The Tour de France

by Paul Hansford

  Climber Charly Gaul said Bahamontes lacked the brains to be a great champion, but ‘the Eagle’ influenced every Tour he took part in. He won more King of the Mountains titles than anyone before, and put paid to many a contender’s chances by forcing them to follow him up on a mad dash into the hills and beyond. To this day, Bahamontes is regarded as one of the best climbers of all time; legendary Dutch climber Lucien Van Impe paid him the ultimate compliment by saying, when he equalled the Spaniard’s six polka-dot jerseys in the ’70s and ’80s: ‘I owe a lot to Bahamontes, so much that when I’d won the King of the Mountains six times, as he had, I didn’t try to win it again.’

  Joop Zoetemelk, winner: 1980

  Raymond Poulidor is known as the ‘Eternal Second’ after his battles with Jacques Anquetil — but the title really should go to Joop Zoetemelk. In his first nine Tours he never finished outside the top ten and came second five times, but that top podium step always looked one step too far for the Dutchman. Not that his bridesmaid status was entirely his own fault; few riders were dealt such bad luck as to compete in the era of two five-time Tour winners, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.

  The old joke went that Joop never had a suntan because he constantly rode in the shadow of Merckx, and he gained a reputation for sitting on the wheel of great riders in order to gain his placings. However, Zoetemelk was one tough son of a gun: he was once given last rites after a terrible crash in 1973, and he battled back from a bout of meningitis. He also showed remarkable resolve to continue competing at the highest level, where other men might have crumbled at the constant disappointments.

  After coming second in both 1978 and 1979, the Dutchman finally triumphed in 1980 — but he was never afforded the respect he deserved, due to Bernard Hinault pulling out of the race with tendonitis in his right knee. Hinault would have won if not for the injury, critics said, and the Dutchman had merely won by default. Zoetemelk hit back by saying: ‘Surely winning the Tour de France is a question of health and robustness? If Hinault doesn’t have the health and robustness and I have, that makes me a valid winner.’ Luckily the Dutch fans didn’t care; they chartered 350 buses to Paris to see him crowned champion and the crowd was awash with orange as he crossed the finish line.

  Joop enjoyed one last hurrah in 1985 when he became the oldest world champion at age thirty-eight, before going on to work as sporting director at Superconfex/Rabobank for more than a decade until his retirement in 2006.

  Greg LeMond, winner: 1986, 1989, 1990

  Now that Lance Armstrong’s victories have been struck from the record, Greg LeMond is once again the Tour’s most successful American racer. The antithesis of the Texan, LeMond was an affable, popular rider (even the French liked him!) who contested two of the most exciting Tours, with a comeback from near death sandwiched in between.

  The California native started racing in the late ’70s and soon took the European scene by storm, winning every race he entered during a week-long trip to Belgium. The locals nearly choked on their reassuringly expensive beer at the audacity of an American youngster beating their more cultured riders, and word quickly spread that there was a kid from the other side of the pond who could one day win it all.

  He lived up to the hype by winning the World Championship in 1983 and coming third in his first Tour the following year. LeMond signed for La Vie Claire in 1985 as protégé to the great Bernard Hinault, a move that sparked the most acrimonious and compelling couple of years in Tour history. Both men were strong enough to win the race outright, but as teammates they were obliged to work together. An uneasy truce saw LeMond help Hinault take his record-equalling fifth Tour in 1985, but the promise of payback in 1986 didn’t quite materialise the way LeMond thought it would. Hinault rode long and hard, as if trying to win the race rather than destroy LeMond’s rivals. The American eventually won the Tour — becoming the first English-speaker to do so — but he ended the race feeling ‘burned’ by the rider he once considered a friend. ‘I don’t regret what I have done, it is all for his own good,’ responded Hinault, stopping just short of bursting into Edith Piaf’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien for added effect.

  The following year LeMond had to overcome an event equally as painful — but this time physically rather than mentally. His brother-in-law shot him in the back while they were out hunting, and only an evacuation by a medical helicopter that happened to be in the remote region at the time saved his life. The rehab was long and hard and, when he returned to racing in 1988, LeMond looked a shadow of the rider he once was.

