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This Has Been the 1986 Tour de France

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We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of the 1986 Tour de France, which we feel will go down in history as the greatest ever Tour.

We thank the over 12,000 visitors, 500 Twitter followers, and hundreds of Facebook friends who took time out of their July mornings to follow the race with us here and, more importantly, to share this story.

If you enjoyed this retelling of the 1986 Tour, please be assured that Richard Moore’s new book Slaying the Badger tells the story with far greater skill and in deeper, more fascinating detail. In fact, the book has gotten absolutely rave reviews from the media.

While much of our coverage was excerpted from the book (and drew from Geoff Drake and Jim Ochowicz’s excellent book Team 7-Eleven and the thoroughly enjoyable archives of Velo-news magazine) we have released only the highlights and critical plot moments here. The book has more depth, tension, and yes, even suspense, in part because of Moore’s excellent writing style and interviewing skills.

Slaying the Badger includes dozens of revealing interviews with bike racers and La Vie Claire personnel whose varying recollections of events, changed opinions, personal insights and private confessions paint a complete portrait of LeMond, Hinault, and the years that led up to this, the most important race of their careers and, arguably, the greatest ever Tour de France.

Would you be curious to know what Greg LeMond, Bernard Hinault, Andy Hampsten, Urs Zimmermann, Paul Kochli, and others thought of Slaying the Badger after reading the UK edition? The U.S. edition includes their reactions in a new Afterword.

To replay the 1986 Tour de France on this site (which will only be available for a limited time), please visit this post on Thomas Prehn and then begin clicking “Next” in the upper-right corner of the post to move forward to the next story in the chronology.

VeloPress sincerely thanks you for reading.

Find Slaying the Badger in your local bookstore, bike shop, or online and as an e-book:Slaying the Badger U.S. edition final cover

Hammering for Hollywood, Peloton “Races It Up” on Longest Stage

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Thinking that this longest of Tour stages from Poitiers to Bordeaux was to be a hot, lazy, flat slog, many Tour journalists went 130km ahead to take advantage of a sumptuous Bastille Day buffet put out free by the rich brandy burghers of the French region of Cognac.

But, true to the pace of this year’s Tour, the pack was again ahead of the fastest possible schedule — this time by 25 minutes — and the buffet was abandoned, to the dismay of both its organizers and salivating beneficiaries.

Readers may find it amusing to learn that the peloton was ahead of the predicted pace because they were “racing it up” for a film crew shooting for the upcoming movie Yellow Jersey. As the film truck rolled through Cognac, there was none other than matinee idol Hinault five meters off the front and hammering for Hollywood. For the Tour’s most glamorous rider, it was highly appropriate.

Bernard Hinault and his many yellow jerseys

Furious on the bike yet fabulous on the clothesline, Hinault poses with some of his maillots jaunes

A strong tailwind spurred numerous attacks in the last hour of racing. The Hitachi team knew that to win a stage, they would have to force a breakaway, which was what team leader Claude Criquielion did on a small hill with 15km to go.

A 13-man group gave chase, carrying second-place Paris-Roubaix finisher Rudy Dhaenens.

Realizing that breakaway companion Matthew Hermans was the best sprinter in the bunch, Dhaenens attacked in a corner just as the group arrive on the 4km finishing circuit. Criquielion took the group wide through the turn, and before the others realized what had happened, Dhaenens had 40 meters. Going into time trial mode, he held off Hermans to take what is considered the most prestigious flat stage of this year’s Tour.

GC: no change

Watch Dhaenens sneak attack for Hitachi’s first win of the race:

Today’s race coverage brought to you by The Race for the Yellow Jersey.

Please join us tomorrow morning for continued coverage of the 1986 Tour de France.

The Race for the Yellow Jersey on cassette