The Tour visits Mende
The Tour has only been here once, and if this stage is
anything like that one we are in for a ride. Laurent
Jalabert attacked only 23km into the race and got away
with several ONCE teammates. On the French national
holiday they stretched their lead until Jalabert was
the yellow jersey 'on the road'. The Banesto and Gewiss
teams organized a chase but not enough to pull them back.
Jalabert took the stage and the former sprinter had
established himself as a General Classification threat
in Grand Tours.
July 21st in the Tour
- Belgian Jean Aerts took the stage to Rennes in 1930.
It was his third stage in a row and his 5th out of the
prior 7. The two he didn't win were both mountain stages.
It was quite a run for a great sprinter.
- Maurice Archambaud won twice on a triple stage day in
Montpellier and Beziers. Pierre Jaminet took the other
stage. No one has won three times in the same day.
- In 1967 Felice Gimondi erupted to win at Puy de Dome.
- The 1968 Tour ended with a TT into Paris, and Dutchman
Jan Janssen overtook Herman Van Springel to win by 38
seconds in the second closest finish ever.
- Merckx? Hell yeah! Wearing the yellow jersey he took
the last stage in 1974 into Paris.
- The 1978 stage on this date was a long TT in Nancy.
Everyone knew Bernard Hinault was the real deal. But it
was Joop Zoetemelk that held the lead. If he could survive
the TT the Tour was his. But the Badger beat him by over
four minutes and later he slipped into his first ever
yellow jersey.
- Hinault would win two more times on this date. In 1979
in Nogent sur Marne and a bittersweet win at L'Alpe d'Huez
in 1986.
- Erik Breukink won the Lac de Vassiviere TT in 1990. But
the big news was that Claudio Chiappucci finally relinquished
the yellow jersey to Greg Lemond.
- In 1992 Stephen Roche took the last stage for Ireland, in
La Bourboule.
- It's only happened once. Zenon Jaskula of Poland won on
this date in 1993.
- The first stage win for Latvia went to Piotr Ugrumov in
1994 in Cluses. He would also take the last stage win for
Latvia on the following day.
Bob Schwartz
[email hidden]