Vive le Tour

Vive le Tour: Amazing Tales of the Tour de France
Stories from ‘Vive le Tour’ by Nick Brownlee
Snippet #67. Dates: 4-26 July 1992. No. of stages: 21 stages. Distance:  3 978 km

What had looked an ominous foretaste of things to come in 1991 proved accurate the following year when Miguel Indurain won his second Tour by effectively putting his foot on its throat and pressing down until its resistance was gone. The Spaniard came into the race having already won the Giro d’Italia three weeks earlier by dint of his superlative time trialing ability allied with a stubbornness in the mountains.

Within a few minutes of the Tour commencing, it was clear nothing had changed. In San Sebastian, in front of a huge and adoring Basque crowd, Indurain swept to yellow in the 8 km Prologue. Although he lost it the following day, everyone knew that it was only a case of waiting until the next time trial until he won it back in. Sure enough, in the 65 km circuit around Luxembourg, Indurain destroyed the field – in a highly symbolic moment, he overtook former Tour champion Laurent Fignon, who had set off 6 minutes ahead of him.

A couple of days later, in the Alps, Indurain snatched back the maillot jaune and kept it all the way to Paris, pausing only to win his third time trial of the race along the way, covering the 64 km at a staggering average speed of 52.349kph. Solo breakaways rarely succeed. Most of the time they are the cycling equivalent of 15 minutes of fame, a chance for an unknown rider to give himself and his shirt sponsor a rare taste for an hour or two before he is gobbled up by the relentless pack. When a rider does manage to stay ahead, though, it provides one of the magical moments of the sport.

And in 1992, Italy’s Claudio Chiappucci did just that on the long and torturous Alpine stage from St-Gervais, at the foot of Mont Blanc, to the ski station at Sestriere 254 km away. Perhaps anxious to cement himself as a true contender after finishing second and third in his first two Tours, or perhaps spurred on by the thousands of Italian fans lining the route towards the Italian border, Chiappucci broke away with a small group of riders after just 50 km, then set off on his own with 125 km to go. With several mountains to cross before Sestriere, few thought the Italian would survive in the sapping heat. Yet on he went, relentlessly turning the pedals and getting further and further from the peloton. Suddenly, Indurain and the other leaders realized that Chiappucci’s daring solo assault could well secure him the yellow jersey and set off in hot pursuit. Chiappucci, however, was not to be caught that day. His arrival at Sestriere was greeted by a sea of Italian flags and a hero’s welcome. In any other year the breakaway would have been good enough to win the Tour – but Indurain was less than two minutes behind, protecting his yellow jersey.

The US based Motorola team caused more than a few raised eyebrows when team leader Phil Anderson arrived at the start line wearing an earpiece. It turned out that the earpiece was connected to a receiver in Anderson shirt, which in turn was connected remotely to a transmitter fitted underneath the Australian’s saddle. The equipment was designed to enable Anderson to receive radio instructions from team manager Jim Ochowicz and had a range of 1km. “It’s simply standard Motorola equipment,” said a team spokesman, which rather understated the huge impact the innovation would have on the sport of professional road racing. Before, if a team manager wanted to get information to his riders, he would have to catch up to one of them in the team car. Now all he had to do was to speak into a radio fitted onto his dashboard.

Soon earpieces were standard within the peloton, much to the disgust of veteran like Bernard Hinault who declared that riders who wore them were ‘no more than simply pedaling machines’ with little or no appreciation of tactics.

The 1992 tour was the most cosmopolitan ever, visiting six countries on route to Paris. These were: Spain Belgium Holland Germany Luxembourg and Italy.