The 1989 Tour de France was the 76th Tour de France, a race of 21 stages and a prologue, over 3285.3 km in total. In the closest tour in history, Greg LeMond was behind by 50 seconds at the start of the final stage, a time trial into Paris. LeMond rode for an average speed of 54.55 km/h (34.093 mph), the second fastest time trial ever ridden in the Tour de France. He made up 58 seconds on Laurent Fignon, to win the race by 8 seconds. LeMond and Fignon occupied the top two places between them from early in the race. The two men were never separated by more than 53 seconds throughout the race.
The strength of the PDM team was reflected by not only winning the team classification and having four cyclists in the top ten of the general classification, but also by winning four of the five secondary individual classifications: Sean Kelly won both the points and intermediate sprints classifications, Gert-Jan Theunisse won the mountains classification and Steven Rooks won the combination classification. The young rider classification was won by French Fabrice Philipot from the Toshiba team.
Read more about 1989 Tour De France: Race Format, Results
Famous quotes containing the words tour and/or france:
“Left Washington, September 6, on a tour through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.... Absent nineteen days. Received every where heartily. The country is again one and united! I am very happy to be able to feel that the course taken has turned out so well.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
““Eh Bien you like this sacred pig of a country?” asked Marco.
“Why not? I like it anywhere. It’s all the same, in France you are paid badly and live well; here you are paid well and live badly.””
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)