1985 Tour de France - Climb to Luz Ardiden

[KelpStalker]

I miss the coverage - the drama was cheesy but at times more enjoyable. On another note - Lance would have blown his coach off and taken the jersey.

[LVPHOTOG]

@bikeracerguy Just to get ANY Tour coverage was a blessing back then. CBS only aired it on weekends, at 1 hour shows and sometimes it would get pre-emted by frigg'n live golf.

[sprintbass]

@LVPHOTOG thats true..sometimes i had to sit watching drag racing for 30 mins (edited) whicame came to 12 mins cycling...you know what burns my ass..im 38 and 22 years on al troutwig still comemtates on cycling!!! there are so many other worhty people of the job..why do they continually employe him A and B why the F has he not learned a damn thing about bicycle racing in 22 years!?

[LVPHOTOG]

@bikeracerguy This was classic stuff. The Golden Age of American Cycling.

[zunguzunguzeng]

Man it's annoying to watch Tour de France with annoying jingles and background music.

[jkovalchek]

woah tesh was gettin clever with those rhymes there..."roche or his coach.'

[chris2002Rocklin]

I am also looking for the network coverage of the miraculous comeback when Delgado attacked Roche in 1987. They cut between 1986 when he dropped out and said in Spanish "my mum's dead", then cut to his attack on that stage. I have never seen it, but I had a copy I lost years ago. I can trade for Cyclesport of Cyclingnews print magazine archives.

THANKS for ANY help!

[socalrider909]

I have all of the cbs and abc coverage from 1985-1991.. Send me a message for more details..

[Tweekerhead]

Poor Lemonhead ...why does he always cry and complain.... He was blessed ...geezzz what more do you want...wake up and smell the puke Lemonhead.....Oh wait...this was 25 years ago...nevermind.......

[lucasitaly1980]

Fantastic Video Thank's !!!!

[arnchap0007]

1985, two leaders in the team, the decison was that who ever isthe leader he should be assisted by the other. Then Hinault easily dominate the tour until he crashed and broke his nose... then Lemond complained that he had to help Hinault..

[xaviqaz]

In 1985 LeMond was better than Hinault, who won. In 1986 Hinault was better than LeMond, who won. Two lyons in one team should be forbidden

[chris2002Rocklin]

It is NOT clear that Lemond was "better", only that he was asked to modulate his effort on this stage (to Luz Ardiden). It is also true that hyperbole was and still is used to make the story more dramatic. If examined without bias, Lemond is the character who tried to exploit the fact that Hinault had to defend actively while Lemond was favored as a backup leader (didn't have to do donkey work) the whole Tour. It is not even close to certain that Lemond woulda won had he been #1 from the start.

[sjl62]

What people forget is that Hinault faultered on this stage because of the injuries he had sustained at St. Etienne a couple of days before. In that situation, the team wisely chose to have Lemond mark Roche's attack without helping open the gap (since Lemond was already ahead of Roche on GC anyway). These are utterly sound tactics and only look scandalous if you're heavily biased.

[jmplays44]

Very funny production. Crazy to see such a famous stage covered this way. CBS didn't even say who won the dang stage.

[chris2002Rocklin]

They thought correctly that the audience of the time would have been confused. This was my second year of cycling and the support from the US public was hostile, not neutral. Only certain females (who liked the tight shorts) were heard supporting cyclists. That probably made the males more hostile. Anyway, there is no way anyone would understand a narrative that included both a GC winner and a stage winner. Even so, they mentioned it in passing if you watch the full coverage.

[thewhitemosquito]

Lol, "little of cycling" I guess 7 tours in a row is only "a little"

[folklore2]

Yeah, one guy winning 7 tours isn't a lot of experience. Just because Lance won those tours, doesn't mean American coverage of cycling is good. Compared to Belgian and French networks this is bullshit.

