7-19-89 Things are heating up in the Tour de France. With less than a week to go, Greg LeMond wears the yellow jersey. Yesterday’s stage in the French Alps must have been a thing to behold, based on the newspaper reports that I read. As I reconstruct events, the top riders (LeMond, Laurent Fignon, Pedro Delgado, and Charly Mottet) were jockeying for position on the final climb of the day. Pascal Richard of Switzerland, who won the stage, was far ahead with another rider; but neither is a threat to win the race, so they were permitted to go ahead. Here’s an excerpt from one of the newspaper accounts:
LeMond’s most dangerous rival, Pedro Delgado, severely tested the American on the awesome final ascent to the top of the 7,740-foot-high Izoard pass, kicking away on one of his powerful attacks.
But LeMond hung on, and within minutes, it was the Spaniard who was struggling to keep up as LeMond tore down the other side of the mountain at a terrifying, almost-suicidal speed.
Only Charly Mottet of France, third in the overall standings, could stay with LeMond as the race favorites sped down the descent to Briançon.
Dutchman Steven Rooks went agonizingly close to toppling over the precipice on one tight corner as he forced his front wheel back from the very edge of the narrow road.
But Delgado, fourth overall, Rooks and Gert-Jan Theunisse of the Netherlands caught LeMond and Mottet in the last few hundred yards of one of this year’s most exciting stages.
Here’s an excerpt from the other report [I replaced brackets with parentheses to avoid confusion]:
(LeMond, Fignon, Delgado, and Mottet) took turns trying to gain distance on the others up and down the mountain passes. But each time the group swallowed up the margin.
On the final descent, just before Briançon, with speeds going close to 62 mph, LeMond moved out to an (sic) 20-second advantage over the other contenders.
But as they entered the town, LeMond was caught and Mottet sprinted at the finish to gain third, just ahead of LeMond and Delgado in a group about five minutes behind Richard.
I’m tingling with excitement as I write this. Imagine: Having climbed a steep mountain, the riders had to sprint down the other side at insane speeds! I wish I could have seen it. By the way, the sixty-two miles per hour is hard to believe. The fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike is forty-five miles per hour, and it was only for a couple of seconds (on Colossal Cave hill in Tucson). LeMond, for one, does not wear a helmet, so if the slightest thing happened to him or his bike at that speed, he would surely be dead. Rooks apparently came close to death as he rounded a turn. There is no question in my mind: These are the best athletes in the world. They may also be the biggest daredevils.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 