No miracle, just the measured effort of a confident Tour champion BY CHARLES HOWE Critics have derided Greg LeMond for a lack of panache in winning the 1990 Tour de France, but it actually provides an agreeable counterpoint to the previous year’s high drama, building with a slow but sure inevitability and showcasing LeMond at his best – loyal, patient, decisive, vigilant, aggressive, tactically astute, and able to do what it took to win – while providing plenty of excitement and plot twists of its own. The pattern for much of the race was set on the first full stage, where the winning break of Frans Maassen, Ronan Pensec, Claudio Chiappucci, and Steve Bauer finished 10:28 ahead of LeMond and the other favorites. Each of the four would have his day in the sun – first Maassen, with the stage win, and then Bauer, who donned the yellow jersey for the second time in his career. With the kind of form he had for the 1988 Tour, when he finished fourth, and with the stronger support of the 7-11 team, it seemed possible that Bauer might keep the jersey all the way to Paris. Showing enormous class, Raul Alcala dominated the first long time trial, held on a fast, rain-slicked point-to- point course, to become the first Mexican to win a Tour stage: Stage 7, Vittel – Epinal ITT 1. Raul Alcala, 61.5 km in 1:17:05 (47.9 km/h) 2. Miguel Indurain, at 1:24 3. Giani Bugno, at 1:47 4. Pedro Delgado, at 2:05 5. LeMond, at 2:11 7. Pensec, at 2:26 12. Erik Breukink, at 2:40 14. Bauer, at 2:43 15. Chiappucci, at 2:49 23. Maassen, at 3:22 Afterward, LeMond insisted that changing wind conditions had affected the result; he also appeared to go out too fast compared to the other contenders who started near him. In any case, of the four escapees, Bauer held on to his lead, while Chiappucci similarly limited his losses, but it was Pensec’s surprisingly strong ride that seemed to change race’s dynamic. Recruited to LeMond’s Team Z for his climbing ability, Pensec now emerged as a bona fide GC threat with all the Alpine stages still to come, while LeMond, in 7th place at over 10 minutes back, was cast in a support role for his teammate, and Alcala, lying 5th at 7:19, looked poised to attack with the support of the powerful PDM team. According to expectation, Pensec took over the yellow jersey on stage 10, the first multi-pass ride through the high mountains, as Bauer conceded 1:38 to him and all the other contenders. Looming next was the Tour’s hardest stage, traversing the Madeleine (HC, 1984 meters) and Glandon (Cat. 1, 1950 m) before finishing atop the fabled L’Alpe d’Huez (HC, 1860 m). It all added up to more than 4600 meters (15,000 feet) of climbing, and as it had so often before, the pilgrimage to L’Alpe d’Huez produced its own special drama. With only one hand on the handlebars as he took a feed before the Glandon, LeMond hit a pothole, lost control, and crashed into an elderly spectator. “She was lying on the ground with her mouth open. I was worried because I once read about a spectator dying after being hit by a rider. I asked her husband if she was all right, and he replied, ‘She’s okay. Go on Greg, get going!” LeMond, however, had to contend with an injury of his own before setting off. “I fell on my left hand. The middle finger was bent out at an angle. I had to pull it straight, and then push it back into its socket.” With a trickle of blood running down his left shin, LeMond was soon joined by two teammates, and the 45 seconds lost to the crash were quickly made up. Then, on a short, steep climb that interrupted the long descent of the Glandon, he covered a clever attack by Delgado that took many by surprise, Bugno followed, and the winning break had formed. Their lead of 2:35 at the bottom of the descent of the Glandon would dwindle going up the Alpe, as Delgado weakened, while LeMond and Bugno eyed each other, the latter being concerned with the stage win rather than the GC. The slackened tempo allowed a resurgent Breukink and Fabio Parra to catch up, setting up a sprint finish. BETH SCHNEIDER PHOTOGRAPH Through the final bends at L’Alpe d’Huez, LeMond led Bugno, trailed Breukink . into the final corner . 