The 1989 Cycling World Championship, held in Chambéry, France, was the greatest finale in World Championship racing of all time.
I’m not sure if it’s the fact that Greg LeMond annoys the hell out of me, whether he rolled the amazing Sean Kelly, or whether he trumped the beautifully odd Laurent Fignon in his home country that gets me most.
Maybe it was the fact that LeMond’s ride was merely months after performing an exorcism on the morale of that same hearty Frenchman. Maybe it was the dumping rain, or the fact that the ‘hitters’ actually only caught the early break with about four miles to go.
Fignon wanted revenge after an eight second loss in the Tour de France when he, the romantic Frenchman with long hair and reading glasses, lost out to technologically progressive American Greg LeMond.
That final time trial certainly went down in history as the quintessential evidence behind the benefits of technological advancement in cycling – Fignon chose bullhorn bars and Lemond used TT bars, setting the precedent every future important cycling race to followed.
In Chambéry, Greg LeMond denied his French challenger’s retribution and attained his own rainbow jersey.
Sean Kelly took third amidst a career that holds such a collection of victories he is (and already was) rendered a true legend by anyone’s account. His capability was so dynamic he could muster results in nearly any type of a race, but his sprinting prowess was unquestionable, so for LeMond to be so strong as to muscle said ‘ginger nut’ out at the finish was spectacularly unexpected.
Sean Kelly won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the points jersey at Le Tour to go with a not-so-shabby ninth place overall, as well as the World Cup of that 1989 season, so to be achieving results in one of the last races of the season was even more impressive.
Meanwhile, the first Russian rider to ever ride a world road cycling championship, Dimitri Konyshev, came second after sticking it out in the breakaway all day long.
At the end of the day, Greg LeMond was the superhuman that out-powered all of the best riders, demonstrating his spectrum of abilities and himself to be the best rider in the world (and more importantly, in America).
Adam Semple
Expert
Thanks guys. Hugo, Steve Bauer is one man full of bad luck! Such an unfortunate series of events, but all for exciting viewing ;-)
Lee Rodgers
Expert
Fine selection there Adam! Any race in the rain is generally interesting but this one was truly fascinating. Kelly also one of my favorite Hard Men, but do they come any tougher than Lemond? Skinny Yank kid turns up in France and beats the hell out of the old establishment, takes on Hinault on his own turf and wins, gets shot in the chest, almost dies and then comes back with bits of bullet still stuck in his heart and wins the Tour and the World's. Now that's tough... We might be considering him up there with Anquetil, Hinault and Coppi had he been a little luckier and had his career not been shortened by the advent of the Super Dope. A brilliant rider. Considering Floyd and Lance have both been stripped of their titles, he remain the only American to win the Tour!
Hugo Verne
Guest
Good stuf ADAM. I was talking to Steve Bauer at a bike show in Toronto some years back. We chatted about Chambery, and the elephants, a town we both know pretty well. It was one of his biggest regrets that he ran out of the money at Chambery. What a hard luck guy - at the 1988 world championships, Steve collided with Claude Criquielion as they were sprinting for the gold. Bauer was disqualified but he won the Züri-Metzgete the following year. In 1990, Steve lost the Paris-Roubaix by less than a centimeter. He designed a first rate bike in the mid 80s and had them manuafactured in Japan. They're classics now. Seen any in Oz?