  Laurent Fignon was in a class of his own in 1989, already having won the Giro d’Italia, and few gave LeMond a second thought for the Tour, especially as he was riding with pieces of shotgun pellet still in his back. After LeMond took yellow on the stage 5 time trial, the jersey went back and forth three times before, going into the final time-trial stage to Paris, Fignon finally gained a fifty-second lead over the American. The odds were against LeMond but, donning a newfangled aero helmet and resting on triathlon bars to battle wind resistance, he achieved the impossible. In little more than 24 km, the California kid turned a fifty-second deficit into an eight-second advantage, winning the closest — and most thrilling — race in the history of the Tour.

  LeMond went on to win again the following year in less heart-stopping circumstances — he won by a comparatively massive 2:16 to Claudio Chiappucci — but in 1991 he cracked on the Tourmalet and succumbed to the power of Miguel Indurain. He failed to finish his last Tour in 1994, but by then his legacy was already secure. On top of his three Tour wins, LeMond is widely credited with bringing the Tour into the modern age; his focus on wind-tunnel testing, power monitors, aerodynamic handlebars and teardrop helmets may have made him look like something out of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century at the time, but they were innovations embraced by future riders as fundamental to optimum performance.

  In retirement LeMond has been a vocal anti-doping advocate, harshly critical of Lance Armstrong for his association with controversial ‘doping doctor’ Michele Ferrari. He once said, rather prophetically, ‘If Lance is clean it is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If he isn’t, it would be the greatest fraud.’ Armstrong responded by calling LeMond ‘jealous’ and allegedly exerted pressure on his sponsors Trek to drop the LeMond line of bikes they had licensed for thirteen years (LeMond and Trek reached an out-of-court settlement in 2010 after a two-year battle).

  In the words of Irish journalist David Walsh, the Texan ‘vilified’ LeMond for several years, so there’s a delicious irony and great sense of justice that, with the striking of Armstrong’s wins from the record, it is LeMond who takes his rightful place as the greatest American rider of all time.

  Alberto Contador, winner: 2007, 2009

  Alberto Contador might be the most talented stage racer of his generation, but his relationship with the Tour de France is a complex one. The Spaniard is one of only five riders to win all three Grand Tours, and he has ‘won’ the Tour on three occasions — but after he failed a drug test at the 2010 Tour, he was stripped of his title and banned from cycling for two years. Contador maintains his innocence, but the ban, combined with some circumstantial evidence of an association (of which he has been cleared) with the doctor in the Operación Puerto case, has meant that some of the mud thrown his way has stuck.

  There’s no doubting Contador is a cycling phenomenon. Nicknamed ‘Pantani’ as a youngster for his uncanny ability on climbs, he won several stages in big races despite being diagnosed in 2004 with a vascular disorder that required surgery and a long period of recovery. He made his mark on the Tour de France with his first GC victory in 2007, inheriting the yellow jersey from Michael Rasmussen on stage 17 when the Dane was kicked out, and then clinging to a slim lead with an accomplished time trial on the penultimate day. The top three riders that year all finished within thirty-one seconds of each other (Cadel Evans twen
ty-three seconds back, Levi Leipheimer thirty-one), the shortest gap between podium finishers in Tour history.

  Contador’s Astana team was not invited to the 2008 Tour because of its past doping history, so the Spaniard concentrated on the Giro d’Italia (which Astana was invited to compete in at the last minute) and the Vuelta a España. He won both and, at just twenty-six years old, Contador stood shoulder to shoulder with Anquetil, Gimondi, Merckx and Hinault as the only men to win all three Grand Tours.

  It was another Tour, another victory for Contador as he returned to the race in 2009. After building his advantage in the mountains and winning a time trial on stage 18, his 4:11 win over Andy Schleck was never in doubt — although a certain Texan who finished third did help bring some intrigue to the proceedings.

