The time trial that concluded the 1989 tour.
Laurent Fignon led Greg Lemond by 50 seconds.
Greg had brought an innovation that was being by the triathlon world at the time, clip on aero bars attached to his cow horns, plus he used the now legendary Giro AeroHead. Fignon elected no helmet, no aero bars and double discs (a real bad idea with crosswinds)
The finish is classic.
Somethings to take away from this:
- it gave aero bars serious respectability on he cycling world
- it made Greg a mythic figure in the TT and in cycling. Greg was coming back from a serious hunting accident that almost killed him
Some personal notes:
- after watching this, I knew I wanted a set of those bars. A month later Performance had them in there catalogue. I ordered a set, waited a month on back order and fell in love with them the first time I used them. I still have them 17 years later in my garage. I will have to do a posting on my old biathlon bike
- about 9 years ago, while working Kathy Lemond called up to order something, lets just say I acted like a idiot on the phone as I told her how much I worshipped her husband and that finish. She thanked me, but i guess she thought I was whacked.
- Fignon (aka The Professor), he was never one of my favorite cyclists till after this race. The fall and winter, I could be seen wearing he yellow and black of his team, Super/Systeme U. I had a winter cap ,jacket and winter gloves. To this day I still have the gloves.
I just wonder, what if Fignon had gone with aerobars, and aero helmet and just the one disc, would have Lemond still have been the legend that he became that year by winning that year???
No comments:
Post a Comment