a fantastic job. Lets not forget last year Wiggins had Froome and Rogers dragging him uphill, in a race where TTs were more critical to the overall than the monster climbs in this race. Froome doesn't have an assistant as capable as he was for Wiggins, and Rogers is sticking the knife in from the other side of the fence, so he's got to do more of the serious climbing unsupported. He's kept his powder dry and attacked his competitors on key stages before rest days which from a recovery point of view is sensible, and has lost teammates hand over fist. He's remained patient and calm under pressure and polite with the media, but made the same points Wiggins made last year (just using different figures of speech.) If all you pack of rugged individualists can see is someone on the juice you're missing some great aspects of the race.
He does look like a smashed crab humping a radiator though. Doesn't have to be pretty, just has to be fast.
@minion
How did you get demoted to a 4?
@DerHoggz
I think he had a number of previous posts vacated after testing positive for personality-enhancing drugs...
@ten B
Ouch, sorry @minion, you'd have had a +1 nomination for your last line if it weren't for @ten B's comment above!
In regards to the suspicions, everyone bitched & moaned that no one was willing to question COTHO when he & his team were setting a prohibitively high pace at the bottom of climbs before he broke clear from all of his competitors spinning away at 150 bpm.
Given what we saw on Ventoux last night, the saying 'once bitten, twice shy' comes to mind.
I thought that Froome could have just blown past Quintana when he caught him. I assume that he and Quintana agreed to cooperate (and post-stage interviews point in that direction), but I think that Froome's acceleration that droped Nairo was a low blow. It seems unworthy of the leader to mash on the pedals after they've been paced for 5+ minutes by a person they agreed to work with.
I think that the tour hs Froome's to loose now, I'd just like to see him win in the best way possible.
@minion
Yeah, it's awesome having people shitting all over what's been a pretty interesting race thus far... Conversation goes roughly like this;
"Wow, that was an amazing stage in the wind..."
"Dopers"
"Fantastic climbing stage..."
"Dopers"
"Sky..."
"Fucking Dopers"
"Froome"
"What's he on?..."
"Cool bikes"
Riden by dopers.
Etc, etc.
I get that you've all been burned by Armstrong, Pantani, Der Kaiser. Hell, even Merckx doped, though you wouldn't hear a fucking peep out of anyone here about that.
Yeah it's a free country/interweb thingy and people should be free to say whatever they like, but like I said before, it's getting real fucking boring.
Unless you can come up with some real evidence that something funny is going on, perhaps we should sit back and actually enjoy the racing?
Nah, fuck that. Too hard. Much more interesting believing that we get the zeitgeist so we can imagine a future where we can say " I told you man"...
@minion
@mouse
Its just like going to a Bangkok bar. The girls look fucking hot and they are enjoyable to look at. Beyond that, just dont think about it too much.
Here's an interesting tibbit.
Adam Hansen finished yesterday's stage in Position 37, 13 seconds and 2 places better than Andy Schleck!
@mouse did anyone see what happened to Andy? The only footage SBS showed was coming back from a break & it was as if the fans were pushing him to get started after he'd come off the bike...