  Lance Armstrong was on the comeback trail, and his signing with Contador’s Astana team raised questions about how the two former winners would race together. The Spaniard was assured he was still the team leader, but that didn’t stop Armstrong from pushing him all the way to Paris. Stories circulated that Armstrong drove a wedge into the team, assuming the leadership role and casting Contador out onto the fringes; on a couple of occasions Contador was forced to hitch a ride with his brother after the team cars drove off without him.

  Said Armstrong, after a stage where Contador won with ease:

  The honest truth? There’s a little tension at the table. For me, Alberto is very strong, very ambitious, and I understand that. I’ve won this race a lot, so I don’t care if I come second or third or fifth.

  If there was any doubt as to the animosity between the two, the duo’s body language on the Paris podium said it all, as each barely acknowledged the other’s presence during the ceremony.

  The following year Contador completed his Tour hat-trick, but it was steeped in controversy both on and off the bike. The Spaniard seized control of the race on stage 15 by attacking when main rival Andy Schleck lost his chain up the Port de Balès. It was a questionable move as it went against racing etiquette, and a few fans let Contador know how they felt, with the odd boo and jeer ringing out when he received the yellow jersey that afternoon. After the Tour finished, it emerged that he had failed an in-race drug test. Traces of the banned substance clenbuterol were found and, if found guilty, the Spaniard faced a ban and the loss of his titles. Contador blamed a contaminated steak for the positive test and claimed the small amount found would never have helped him race faster. (The quantity of clenbuterol found in his system was forty times below the minimum required to be reported, leading many to question why it was announced at all.)

  A series of appeals and delays meant that Alberto continued racing — and winning — until February 2012, when the case was finally settled and it was announced that he would serve a back-dated ban until August 2012 — and would be stripped of all his wins during that time, including the 2010 Tour and the 2011 Giro d’Italia.

  His return to the sport in late 2012 was nothing less than spectacular, as he won the Vuelta a España in thrilling fashion, going wheel-to-wheel with Joaquim Rodríguez and then gaining control of the race with a brilliant attack on stage 17 to Fuente Dé. If it was a statement of intent that he was out to reclaim his place as cycling’s Grand Tour king, the peloton heard it loud and clear.

  Cadel Evans, winner: 2011

  Bradley Wiggins famously said that kids from Kilburn don’t go on to win the Tour de France, and the same could be said for kids born in Australia’s Northern Territory who spend their first three years living in an Aboriginal community. But then Australia’s first-ever Tour winner, Cadel Evans, has never done it the easy way.

  Evans dealt with adversity from an early age, falling into a coma for several days after being kicked by a horse at age seven and moving across the country with his mother after his parents divorced. On two wheels he possessed a prodigious talent, riding his BMX for fun and taking part in local road races before joining the AIS mountain-bike program and enjoying a successful career on the single track. In 2001 he decided to make the move to road racing, signing up with trainer Aldo Sassi at Mapei–Quick Step.

  ‘Aldo was convinced as soon as he met Evans in 2001 and did tests on him that he was a phenomenon,’ said Massimo Testa, a colleague of Sassi’s at Mapei. ‘Aldo said: “Let me work with this kid and I will turn him into a champion.”’

  Evans made an immediate impact in his new discipline, winning the Tour of Austria in ’01 and the time trial at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in his first two seasons on the road. In the Tour, he followed up an eighth (2005) and fourth place (2006) with second-place finishes in 2007 and 2008. His twenty-three-second loss to Alberto Contador in 2007 marked the closest margin between first and second since LeMond–Fignon in 1989. In 2008, with Contador absent, the Aussie couldn’t gain enough time on Carlos Sastre in the final time trial to overhaul the Spaniard’s lead. Two years in second place might have doused a lesser man’s competitive spirit, but it only served to add fuel to Cadel’s fire.

  Evans was crowned 2009 World Champion after attacking on the final climb in the road race in Switzerland, but his chances of winning the Tour looked to have disappeared after disappointing results in 2009 and 2010. Then came the death of mentor Sassi in December 2010 from a brain tumour. Cadel revealed that Sassi’s dying wish was for him to ‘win a Grand Tour, and hopefully the Tour de France … and you’ll be the most complete rider of your generation’.