[thewhitemosquito]

Lol, riiiiight riiiiight. I know the VS channel that covers all of Americas cycling for the last 10 years with Phil liggett and Paul Sherwin is no the no good. Oh, and YES winning 7 tours with Lance and 3 tours with Greg is A LOT of experience covering cycling that translates to a much better program since this. Tom has an Australian ever won the tour de france? Just wondering =)

[folklore2]

hahaha, nah man, an Aussies never won the TDF. I don't think we will with the current pro's either, maybe the next generation coming up through the ranks. However, riders winning the Tour doesn't make a networks coverage of cycling good. When you compare camera work, video quality, length and depth of coverage and commentating prowess, American networks are pretty much at the bottom. And that's not a knock on the athletes.

[chuck2007drake]

@folklore2 what does lace winning seven tours have to do with this coverage? he didnt win his first for 14 more years, and coverage has drastically improved since then

[xaviqaz]

5 Tours several Giros and Vueltas is bigger than that

[YamidxxR9]

este video fue muy bueno espero q sigan subiendo yamid

[dingane]

Lets be honest, there was doping, but the drugs just weren't as good, so the racing was bit more human.

[dbroekema]

The real crime here is John Tesch's ridiculous narration and terrible music. Why why why??!!

[adam1234a]

you suck!!!!!!!!

[dbroekema]

What- you actually LIKE John Tesch??

[adam1234a]

yea, i do....

he is better than the shit they have on now.

[delany01]

Did John Tesch win this tour?

[sjl62]

That's more or less what I was trying to say. There's nothing sleazy about a team asking its #2 guy to protect its injured leader, at least while he's still in with a fighting chance. That said, I don't condone the way Hinault behaved the following year. I think a lot of the continuing anger about the '85 tactics really depends on the "context" of '86.

Also: what's the story with those '82 Worlds anyway? Was Lemond really trying to prevent a Boyer victory? Why??

[colmmagoo]

I think Lemond was trying to win it himself (82). Nothing wrong with that but the way he went about it was cycling suicide. I think if he'd chosen to mark one of the big sprinters (Saronni, Kelly) instead of chasing Boyer down himself he would have had a better chance of winning. I feel it's highly unlikely Boyer would have won anyway, but you never know, contrast it to '87 when Roche was an unlikely winner when Kelly held back.

[sjl62]

Hmm, the contrast with '87 is interesting. I've heard that there was pre-existing bad blood between Lemond and Boyer, but not about what.

[MadJohnEscapes]

To play the devil's advocate:

Why should a team insist that an injured man be allowed to win when they have a capable #2? Couldn't you say that since Lemond was 100% and Hinault wasn't, that the race is his (Lemond's) to take?

I'm not saying that I'm right, but it must be a bitter pill to swallow when one isn't allowed to use their full potential.

[sjl62]

Part I. My sense is that in this situation -- where Lemond was second overall and Roche was 3rd -- it's wisest for them to have Lemond follow Roche but not help him. This way they achieve two things. First, they minimize the amount of time that Hinault loses, either keeping him in yellow or at least keeping him close enough to stay in play in case he recovers. Second, they force Roche to do all the work, since he's the one with time to make up, not Lemond.

[sjl62]

Part 2. My point isn't that letting Lemond attack would have been bad tactics, only that the strategy they did pursue was sensible and not scandalous. They knew they had the yellow jersey one way another, so they put all the pressure on Roche and gave Hinault a chance to recover. This way at the end of the day they would have the yellow jersey (with either guy) and have a second man close to the top. Letting Lemond attack would have opened a huge gap and left them with only one card to play.

[muller74]

Excellent stuff ! The '80's was the golden age of cycling...in fact all sport. Its ruined these days with money and technology. Roche was my sporting hero back then. Some people say if Lemond had ridden the '87 tour he would have won but I think Roche was a man posessed and would have beaten anyone that year.

[smilinglemur]

Cleaner? Hardly...

That said, the racing was certainly more exciting without race radios. Remember the old saying "out of sight, out of mind?" Pretty useless in today's tour. Times change, I guess. Oh well. Beautiful video. A classic. It must have killed Greg to match pace with Roche and not ride to his full limit.

[KevinRutherford]

Epic. I love racing from the '80s. So fun to watch. And so many excellent characters.

