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.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Veloforma/”/]
[vsp_results id=”24179″/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@all
With the greatest respect to the rest of you knuckleheads, I'm getting really, really fucking bored reading the constant stream of doping suspicions based on innuendo or plain dislike of a particular rider, his team or nationality. Beyond that, I understand that various of you don't like Valverde, and fair enough too based on his past actions. Lots of schaudenfreude going on, i guess. Public floggings next?
@ChrisO absolutely have to take a pinch of "Strava Salt" with the accuracy, but it's the same for everyone, I like following him he named his upload - "thanks to all my team mates" , brilliant Tour so far for both the Belkin Boys.
This is LTD training on Ventoux in May, will be interesting to see his race numbers in comparison.
http://app.strava.com/activities/51906822
He didn't ride , sorry , race 220km first!
But they called I a rest day.
@ChrisO
I just looked at the file and it says Power is estimated, not real data. Seems like Strava (which is usually in the ballpark for me) has some estimation problems at the extremes. Maybe the fact that he was in a peloton isn't taken into account? Anyway, cool to see real info from the Tour and Ten Dam seems like a cool guy judging by his ride titles.
Plenty of talk in this community on this topic, time for action.
https://www.change.org/petitions/aso-amaury-sports-organization-allow-female-professional-cycling-teams-to-race-the-tour-de-france#share
and yes I did.
I think yesterday's stage and the reactions to it show a lot about how different racing is compared to the past. Everyone is shocked that a GC contender would put in such a risky move instead of a largely more defensive riding into the mountains. The climbs seem to be the only place anything happens, because you can't really follow numbers but have to think and pace much differently. All the other teams were saying things along the lines of "We weren't expecting it." Well jeez, something unexpected in a race? Better just pull out, already planned the whole Tour and that just messes it up. Apparently this was a spur of the moment decision by Saxo, without having the DS feed them their parts. Combined with Contador's solo last year in the Vuelta it shows a really complacent mindset within the peloton. "How could this succeed? Just let it go." Seems like tactics have taken a backseat to numbers in many respects.
@DerHoggz
I agree with everything you've just said.
my sense is that the drug years effectively strangled the racing in the tour for the past 10 years. Everyone's expectations changed to believe that the only place to make time was in the mountains. The most exciting thing about yesterday's stage was how that paradigm was shattered.
Full marks to Bertie and Michael Rogers for ballsy tactically astute racing for GC and double full marks for Belkin for driving the echelon with OPQS and triple full marks for Terpstra, and Chava for a tactical master class to set up Cavendish for the sprint.
Also, just watched the highlights of the last 5kms. There was a great moment where two Belkin riders in the second echelon shared a fist bump In the last 2km.
I can imagine the satisfaction they would have felt about really fucking putting the hurt on everyone for the past two hours aside from realising the huge gains for their GC guys.
This is shaping up to be a fucking ace weekend for me:
Today - BBQ / Drinks / Tour Stage / Drinks / The Rolling Stones live in Hyde Park / Drinks
Tomorrow - Hangover / Sofa / Ventoux on Bastille Day (Drinks)
@mouse
That was pure awesome. Even with the loss of Valverde as a contandor, that was an awesome stage!
"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."
We have also been running a Tour long special on BH Bikes & Santini accessories with daily specials based on the daily stage winner's sponsors - the ones we stock of course. Can be followed on our FB page. This week has been a mad house in the shop (yes!) with a gran fondo going this weekend, a stage race up the road in Canmore, and a few of those ruined bike rides (Rule 42) going on too. A big shout out to the many V from around the world that follow our little enterprise through FB and here!
Ventoux!
@Dan_R so that discount, would it even cover the postage out here to Aus?