1989 Tour de France Podium Pennant

Authentic 1989 Tour de France Podium Pennant. These pennants were used at the race and also given to select VIP’s who visited the race.

The 1989 Tour de France was won by Greg LeMond. It was the second overall victory for the American, who had spent the previous two seasons recovering from a near-fatal hunting accident. In second place was former two-time Tour winner Laurent Fignon, ahead of Pedro Delgado, the defending champion. Due to its competitive nature, the 1989 Tour is often ranked among the best in the race’s history.

Pedro Delgado started the 1989 Tour de France as the favourite but lost almost three minutes on his principal rivals when he missed his start time in the opening prologue time trial. The race turned out to be a two-man battle between LeMond and Fignon, with the pair trading off the race lead. In the time trial stages, Fignon only managed to match LeMond in the prologue. In the other three time trials, however; he lost time to LeMond, who took advantage of aerobars formerly used mainly in triathlon events. Delgado launched several attacks in the mountain stages to eventually finish third, while LeMond rode defensively to preserve his chances. Fignon rode well in the mountains, including a strong performance on L’Alpe d’Huez which gave him the race lead on stage 17.

In the closest Tour in history, LeMond was trailing Fignon by fifty seconds at the start of the final stage, a time trial into Paris. It was not expected that LeMond would be able to make up this deficit on the 24.5 km (15.2 mi) stage. However, he rode the distance at an average speed of 54.545 km/h (33.893 mph), the fastest time trial on record in the Tour de France up to that point, and won the stage. Fignon’s time in the stage was fifty-eight seconds slower than LeMond’s, costing him the victory and giving LeMond his second Tour title. The final margin of victory was only eight seconds. From stage 5 onwards, LeMond and Fignon were the only two men to lead the race. The two men were never separated by more than 53 seconds throughout the 1989 Tour. Due to its competitive nature, the 1989 Tour is often ranked among the best in the race’s history.

Size: 25.5 x 29 cm (10 x 11 1/2 inches)

This is a one of a kind item, please review the photos carefully to determine condition.