1980 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

The prologue was won by Hinault, who remained the leader until the first team time trial, won by the Ti Raleigh team, whose Gerrie Knetemann became the new leader. In the next stage, Rudy Pevenage, Yvon Bertin and Pierre Bazzo escaped and won by ten minutes. Of those three, Bertin, a team mate of Hinault, was the best ranked, and became the new leader. When Bertin lost many minutes in the third stage, Pevenage became the new leader.

Hinault won the fourth stage, a time trial, but Pevenage remained leader. In the next stage, run in terrible weather, Hinault escaped together with Kuiper, won the stage and gained won 2 minutes on the rest. Many riders experienced tendinitis problems, including Hinault.

The Ti Raleigh team won the team time trial in stage seven, and Hinault's problems were showing, as he could not do his part of the workload. Hinault spent the next few stages at the back of the peloton, talking with his team manager of the tour doctor.

In the time trial in stage 11, won by Zoetemelk, Hinault finished fifth, which was enough to become the new race leader, but with Zoetemelk only 21 seconds behind. Normally, Hinault was the better time trialist, so Zoetemelk's stage victory made him confident that he had the chance to win the Tour.

On the evening before stage 13, which included mountains of the highest category, Hinault decided to withdraw. Zoetemelk, until that moment second in the general classification, became the new leader, but refused to wear the yellow jersey, in the tradition of Eddy Merckx who refused to don the yellow jersey in the 1971 Tour de France after Luis Ocaña left the race as leader.

In that thirteenth stage, Zoetemelk rode conservatively. He allowed Raymond Martin to escape, as he was no threat in the general classification, but kept close to Kuiper, who was his main rival for the overall victory. Zoetemelk remained leader after that stage, with Kuiper in second place, 1'10" behind him, while Martin climbed to third place.

Zoetemelk kept following this defensive tactic for the rest of the race. In the sixteenth stage, one of Zoetemelk's team mates Johan van der Velde slipped and made Zoetemelk crash, injuring his thigh and arm. Zoetemelk quickly remounted and continued the race. Zoetemelk was able to get back to Kuiper, losing no time to him.

The fall in the sixteenth stage did affect Zoetemelk's performance in the seventeenth stage, as Zoetemelk had to let others go on the first climb. Helped by his team mates, he was able to stay close to his competitors, and the only riders that escaped were the ones that were no threat for the overall victory. In the eighteenth stage, Ludo Loos escaped and crossed all the cols first, finishing more than five minutes ahead of the rest. But Loos was already far behind in the general classification, and Zoetemelk finished in the second group, some minutes ahead of Kuiper, thus building his lead to more than five minutes.

Zoetemelk won the time trial in stage 20, and improved his margin to almost seven minutes, and thus won the 1980 Tour.