And clean-ish I'd say. Cleaner than the peloton in the mid/late '90s. No EPO, HGH or IGF-1. Likely all they were on was speed an probably steroids. Maybe the stars with access to the best doctors were doing transfusions.

Still, I'd much rather watch racing from this era than any of the modern day stuff. Team radios and TVs in the team cars have killed racing.

[mambobici]

What a classic!!!

[hfer]

I can not believe Pat O'Brian is commenting for cycling nowadays with this ridiculous repertory..

[socalrider909]

It is not Pat O'Brien, it was John Tesh..

[GeorgeCrosley]

@socalrider909 True, but the commentary is absurd, as is Tesh's music. Too bad, because this was great cycling.

[lucasitaly1980]

@GeorgeCrosley I disagree with you, music is fantastic in my opinion.

[GeorgeCrosley]

@lucasitaly1980 To each his own, and really you're the lucky one since you find pleasure in listening to it.

[artyparis]

clean?

:)

[rinux16]

Im allan a cycling enthusiast...here in the phils....this was the time that there wer no doping scandals the cyclist are clean the competition was fair....

[Syd1940]

You're joking, of course! Just when exactly was cycling at this level 'clean' - in our terms? It was simply more open. As Anquetil said 'You can't win the Tour on mineral water'

[rinux16]

hey....before there were no dopes..you can tell it by the way they run the stages how many hours and mins and seconds..Now its very diff....lance amrstrong never admitted using performance enhancing drugs but hey...Thats why greg lemond is so jealous of his wins in the tdf...

[Syd1940]

Tom Simpson had a pocket full of amphetamines when he died on the Ventoux in 1967. You're living in cloud cuckoo land if you think pro cycling was drug free ... ever. They just use better drugs now and they also check. Everyone knew in the old days ... and it wasn't frowned on so much.

[rinux16]

okay you won.....I was just trying to test you on the pro cycling...Yeah its true when he died in the ventoux. Maybe we can share some insights on cycling....Have a good day...

[Syd1940]

You too :) I'm just off to the Manchester Velodrome for an evening's track racing. Not riding, I hasten to add, just watching.

[rinux16]

okay....before you were riding???? Did you participate in any major races??? Me too during my highschool days but accidents happen so i quit hehehe

[Syd1940]

Not fast enough to road race. I time trialed a bit, but really a hard tourist and cycle camper. Too old and injured now, but my wife and I managed a few cols in the Pyrenees last Spring. Good racing at Manchester on Sat night!

[rinux16]

okay....me i tried road race when i was 15 y.o...I tried a 164 kms practice and i nearly collapsed you know...here in the phils its totally a different world of cycling not like there in europe...Cyclists in far away provinces will never ba able to shine because of financial and logistics problems....

[drunkensailor112]

well until the 60s they all won the tour on water and bread. just as hinault sayd. doping didn;t exist

[grindwalker]

That's not true. Riders from before this era have admitted to doping, also citing that it was a common practice. It's pretty crazy to think what their bodies went through, whew!

[keef71]

always liked ligget's commentary....

i'm sorry, but i'm glad i never had to listen to this sort of guff - 'roche or coach'? 'golden fleece'??

presumably this only happened because lemond was involved

[alva1972]

Hinault, lemmond ,Roche ,,,what monsters every won tours,,,,,,titans

[govalverde]

This kind of sounds like the fighting between Jan Ulrich and Alexander Vinokourov in the 2005 Tour De France.

[sjl62]

I don't know why we still gripe about this stage. These seem like totally standard tactics from La Vie Claire. Roche attacks and Hinault, injured, can't follow; so they send their number #2 (Lemond) to follow Roche but not to help him, while Nikki Ruttiman stays back to pace Hinault. This way they try to defend Hinault's lead but know that, if he loses too much time, Lemond will take over yellow by finishing in Roche's group.

[hfer]

The video lacks in Facts - yes- was a battle between Hinault & lemond-but the stage itself had more exiting moments-like the breakaway & battle between delgado(stage'swinner) & herrera--and the climbing in the middel of the fog--all those elements just barelly captured---nevertheless the stupid commentaries from the american broadcaster...

