The Tour visits Saint-Lary-Soulan
The Tour was first here in 1974 when Raymond Poulidor won. Lucien
Van Impe has won here twice. The Tour has only been here once in
the last 20 years, in 1993 when Zenon Jaskula of Poland won.
July 17th in the Tour.
- Francois Faber is the first Luxembourger to win a stage in 1908.
The following year he would win five stages in a row and win it
all.
- In 1927 Andre Leducq took the final stage in Paris. He would
flirt with the yellow jersey until 1930 when he won it all.
- Henri Pelissier was the first of the brothers to take a stage,
winning in Brest in 1913. Little brother Charles was the last,
in Marseille on this date in 1935.
- In 1937 the Tour scheduled three consecutive double stages,
followed on the 17th with a triple stage. Eloi Meulenberg took
two of the three.
- Merckx? You know the drill. In 1972 the first of a double
stage finished on the Col du Galibier, and Merckx got there
first. Cyrille Guimard took the afternoon stage from Valloire
to Aix-les-Bains.
- Freddy Maertens won an impressive seven stages in 1976. One
of them was in Versailles on this date.
- Claudio Chiappucci had 2'24" on Greg Lemond going into the
stage to Luz Ardiden. Remember, Lemond had taken a minute out
of Fignon in only 15km the year before to win. Chiappucci is
not as good of a time trialist as Fignon. So he is thinking
he needs to be bold in order to give himself the cushion he
needs to win.
So he attacks early. The bold move blows up on him, and Lemond
counter attacks. Miguel Indurain is the only rider that can
stay with him. Indurain takes the stage, Lemond gets within
5 seconds of Chiappucci and seals the Tour.
NB Chiappucci already had enough time to hold off Lemond in
the final TT, he just didn't know it. If he had just followed
Lemond to the finish he'd have won the Tour.
- "The Look." In 2001 Lance Armstrong wins in L'Alpe d'Huez.
Bob Schwartz
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