2 Into the final, sharp left-hand corner they dove in this “stadium of cycling,” with an estimated throng of a quarter-million roaring its approval, but LeMond, carrying too much speed, locked up his rear wheel and skidded, narrowly missing a red Coke cone at the edge of the road. As it turned out, his use of the front brake was hindered by the dislocated finger, forcing him to overcompensate with the rear. Bogged down in too big of a gear after regaining control, he fought back hard and led out the sprint, only to have Bugno come around him just before the line. It was the first Tour stage win for the 26-year-old Italian (and the first win on ‘L’Alpe’ for any Italian since Fausto Coppi in 1952), who had shown his class with a wire-to-wire win in the Giro just 19 days prior to the Tour’s start. The day’s most significant loser was Alcala, while Bauer’s collapse removed him from contention altogether: Stage 11, St. Gervais – L’Alpe d’Huez 1. Bugno, 182.5 km in 5:37:51 (32.4 km/h) 2. LeMond, s.t. 3. Breukink, at 0:01 7. Andy Hampsten, at 0:40 8. Delgado, s.t. 10. Pensec, at 0:48 13. Chiappucci, at 1:26 30. Alcala, at 5:41 62. Bauer, at 21:45 . beaten at the line by Giani Bugno 3 Surprisingly, Pensec faded badly the next day’s ITT, even though it began with the Cat. 2 Côte d’Engins, a 13 km climb at a steep grade of 8%: Stage 12, Fontaine – Villard-de-Lans ITT 1. Breukink, 33.5 km in 56:52 (35.4 km/h) 8. Chiappucci, at 1:05 2. Delgado, at 0:30 11. Alcala, at 1:22 3. Indurain, at 0:43 22. Bugno, at 2:42 4. Lejarreta, at 0:54 24. Hampsten, at 2:46 5. LeMond, at 0:56 49. Pensec, at 3:50 LeMond felt he was hindered by poor equipment choice – his team had him use a disc wheel which added 200 grams – and he lost time for a wheel change as well, while Chiappucci became the third rider from the opening-day break to wear the mailliot jaune, and the first Italian to do so since Francesco Moser won the prologue in 1975: 1. Chiappucci 6. Alcala at 10:44 2. Pensec, at 1:17 7. Bugno, at 10:48 3. Breukink, at 6:55 8. Criquielion, at 11:23 4. LeMond, at 7:27 9. Lejarreta, at 12:46 5. Delgado, at 9:02 10. Hampsten, at 13:58 With Pensec out of the lead, LeMond was unshackled, and on the very next day, a hilly transitional stage between the Alps and Pyrenees, he and Team Z set to work, controlling the race making all the right moves as they attacked Chiappucci with a vengeance. The stage’s short distance – just 149 km, or less than 95 miles – made it super- aggressive overall, as “attacks and counterattacks zoomed forth like fireworks” that would mark the Bastille Day celebrations that night, including a solo effort right from the starting flag by Phil Anderson that covered the first 34 downhill kilometers in 38 minutes – but the two moves that counted the most were made by Team Z. First Pensec slipped away with a 30-man group whose lead stretched to 90 seconds, making him the yellow jersey on the road. Glued to LeMond’s wheel, Chiappucci missed the break, and so was baited into chasing, along with his Carrera team, in order to defend the yellow jersey. Once the catch of Pensec was made, LeMond and Breukink made a classic counterattack that blew the race apart: “LeMond drops the guillotine,” blared the headline for the stage write-up in VeloNews, and indeed, it was vintage LeMond. Chiappucci was exhausted and could not respond, Delgado and Bugno were taken by surprise and missed the move, but Hampsten and several others were able to bridge up. LeMond and Breukink set a furious pace up the Cat. 2 Col de La Croix de Chabouret through a gauntlet of humanity that parted before them just in time, then LeMond pressed his advantage on the descent, opening up gaps on every curve as he covered the last 18 km in 17 minutes, but just before the wide finishing straight in the bike manufacturing capital of St. Etienne, he waived his four breakaway companions by, conceding the stage win as thanks for their cooperation. LeMond would later credit his Scott “Drop-in” handlebars for helping him get away, and wind-tunnel testing the next winter at the Texas A & M low-speed wind tunnel confirmed that they actually made him more aerodynamic than on his time trial bike. In any case, Chiappucci was also dropped by the main chase group . Stage 13, Villard de Lans – St.