Forgotten Yellow: Greg Lemond and the 1990 Tour de France
Thirty years ago this month, Greg Lemond won his third Tour de France and in doing so joined an exclusive club alongside Philippe Thys, Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault. Yet the 1990 edition passes almost unnoticed in the shadow of those famous 8 seconds the previous year and the stress of Lemond’s debut victory in 1986.
In other circumstances the 1990 Tour de France might have been billed as a battle royale between 3 former champions who had between them won the previous 4 editions of the race plus the man who so famously and so cruelly had victory snatched from him on the Champs Elysees the previous year.
Pedro Delgado (Banesto) came into the race having finished second in May’s Vuelta a Espana behind Marco Giovanetti who kicked off a grand tour double for Italian rider that Spring. Stephen Roche (Histor-Sigma) had finished second at Paris-Nice (behind Delgado’s teammate Miguel Indurain) and had won the 4 Days of Dunkirk. Laurent Fignon (Castorama-Raleigh) took top honours in the prestigious Criterium International in March but had abandoned a Giro d’Italia, which was dominated from start to finish by Gianni Bugno. Fignon dislocated his pelvis in a crash on Stage 5 but battled on for another 4 days before pulling out of the race. “The Professor” took the starting ramp at Futuroscope recovering both mentally and physically .
While supported by a Z-Tomasso squad featuring the likes of Robert Millar and Ronan Pensec, Greg Lemond’s spring had been nothing short of wretched. A bout of Epstein-Barr Syndrome had made training nigh-impossible without debilitating fatigue and as a result the American had done precious little racing. The highlight of his Giro had been a 12th place in the Stage 19 time trial on his way to a lowly 105th on GC. A subsequent 10th at the Tour de Suisse a mere fortnight before the Grand Depart didn’t really hint at the American being a major force over the next 3 weeks.
Depart
The opening weekend of the 77th Tour centred on the Futuroscope theme park near Poitiers. Lemond finished second in the Prologue to Thierry Marie (PDM-Concorde) and 20 seconds covered all 4 of the main protagonists. The following day’s Stage 1 saw an early 139km stage during which a group containing the likes to Steve Bauer (7-Eleven), the largely unknown Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans-Vagabond) and Lemond’s teammate Ronan Pensec was allowed to escape unchecked. With the afternoon team time trial looming, nobody was going to work to pull them back and with Pensec in the group, the Z-Tomasso team was unlikely to be of much assistance. Frans Maassen (Buckler-Colnago-Decca) won the sprint but Bauer would wear the maillot jaune that afternoon. The Big Four and almost everyone else in the field came in some 10m 35s adrift. Following the TTT, Bauer would remain in Yellow while Lemond slipped quietly out of the top 10 as his Z-Tomasso squad could muster only 7th against the clock.
While the race wound its way northeast and then south, the big guns were largely content to let the others do the work with names like Moreno Argentin (Ariostea) and Johan Museeuw (Lotto-Superclub) among those fighting for stages and green jersey points. A crash on stage 3 cost both Delgado and Fignon time but it would ultimately cost the Frenchman his race, abandoning the following day with a calf injury. In his autobiography We Were Young and Carefree, he would describe his “one proud gesture”, unpinning his own race numbers – “a gesture born of disillusion and pride, a way of sticking two fingers up at fate.” Laurent Fignon would not win a third Tour de France.
It wouldn’t be until the longer 61.5km individual time trial on Stage 7 that Delgado and Lemond would next bother the sharp end of the racing, finishing 4th and 5th respectively over 2 minutes behind stage winner, Raul Alcalá of PDM-Concorde. The time trial had been a disaster for Stephen Roche who lost 3 minutes in the final 3km to finish the best part of 5 minutes behind Alcalá.
