good on that climb. I had attacked a
couple of times at the beginning, but it
was suddenly gone. I could tell Fignon
wasn’t feeling so good either. This was
supposed to be the big day for him. If
he was going to make a difference, it
was going to be that day.
My coach on ADR at the time was
Jose De Cauwer. I did not have any
experience with him or who he was
before I came on that team, but he
turned out to be a really good tactical
coach. He knew me, and he knew what
it took to make sure the other team
coaches, specifically Fignon’s coach
and my ex-coach, Guimard, couldn’t
get up to his rider to relay messages.
I probably would have lost the Tour
there if De Cauwer hadn’t driven so
well, although there were some stages
where Fignon would have lost as well.
it makes it even more difficult to
handle that kind of underhandedness.
When I get tired, I start dropping
my shoulders, and Guimard could
see that from behind. I had no idea
what was going on behind, but De
Cauwer was doing everything he
could to block Guimard from getting
to Fignon to tell him to attack. With
about 5k to the top of the climb,
Guimard finally made it up to us.
1989: LeMond vs. Fignon,
De Cauwer vs. Guimard
The next time I raced up Alpe d’Huez
was 1989. That was probably my
most memorable ride up Alpe d’Huez.
The 1986 ride up Alpe d’Huez with
Hinault was a non-event for me. It was
a fake race. It was staged. I couldn’t
race the race. It is kind of like having
a race already done, you don’t really
have to race. It became a non-event.
My performances on the bike were
so varied, that it was this week I’m
quitting cycling, next week I’m going
to stick with it, next week I’m quitting
cycling. When I started that Tour, I
had already made the decision that I
would quit racing unless I could slowly
improve that year. I always think the
day I said I was going to quit was the
day I started to do better.
In ‘ 89 I came in to that stage at a point
where I was really not confident in my
ability. I kept doing better as the Tour
went on, and I got the yellow jersey
two days before Alpe d’Huez. I just
had to get through that stage, and then
we’d be close to Paris. That was the
culmination of two years of recovery.
In ‘ 86 I got shot, then I had two
other surgeries. I was on and off
my bike through most of ‘ 88 to ‘ 89.
With all that over the previous
years, I arrived to Alpe d’Huez in
the lead of the Tour de France with
only a few stages remaining and one
monster obstacle remaining. I came
in to the climb, and I actually felt
really good at the bottom. I attacked
a few times, but I got reeled in by
Delgado’s Colombian teammate,
Rondon. He then started setting this
pretty hard pace for Delgado, and
I went from feeling good, to kind
of struggling, to really hurting.
Fignon was the guy that I really was
worried about, so despite my suffering,
I just had to watch him. From all
outward appearances, I was feeling
Guimard’s face is about three feet
away from me in the car, Fignon is
right in front of me and Guimard is
yelling at him, ‘You have to attack.
You have to attack now.’ I’m sitting
there like, ‘Please don’t attack.’ At
this point, I’m not realizing why
he is telling him to attack, because
I don’t think that I’m showing
that I’m getting tired. Fignon,
looks at him and says, ‘I can’t.’
It was good for me to hear that, but
it wasn’t over. So Guimard goes back
and probably a couple kilometers later,
he’s back, and this time my shoulders
were probably really dropping, and
this time Guimard makes it clear:
‘You either attack or you’re fired.’
He told Fignon that I was cooked,
fried. This time, when he told him to
attack, he did, and I tried to follow
him. Guimard went back, and I went
right to my limit and cracked. I had to
