Tour de France 1990 : 1st place

1990 would be Greg's last Tour de France victory. After finishing 2nd in the prologue with a special handlebar he had some difficulties to perform well in the beginning of this Tour. In the first time trial he only finished 5th. When the peloton went into the Alps his teammate Ronan Pensec, who gained 10 minutes with Chiappucci in the first stage, became the new leader. Greg couldn't attack because Pensec was his teammate. The stage to Alpe d'Huez Greg felt really good but had to follow. He lost by 10 centimeters in the sprint with Bugno. Chiappucci became the new leader and this was good news for Greg who could ride his own race now. The next days Greg regained a lot of time to Chiappucci during the fantastic stage to St-Etienne. But in the time trial to Villard de Lans we saw that Greg wasn't riding very well. In the Pyrenees it was time to attack Chiapucci. The stage to Luz Ardiden became very special. Chiappucci attacked very soon and took 3 minutes. Then LeMond leaded the peloton in the descent and with no fear and unbelievable speed he took the Italian back to leave hem behind on the final climb. Together with Indurain he attacked on the final climb and finished 2nd behind the spanish rider. In the ranking he became 2nd at 5 seconds from Chiappucci. The day after everybody expected Greg to take yellow but on the Col de Marie Blanque he had a puncture. He had to wait about 2 minutes before his mechanic arrived. Meanwhile the Carrera team of Chiappucci was riding at full speed in front of the race because they heard about Greg's mechanical problems. The Z team waited for Greg and together they chased the first peloton. After rejoining the peloton Greg was furious about the unfair riding of the Italian. The final time trial to Lac de Vassivière became the day where LeMond took the yellow jersey. Again he finished 5th but the most important thing was he won his 3rd Tour de France. No stage win this year, but 2 second places. Chiappucci finished 2nd and Breukink 3rd.

1 comment:

JohnT said...

There is no doubt the Greg was one of the best cyclist of the last hundred years. Especially in de Tour de France he achieved some impressive results