Standings after Stage 7:
1. Steve Bauer (7-Eleven) 30h 04’49”
2. Ronan Pensec (Z-Tomasso) +17”
3. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans-Vagabond) +1’11”
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7. Greg Lemond (Z-Tomasso) +10’09”
Stage 10 would see the first indicators of mountains form on the road from Geneva to the ski resort of St Gervais-les-Baines on Mont Blanc. Delgado’s attack on the final climb clawed back some 19 seconds to Lemond and, in the process, ended a fading Steve Bauer’s week in yellow. The Spaniard finished 7th on the stage with Lemond rounding out a top 10 headed by RMO’s Thierry Claveyrolat. Lemond’s teammate Ronan Pensec was now celebrating the maillot jaune – much to the delight of the home nation and its press - as well as his 27th birthday, while the American was still nearly 10 minutes adrift in 8th place.
Troubling the Podium
The next day offered a tantalising glimpse that a race might just be on. The Cols de la Madeleine and du Glandon merely set the scene for the 182.5km stage to finish atop the Alpe d’Huez. The previous day’s winner, Claveyrolat was first over la Madeleine and led the race over the Glandon. Pedro Delgado then launched an attack that only Lemond, Delgado’s Banesto teammate Miguel Indurain and Gianni Bugno could follow. With Claveyrolat brought back into what was now a lead group, Indurain set a metronomic pace for his leader who – with Indurain’s work for the day done - attacked again at the foot of the Alpe. Lemond and Bugno picked up the gauntlet and as the trio wound its way up the 21-hairpin bends, it was the Spaniard who began to drift off the back just as a trio containing Claveyrolat and Eric Breukink made contact once again. A sharp acceleration by Bugno took the quintet beyond Delgado and on to the summit. It was Bugno and Lemond who would contest the sprint – the American almost overcooking his exit from the final hairpin – and the young Italian would prevail. Ronan Pensec would wear Yellow for a second day, but his team leader was now third in the standings, 9 minutes adrift.
Eric Breukink won against the clock on Stage 12, catapulting himself into third on GC. Behind him, Pedro Delgado would best Lemond by some 26 seconds, narrowing the gap between the protagonists, and Pensec’s 49th place on the road, some 3m 50s behind would cede the maillot jaune to Claudio Chiappucci. While Lemond had lost time to his rival – and a place in the GC standings - he had still gained another 90 seconds on the main prize.
Standings after Stage 12:
1. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans-Vagabond) 49h 24’08”
2. Ronan Pensec (Z-Tomasso) +1’17”
3. Eric Breukink (PDM-Concorde) +6’55”
4. Greg Lemond (Z-Tomasso) +7’27”
5. Pedro Delgado (Banesto) +9’02”
Stage 13 to St Étienne would be a torrid one for the new race leader. A break containing Delgado, Breukink and Lemond slipped up the road unnoticed and Chiappucci would spend the day isolated and leading the chase. His inattention ultimately cost him the better part of 5 minutes on a day won by ONCE’s Eduardo Chozas who took the sprint from a group that contained the ever-strong Eric Breukink and Lemond. Pedro Delgado finished in the second group, losing every second (and more) of the time he’d gained in the time trial just 72 hours before.
Standings after Stage 13:
1. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans – Vagabond) 52h 49’13”
2. Eric Breukink (PDM-Concorde) +2’02”
3. Greg Lemond (Z-Tomasso) +2’34”
In Pursuit of Glory
The race truly came alive in the Pyrenees and on Stage 16 the riders contemplated a 215km effort from Blagnac to Luz Ardiden that crossed the Cols d’Aspin and du Tourmalet. Chiappucci was still in Yellow but with his lead having been shaved by a few more seconds in each of the previous 2 days simply couldn’t afford a war of attrition. His attack on the Aspin with a group of 6 other riders was certainly brave and could have been fruitless had he not been first over the summit before continuing alone to the Tourmalet, some 3m 20s ahead of the chasers.
