In this 1986 Tour de France video seen herewith…..CBS race analyst Phil Liggett takes the viewer on a historical journey of the great French bicycle race…..from it’s humble beginnings…..when the cyclists had to carry their own bikes…..as there were no team cars and technicians to fix bikes that break…..or trainers and masseuse to fix the…
One of the truly great sports rivalries took place on top of racing bike seats during the cycling seasons of 1984, 1985 and and culminating in 1986 at the Tour de France…..and although it was a short lived rivalry…..while vividly and vibrantly taking place really over a total of about 72 or so days (…
On July 6, 1986, something happened at the Tour de France on the 214 km / 133 mile course from Levallois-Perret to Lievin…..when a member of the 1st American cycling team to ever compete in a Tour de France….when name Team 7-Eleven’s Davis Phinney won Stage 3 of the 1986 Tour…..as no American had ever graced the…
The 1986 Tour de France was the 73rd running of the Tour….which consisted of 23 stages, beginning with a prologue in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris on July 4….and concluded on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 27th…..in what was a historic race for several major reasons….for 1986 was the first year that an American cycling team, Team 7-Eleven, that had ever competed in the Tour’s history…..as the race…
This video has CBS John Tesh narrating coverage of the 1986 Tour de France from the 2nd floor window of a 19th Century French farmhouse…..as the peleton passes in the forefront of the camera’s view…..as he covers the race throughout the 1st five days of the race…..which includes the Prologue won by FRA Thierry Marie on…
Sportscaster Dale Hansen served as host of NBC’s Year in Sports 1986 special program that provided highlights of all major sporting events during the year…..which included this piece on the 1986 Tour de France…..which was won for the first time by an American, Greg Lemond…..who went on to win two more Tours in his career…..and still…
Following the success of Bernard Hinault in the1985 Tour de France….the La Vie Claire team was heavily favored in 1986….as Hinault had promised to return Greg LeMond’s support to win the 1985 Tour…. however, continuing attacks cast doubt on Hinault’s sincerity….when he claimed that his tactics were simply to wear down LeMond’s opponents….and that he ultimately knew that LeMond would…
Stages 9, 10 and 11 were flat….although the lead changed several times….first to Dominique Gaigne….then to Johan van der Velde….and later to Jørgen V. Pedersen…..as there were no significant time differences between the favorites…..with the only real test being the ninth stage…..which was an individual time trial won by Benard Hinault….which put him in third place just 49 seconds…
Greg LeMond grew up living an active, outdoor life. ….as hiking, hunting, skiing and fly fishing were boyhood pastimes…..where the ranch country of the Sierra Nevada mountain range lent itself to such pursuits. A hyperactive youngster, LeMond believes these outdoor activities helped keep him out of trouble…..“I was a boy who just could not sit…