Steve Bauer - Cycling Career

Cycling Career

Bauer joined the Canadian national cycling team in 1977, competing in team pursuit. He would remain on the national team for seven years, winning the national road race championship in 1981, 1982, and 1983, competing in the Commonwealth Games (1978, 1982), the Pan American Games (1979).

He capped his amateur career with a silver medal in the men's cycling road race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This was the first medal in road cycling for Canada at the Olympics.

Bauer turned professional following the Olympics, and in his second professional race, won the bronze medal at the world cycling championship road race in Barcelona.

Between 1985 and 1995, he competed in 11 Tours de France. He began his professional career in 1985 on the La Vie Claire team of Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond, where he stayed until leaving for Weinmann / La Suisse in 1988. Bauer finished fourth in the 1988 Tour de France, winning the first stage and wearing the yellow jersey for five days, the second Canadian to wear the jersey. The first was Alex Stieda in 1986, who was also the first North American to wear the yellow jersey. Riding for 7-Eleven, Bauer wore the jersey for nine days during the 1990 Tour de France, finishing 27th.

At the 1988 world championship, Bauer collided with Belgian 1984 world champion, Claude Criquielion, as they were sprinting for a gold medal finish. Bauer was disqualified and Criquielion sued Bauer for assault, asking for $1.5 million in damages in a case that dragged through the courts for more than three years before the judge ruled in Bauer's favour. In 1989 Bauer won the Züri-Metzgete.

In 1990, Bauer took second place in Paris–Roubaix to Belgian Eddy Planckaert. The finish was so close that the officials had to study the photo-finish for more than ten minutes before Planckaert was finally declared the winner. After 266 kilometers of racing, Planckaert had just edged Bauer by less than a centimeter, making it the closest finish of the race's history.

In 1994, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (civil division) for having "paved the way for Canada's coming generations of cycling enthusiasts".

With professionals allowed in the Olympics, Bauer became a member of the Canadian team for the 1996 Summer Olympics, finishing 41st in the road race. He announced his retirement later that year at 37. The following year, he co-founded Steve Bauer Bike Tours.