From such leads are Grand Tours won and it was Lemond who was forced to lead the high-speed chase on the descent, his group catching Chiappucci before the climb to Luz Ardiden. When Fabio Parra attacked, it was Lemond again who led the chase group – minus an exhausted Chiappucci - and set about taking time from the race leader. Miguel Indurain and ONCE’s Marino Lejarreta went with him, but neither was particularly keen to work with the American. The priority was gaining time so, with Lejarreta distanced in the last few kms, and Lemond having driven the pace from the foot of the climb, it was perhaps no surprise that it would be Indurain who took the stage, jumping from the World Champion’s rear wheel as they exited the last corner.
With the clock ticking, Claudio Chiappucci crossed the line to retain the race lead by a scant 5 seconds. His defence of the Yellow Jersey had been no less heroic than Lemond’s pursuit of it had been relentless.
Standings after Stage 16:
1. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans-Vagabond) 69h 27’50”
2. Greg Lemond (Z-Tomasso) +5”
3. Pedro Delgado (Banesto) +3’42”
Now within touching distance of the race lead, Lemond came within a whisker of it all falling apart the following day. The final day in the mountains on Stage 17 would see the peloton tackle both the Col d’Aubisque and the Col Marie-Blanque on the road from Lourdes to Pau. On the Marie-Blanque, Lemond punctured as both Delgado and Chiappucci attacked. After a slow wheel change, insult was added to injury as a mechanical then forced a bike change for the American. Staring at a 3-minute deficit to his team leader’s rivals, Z directeur Roger Legeay ordered the group of 4 riders ahead of Lemond to sit up and wait for his arrival. One of the abiding images of this stage is a furious Lemond leading his team off the Marie-Blanque while the 4 riders assigned to pace him back to the lead group hung on. As Alfa Lum rider Dimitri Konyshev became the first Soviet rider to win a stage of the Tour, Lemond would finish in the same group as Chiappucci and Delgado.
With the sprinters contesting Stages 18 and 19, the GC battle would once again come down to an individual time trial, this time around Lac de Vassiviere. Chiappucci was certainly not known for his ability against the clock and so it came to be on the day. Eric Breukink took the stage comfortably from Raul Alcala and Marino Lejarreta with Lemond coming in 57 seconds behind the winner. Chiappucci’s 8 hard-fought days in the maillot jaune came to an end when he finished 2’21” behind Lemond on the road.
Final Standings after Stage 21:
1. Greg Lemond (Z-Tomasso) 90h 43’20”
2. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans-Vagabond) +2’16”
3. Eric Breukink (PDM-Ultima-Concorde) +2’29”
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4. Pedro Delgado (Banesto) +5’01”
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44. Stephen Roche (Histor-Sigma) +1h 00’07”
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DNF Laurent Fignon (Castorama-Raleigh)
Reflection
Greg Lemond’s third Tour de France was delivered without a single stage win and with a solitary day in the Yellow Jersey. Nevertheless he describes it as his most enjoyable. By others, the victory is considered as boring or lacking in panache or emotion and yet, having come into the race “uncooked”, Lemond displayed these virtues and more during the 3 weeks.
Before the race, Laurent Fignon told the media that the American “always bases his races on following the most dangerous rider on GC, never attacks and saves himself for the time trials.” This was perhaps born from the bitterness of Fignon’s experience the previous year but while the final result did once again rest upon the results of a time trial, the rest of that statement does not bear scrutiny.
The era of controlling races a la Banesto, ONCE, US Postal or Team Sky had yet to dawn and, while Z-Tomasso had an experienced team in support, it was their leader who took the chase to Chiappucci while distancing Delgado, whether in those kamikaze descents or single-mindedly driving the pace when all may have been lost. Perhaps the anomaly of a 10-minute break on that first road stage had already cast the die for the race but at no point was Lemond playing safe nor limiting his losses. In fact, the Stage 1 result forced exactly the opposite scenario. In doing so, not only was Lemond honouring the proud history of the race but also the Rainbow Jersey of the World Champion in whose rainbow stripes he remains the last man to win the Tour de France.
Footnote: 1990 would be Greg Lemond’s last Tour win and arguably the last edition contested before the dawning of the EPO era. Lemond remains officially the only American to have ever won cycling’s most famous race.