By Dave Campbell — When I discovered the sport of cycling in 1981, the first race I learned about was of course the Tour de France. But the second? That was the World Championships, due in part perhaps to the performances of American Greg Lemond. His silver medal in the 1982 title race in Goodwood, England at just 21 years old and his historic victory in Altenrhein, Switzerland the following year assured my annual devotion to the chase for the rainbow jersey. It would be his 1989 victory, however, that I found to be the most exciting edition ever and to this day it remains my favorite World Championship. Many consider it the most exciting one-day race of all time!
In late September of 1989, I had just started my junior year at the University of Oregon. Lemond had won the Tour de France in July in the one of the most dramatic sporting comebacks of all time, lighting up and inspiring the entire cycling community. It was during the intense afterglow of that epic Tour that word had filtered through (no internet and very slow print media) to my circle of cycling friends that Lemond had won the World Road title in Chambery, France at the end of August. Chambery was situated in the valley of the French Alps, just thirty miles from Albertville, home of the recent Winter Olympics. Since our VeloNews magazine had not yet arrived, we had been unable to confirm this rumor!
I was studying at my desk one dark fall evening when Mike Keep, my training partner and teammate, rang me with a quick, breathless message: “The Worlds is on TV, there’s only a few laps to go, get over here!” I leaped on my bike and sprinted the three blocks to Mike’s duplex, excited out of mind that we would get to see the race! Unlike me, Mike had a nice sized color TV (and cable!) and his friend Darrol Batke, who was on the National Team, had called him to let him know that ESPN was televising an hour’s worth of coverage of the event. Held just five weeks after that nail-biting edition of the Tour, the course was exceedingly difficult…21 laps of a 7.7-mile circuit for a total of 162 miles and nearly 20,000 vertical feet of climbing. The prime obstacle was the Côte de Montagnole climb which averaged 7.25% and was 2.5 miles long. To make things even tougher, a mountain thunderstorm had moved in mid-race and the skies opened up with heavy rain. It was seen as the hardest World Championship since the legendary 1980 race in nearby Sallanches, France where just fifteen riders finished!
The first serious move happened on the fourteenth lap, as homeboy climbing ace Thierry Claveyrolat, Dutchman Maarten Ducrot, Swiss Thomas Wegmüller, and Russian Dmitri Konyshev had left the remnants of an early break behind and were 3:40 clear. “Clavet” was driving up the climb out of the saddle while the cool Konyshev, a first-year pro, was riding smoothly and seemingly within himself. Ducrot seemed to just be surviving and Thomas “The Tank” was soon dropped. By the next lap, Ducrot was gone and Konyshev had to bridge back up to the flying local man on the descent with the gap now at 2:30. After some serious chasing by the Spanish team, American Andy Hampsten led through the start/finish on the penultimate lap. Frenchman Laurent Fignon (on a dream season having won Milan-San Remo, The Giro, and finished a close-second in the Tour) and Dutchman Steven Rooks were prominent near the front of the chase group.
The gap to the break was down to just 40 seconds, when Rooks, King of the Mountains in the 1988 Tour, attacked on the penultimate climb. He closed thirty seconds up the Montagnole, ultimately joining the two leaders on the descent. Irishman Martin Earley, working hard for his teammate Sean Kelly, led nine elite chasers across the line to take the bell with the gap down to just twelve seconds. Behind Earley and Kelly were 1988 protagonists Claude Criquelion of Belgium and Steve Bauer of Canada, Italian Gianni Bugno, Spaniard Marino Lejarreta, Dane Rolf Sørenson, and the two stars of the Tour: Fignon and Lemond. The last time up the climb would decide everything!
Approaching the final climb, the gap rose to 35 seconds as the cagey chasers slowed. As soon as the grade steepened, Fignon attacked, and Earley blew. The gap was down to 15 seconds as Fignon climbed smoothly in the saddle, opening a large gap on the chasing favorites while rapidly closing in on the break. Phil Liggett, the Euro expert, comments “It looks as though Laurent Fignon is headed to victory in this World Championship.” ESPN’s American voice Brian Drebber states “Can it be possible that he will exact his revenge from the humiliating loss of the Tour de France. It certainly seems so…stay tuned!” On Mike’s couch in Eugene, we were going crazy and… cue commercial break!
When the coverage came back on, my main man Greg Lemond is charging out of the chasing group and is quickly onto Fignon’s wheel. Liggett exclaimed “And Greg Lemond has made his move! Look at this! He has flown away from the chasing group and caught Laurent Fignon, and he is making it look so easy.” Lemond stays there for barely ten seconds before attacking his former teammate. Fignon responds and the breakaway is now in sight as Lemond stands again, upping the tempo once more. As the summit approaches, he sits down, shifts up, stands again, and now Fignon is flailing and getting dropped. Hitting the summit, Lemond goes straight past the break, Clavet grabs his wheel, and they charge down the descent.
There are just three miles to go, and the boys and I are going nuts! Fignon is quickly bridging across as Bauer, too is coming across but suffers an untimely puncture. Shortly after catching, the ever-confident Fignon, attacks again! Lemond leads the chase with only two miles remaining and they descend at 55 miles an hour in the rain! Konyshev, who I now remember pipped Lemond for a stage victory in the Coors Classic back in 1986 while still an amateur, has a go. Claveyrolat closes him down, and then Lemond brings up the rest a few moments later, gesticulating at Fignon who is protecting his teammate. The group hesitates again, Kelly bridges up and quickly takes Lemond’s wheel. Fignon attacks again over a slight rise, Lemond chases and then Rooks counters, gaining what looks like a race-winning gap and…another damn commercial!
The irrepressible Lemond chases down Rooks and the final kilometer is upon us. As the riders pass beneath the red kite, the motorcycle camera catches a fierce gleam in Fignon’s eye. Lemond is on the front as Fignon attacks yet again on the inside of Kelly, but Lemond responds immediately! Liggett notes that Kelly seems sluggish to catch Greg’s wheel and Fignon is visibly frustrated after being caught with 500 meters remaining. Lemond would later say that “he thought I was racing only against him, but I was racing to WIN!” Our images are briefly obscured by the giant “Fignon” banners held aloft by French fans on the homestretch as the man himself leads the riders into the final bend with just under 300 meters remaining. Lemond is in second position and looking around, while a nervous Kelly hooks Konyshev, making sure he has Greg’s wheel. The speed stays high as they swing around the final turn and the sprint starts with a brave but blown Fignon going right and Lemond charging up the left, alongside the barrier. Kelly tries to come around on the homestretch but can stand only briefly (he later admitted he was under geared) and Lemond, who would admit he felt “blocked” until the final two laps, holds everyone off from the front for his second World title. He also admitted he broke a spoke with two laps to go and considered changing the wheel, but just then he started feeling strong! He ultimately would not be denied, racing like a champion, and closing down all challengers to become only the fifth rider to win the Tour de France and the World Championship in the same year…no one has done it since!
- ESPN, Inc. (Producer). (1989, September 28). 1989 World Cycling Championships [Television Broadcast]
Watch for Dave Campbell’s forthcoming book “Saddling up to ride in Cowboy Country…in Spandex!”, both a personal tale of discovering the sport of cycling in 1980’s Wyoming and a chronicle of the rise of American cyclists into prominence on the International cycling scene during the same magical period.