  With the help of Sassi protégé Andrea Morelli and his new team, BMC, Evans went about granting Sassi’s wish: he conquered rivals Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck to win the 2011 Tour in convincing style. Protected by his teammates in the early stages, Evans was able to power through the flat and hang with his more favoured rivals in the mountains. Contador seemed burned out from his efforts in the Giro, while the Schlecks’ start/stop attacks proved easy to rein back. The decisive moment proved to be stage 18. Andy Schleck won plaudits for his jaw-dropping solo ride up the Col du Galibier, but it was also the stage where Cadel won the race, hauling back the massive gap created by Schleck to make sure he was within striking distance on the final time trial. Evans obliterated Schleck’s advantage by 2:30 in Grenoble and deservedly took his place at the top of the podium when he entered Paris the next day.

  Ironically nicknamed ‘Cuddles’ for his famously prickly attitude towards the press, Evans’s reputation as a ‘difficult’ man precedes him. But he is also one of the most intelligent and thoughtful men on the pro tour, a voracious reader and a straight talker on issues close to him. Once wearing a Tibetan flag t-shirt under his jersey, he said: ‘Trying to bring awareness of the Tibet movement is something someone in my position can do … I don’t want to see a repeat of what happened to Aboriginal culture happen to another culture.’

  Bradley Wiggins, winner: 2012

  Few British sportsmen, let alone cyclists, have enjoyed a year like Bradley Wiggins had in 2012. He became the first cyclist to win the trio of Paris–Nice, Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné in the same year, before making history as the first British rider to win the Tour de France. A little more than a week later, he won gold at the London Olympics in the individual time trial, and in December topped off his annus mirabilis by winning the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. Not a bad haul for the kid from Kilburn who many believed lacked the maturity and drive to ever be a Grand Tour winner.

  Before entering road racing Wiggins was already a legendary track cyclist, winner of six World Championships and gold in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. It was while dividing his time between road and track in 2007 that ‘Wiggo’ first made an impression on the Tour, launching a solo breakaway on the fortieth anniversary of British rider Tom Simpson’s death. Although he was eventually caught, the ride was noted as a strong performance from a man without much ‘previous’ on the road. (Asked afterwards if he rode so aggressively to commemorate
Simpson’s anniversary, he answered in a dry manner that would become his trademark: ‘Nah, I didn’t realise. But it’s my wife Cath’s birthday … I suppose it was the closest I could get to spending the day with her.’) After the 2008 Olympics, Wiggins decided to concentrate fully on the road and it paid dividends: he surpassed all expectations by equalling the British record with fourth place in the 2009 Tour with new team Garmin-Slipstream (moving up to third when Lance Armstrong’s first place was struck from the record).

  On the radar as one of cycling’s next big things, he was courted by the new British start-up, Team Sky, who wanted the Englishman to head up their Grand Tour ambitions in 2010. Sky had high hopes for Wiggins, but his first tour for them was a disaster: he lacked the maturity and people skills to lead his teammates and ended the race a disappointing twenty-fourth, not even the best Sky rider in GC. Team director David Brailsford was said to be close to dumping Wiggins at the end of the season — as much for his attitude as his performances — but a new training regimen headed by trainers Shane Sutton and Tim Kerrison invigorated the Londoner. One of the favourites in 2011, he crashed out of the Tour on stage 7 with a broken collarbone, but it proved merely a postponement of the inevitable, as a newly focused Team Sky swept all before them to lead Wiggins to victory the following year.

  The Tour itself was relatively mundane for the neutral observer, as Sky employed a scientific, analytical approach to dominate the race from the start and guide Wiggins into the lead behind a black-and-white train of highly skilled domestiques. All Bradley had to do was take advantage of his rivals in the time trials and the race was his.

  Wiggins wobbled just twice during the race, once off and once on the bike. Firstly, at the post-race press conference on his second day in yellow, he responded to a question about doping with a couple of f-bombs — signing off with an even naughtier word — leading some to question whether he was again cracking under the pressure as team and race leader. Then on the climb to La Toussuire on stage 11, teammate Chris Froome accelerated away from Wiggins with such ease that many began to question whether Sky was backing the wrong horse.