I don't know why he's still around

[agustinzurita]

delgado gets 3 minutes over lemond in the last climb nice music nice coverage but where is delgado???

[afsuarez1977]

This is awesome!! brings me so many memories when I was back in Colombia following Herrera. Does any one have the video when Herrera wins all drenched in blood??? I think it was 1985 stage 11.

[agustinzurita]

puedes encontrar mas cosas en youtube incluso en el emule

[ghdebruin]

wow, was that phil ligget with narration duties in 85? still going strong all these years

[woodwaa1]

and why bring politics into it, look at my age, i have not had a chance to vote yet!

[shadowemce]

beautiful

[shadowemce]

gr8 video :)

[metalcore929]

Love the music...great footage.

[TicToc06]

Lemond should have been allowed to win. Team Manager Paul Koechli was short sighted on his decision. Hinault should have had a web helmet on or something. That's racing though.

[smarauder68]

I love the cheezy 80's production music...Brings back memories..

[MHK1986]

I must say it's a funny coverage not even mentioning Delgado, the day's winner, and Herrera, which both were far ahead of LeMond's group... I understand the real battle this day was one between LeMond and Hinault, but a winner of such an epic stage at least deserves mentioning. It's even made to seem LeMond's group wins the stage!

[woodwaa1]

its because its U.S commentry, totally self centred, not bothering to cover the hole tour, as far as they are concerned lemond is the tour!

[espada9]

Your anti American bias is boring and dishonest, back in 85' we only had 1-2 hours of Tour coverage.

Sports reporting is a BUSINESS so the story was Lemond-Hinault and this was played up for ratings not because American fans only like American riders. Do some research first before you post your anti American blather.

[woodwaa1]

what bias? its fact...even if it was for ratings, the fact remains delgrado was not even mentioned, and like the other chap says, it was made to seam like he won the stage. fair enough reporting on a countrymen. but theres a difference between that and not reporting properly. like i said its just sef centred. and what a shame in america sports reporting is a business...

[woodwaa1]

like lemonnds group won the stage i meant to say..

[espada9]

Delgado was the main story in the 88' Tour AND the 89 Tour (right along side with Lemond and Fignon).

Our Tour coverage has been great for years allowing for live day to day coverage and recaps on rest days.

How is your Super Bowl coverage or your World Series coverage? I'm GLAD the nanny state does NOT dictate to me the sports I watch.

[woodwaa1]

why would i want to watch the super bowl or world series? there amlost exclusivly american sports i dont no a single englishman there, and you can catch them on sky sports.... and your missing the point im talking about the commentry. the commentry was bias, not even a MENTION of the stage winner. surely you would like an accurate depiction of the event?

[espada9]

I think YOU are missing the point, cycling , even now is a minor sport here in the USA.

2 hours of coverage is not enough to educate the general population on cycling, the network did what was in their best interest, they played up the drama for ratings. Our coverage of the Tour is FAR superior to what you get in the UK (if you even have coverage).

[woodwaa1]

if its FAR more superior how come when i watch the live events, and the highlights, i get to see some of the race leaders and contenders, the breakaways and the STAGE VICTORY, not just a couple of british blokes in it. and cycling is a minor sport hear too. yes we do have coverage. do your research before your british bias bla bla bla...

[espada9]

You obviously have NOT seen any US Tour coverage since 2001.

[agustinzurita]

i saw climb to luz ardiden 1985 and i thought i was

about to see first victory from delgado in tour de

france and i was frustrated however you can download it from emule, in spanish if u dare. i

understand your point but i dont share it.

[chris14091975]

I agree with you, enough with the anti American stuff. The real race was Lemond, Roche, and Hineault, period, just like CBS covered Delgado's victory in 1988. (and Roche 1987, and Indurain 1991....)

[hal565]

lool

[blickblocks]

This is awesome.

[sjl62]

Hinault had trouble breathing that day because of the swelling from the faceplant the day before.