September 19, 2020. At the top of the Planche des Belles Filles, the Tour de France capsizes.
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic, white as a candle, bowed to the lightning rise of his compatriot Tadej Pogacar, who paraded in yellow the next day on the Champs-Élysées.
This final awakened the drama of the Tour de France 1989. An American show ...
Crazy and uncontrollable
That year, at the end of a crazy and uncontrollable edition - it all started during the prologue with the blunder of Pedro Delgado, the outgoing winner, who, gone to warm up, missed the start and lost 2 min 54 s - , during which the yellow jersey spent its time changing shoulders (7 days in yellow for Greg LeMond, 9 for Laurent Fignon), the last round offers an individual time trial (24.5 km) between Versailles and the Champs-Élysées.
Laurent Fignon, blond plume, has 50 seconds ahead of his American rival.
On the Champs-Élysées, the Super U yellow jersey team sits down to follow the epilogue.
The atmosphere is festive.
Vincent Barteau, winner on July 14 in Marseille of the bicentenary stage of the Revolution, which all the French in the peloton dreamed of winning, finds himself on this parade day torn between Fignon and LeMond, his two best friends, and says: “In the train that brought us back to Paris, some of the team had done the accounts, the total premiums, the distribution.
I had passed Greg, he had said to me: “You know, I haven't lost the Tour yet…”, but I didn't ask myself any questions.
At Lenôtre, after our time trial, we were all beautiful.
We find our women, the Tour is over, it's great.
To resume 50 seconds seemed impossible.
And during the first check-in, we saw the difference in pace, in speed.
We removed everything that was on the tables… ”
"A suspense carried to the maximum"
Jean-Marie Leblanc, who was experiencing his first Tour as race director, remembers: “I don't imagine that things can be turned around.
In my head, the Tour is almost folded.
Then, we understood along the way that LeMond was gradually taking the ascendancy.
»19 seconds ahead after 10 km, 24 after 14 km, 32 after 20 km… The seconds fall, ring out.
On the Champs-Élysées, Laurent Fignon seems to shrink, the line is receding.
Victory is denied.
"I can still hear the final count ..." LeMond won the time trial (at an average of 54.545 km / h), the protégé of Cyrille Guimard, far from demerit, snatched 3rd place on the stage (at 52 km / h average).
On the verge of fainting, he collapses on the hot pavement.
Loses the Tour for 8 seconds, which freezes as the smallest gap in the history of the event between the winner and his runner-up.
“This face to face gave a breath of freshness, suspense, the unexpected, although the riders were no longer hopes. Fignon-LeMond is the very example of a successful Tour, the suspense carried to the maximum, the competition in its most exciting and attractive. It was the ideal scenario. ”
Jean-Marie Leblanc
Eight seconds.
A little over 80 meters, after 3,285 kilometers ... A few pedal strokes, a few blinks, a few musical notes, a breath.
“It's incredible, incredible.
I am shocked ”, loose the American.
“I see the scene again, the Champs-Élysées invaded, underlines Jean-Marie Leblanc.
I don't think it equates to the famous 1964 Anquetil-Poulidor, but it's immediately behind.
Anquetil-Poulidor, it was two Frenchmen, it was exacerbated, but Fignon-LeMond, it was strong.
LeMond was in a small team, we hardly knew his sponsor (ADR-Agrigel), it was an artisanal team ... This face-to-face gave a breath of freshness, suspense, unexpected, although the riders were no longer hopes.
Fignon-LeMond is the very example of a successful Tour, the suspense carried to the maximum, the competition in its most exciting and attractive.
It was the ideal scenario.
And, in both, there was a French.
"Before delivering:" This is one of the best memories of my life as an organizer.
LeMond had had a serious accident (hunting, in April 1987) and I had visited him in the United States on his hospital bed for L'Équipe.
He was in pain, was on morphine, had difficulty speaking.
When it was time to leave, he took my hand and said: “I will be back.”
I only half believed it.
For Fignon, I learned from his relatives that he had been very bruised… He had missed his chance in the last two mountain stages where he was very superior.
He could have “executed” LeMond.
It was later learned that he had induration in the saddle which severely handicapped him.
"
Victory bonus
Vincent Barteau shares the sorrow of his leader Laurent Fignon and the Super U team, who saw his victory bonus and vacation plans brutally reduced, then spent the evening with Greg LeMond at the Crillon.
As a testament to a long friendship begun within the Renault team, the American offers the jovial Normand a Mercedes E 300 the next morning with which they will tour the criteriums "with American plates".
In 2007, Laurent Fignon (who died in 2010) revisiting the 1989 Tour and the legendary 8 seconds told Le Figaro not to regret the epilogue, but a detail: the triathlete's handlebars which covered his rival's bike for the first time in race (the American was also fitted with a profiled helmet, when the French had launched the assault bareheaded, ponytail in the wind): “This handlebar, I did not know what result he would have on me.
I had been offered it, but we wanted to test it first.
A mistake ?
No, it corresponded to the team logic, but it represents a regret, because I then tried it and I quickly realized that it was easy to use, to adjust.
It wouldn't have bothered me, on the contrary, if I had used it in this Tour;
but that year, it was normally prohibited by the regulations… ”
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