Description
1983 Tour de France
The 1983 Tour de France carried special historical significance, marking 80 years since the first Tour set out from Paris in 1903. Because the race had been interrupted during both World Wars, 1983 was actually the 70th edition of the Tour, but eight decades after Maurice Garin won that pioneering first race, the Tour had grown into one of the greatest sporting events in the world. The 1983 edition ran from July 1 through July 24, with a prologue and 22 stages before the traditional finish on the Champs-Élysées. At the end stood a new French star: 22-year-old Laurent Fignon of Renault-Elf, riding his first Tour de France. Fignon won the overall classification by 4 minutes 4 seconds over Spain’s Ángel Arroyo, with Peter Winnen third at 4:09. Sean Kelly dominated the points competition to win the green jersey, Lucien Van Impe won the mountains classification, Fignon also claimed the young rider classification, and TI-Raleigh won the team competition.
The race began without four-time Tour winner and defending champion Bernard Hinault, leaving the competition unusually open. The yellow jersey changed hands repeatedly during the first half of the Tour, with riders including Phil Anderson, Kim Andersen and Pascal Simon enjoying time at the head of the race. Simon emerged as the central figure of one of the Tour’s great stories after taking yellow following Stage 10. The following day he crashed and fractured his shoulder blade. Instead of abandoning, Simon continued, somehow defending the yellow jersey through several stages despite riding in considerable pain. Fignon remained close behind, and as the race approached the Alps it became increasingly clear that Simon’s injury would ultimately decide how long he could remain in the Tour.
The inevitable moment came on Stage 17, a brutal 223-kilometer Alpine stage from La Tour-du-Pin to L’Alpe d’Huez that included the Col du Cucheron, Col du Granier, Grand Cucheron and Col du Glandon before the final climb to Alpe d’Huez. Simon finally climbed off his bicycle after roughly 95 kilometers, ending an extraordinary week-long defense of the yellow jersey with a fractured shoulder blade. Peter Winnen won the stage on Alpe d’Huez, while Fignon finished fifth and became the new race leader. From that point, the young Frenchman proved that he had not simply inherited yellow. He defended his position through the remaining Alpine stages as experienced Grand Tour riders including Van Impe, Winnen, Arroyo and Pedro Delgado attempted to challenge him.
The mountains provided much of the Tour’s finest racing. Scotland’s Robert Millar won at Bagnères-de-Luchon, Ángel Arroyo took the mountainous time trial at the Puy de Dôme, Winnen triumphed at Alpe d’Huez and the great Belgian climber Lucien Van Impe won at Morzine-Avoriaz on his way to capturing the mountains classification. The Tour also introduced European audiences to a new force in professional cycling with the participation of a Colombian national team. Although the experiment in opening the Tour to amateur national teams ultimately brought only the Colombian squad to the start, riders from Colombia would soon become a major presence in the Tour’s mountains.
Fignon put the Tour beyond doubt on the penultimate racing day with a superb victory in the 50-kilometer individual time trial at Dijon. He beat Arroyo by 35 seconds and further increased his advantage over Winnen before riding into Paris the following day as Tour de France champion. Swiss rider Gilbert Glaus won the final stage on the Champs-Élysées, but the day belonged to Fignon. Eighty years after the Tour de France began as an audacious experiment in 1903, its anniversary edition produced an unexpected new champion and introduced one of the decade’s defining riders. Fignon returned the following year and won again, delivering an even more commanding performance in the 1984 Tour.
**********************
This item is one of a kind; please look carefully at the photos to determine the condition.
Recent Comments