A lot can go right and wrong in a race that traverses thousands of miles.
Even the best athletes who compete in the Tour de France fall victim to mechanical errors, illness, crashes, or other weird hiccups. Any misfortune can easily shatter their hopes and leave them hopelessly out of reach of the coveted yellow jersey.
Usually, those factors stack up throughout the tour to create gaps of several minutes in the overall general classification time between the race’s winner and the chasers. Riders often cement their victories before they even arrive in Paris for the final stage of the race, barring a cataclysmic crash or mechanical issue.
In 1989, nothing could be further from the truth. After weeks of racing and an epic battle that saw the yellow jersey handed back and forth throughout the entire race, just seconds separated the winner from the second-place finisher.
An Epic Tour de France Battle Brews
Even before the Tour de France began in 1989, cyclists knew a showdown was fast approaching among three of the top riders in the world: American Greg LeMond, France’s Laurent Fignon, and Spaniard Pedro Delgado.
Delgado won the Tour de France the year before, so he was a key contender straight out of the gate.
Fignon won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 but had since fallen ill or suffered injuries that kept him out of the hunt for the yellow jersey. He’d recently proved he was on form to take a third title with a win at the 1989 Giro d’Italia just months before.
Greg LeMond found himself more of a question mark ahead of the race. LeMond took the yellow jersey at the Tour de France in 1986. He was the first American to do so and was on track to become a U.S. cycling superstar, the likes of which had never been seen.
However, in 1987, LeMond suffered a horrific hunting injury that nearly ended his career and life. LeMond was shot in the back with a shotgun, leaving him peppered with lead. He slowly built back his strength to enter competitive cycling again, but the impacts of his injuries were noticeable.
LeMond struggled in stages of the Giro d’Italia, and reportedly told confidants and relatives that he was all but ready to give up cycling.
Whether LeMond would be ready for the challenges of the Tour de France, if Delgado could repeat the success of the year before, and whether Fignon could claim a third yellow jersey all remained to be seen.
Flurries of speculation and conjecture erupted in the days leading up to the tour. But when it finally began, the picture rapidly sharpened.
1989 Tour de France Day One
The 1989 Tour de France began with a 5-mile prologue time trial in which riders set out alone to race for position against the clock.
Of the three men in the spotlight, LeMond hit the road first. He made a statement on the opening stage with a time of just more than 10 minutes, putting him in second place. At the end of LeMond’s run, he was behind only Erik Breukink, who edged him out by about 6 seconds.
However, Fignon also put down a scorcher of a time trial shortly after and bumped LeMond into third place by a fraction of a second. Ireland’s Sean Kelly also barely beat LeMond in a later run, pushing him to fourth place.
Still, at the end of the first day, it was clear that both LeMond and Fignon came to race. But the real drama encircled Delgado. Delgado had the final start time of the day as the previous tour winner. As his start time approached, however, he was nowhere to be found.
Whether racers begin at their assigned time or not, the clock starts ticking.
After missing his start time by 2 minutes and 42 seconds, Delgado finally took to the course. The error marked yet another dramatic episode for Delgado, who had battled allegations of doping in the 1988 Tour de France and bribing another rider in the Tour of Spain.
Still, Delgado, who asserted his innocence, ground out his run to finish in last place.