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ChromeChainstay
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shadow's
Rapparee87
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80 Liege B Liege? He cursed it to hell and never went back, or maybe that was Roubaix. He cursed a lot did our Bernard
Frankenorange
Orange 🍊 Fan
I thoroughly enjoyed both Major Taylor books. Interesting, inspiring and horrifying in equal measures.
27motorhead
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ChromeChainstay
Retro Guru
bernard is fit
Being on the other side of the Cheddar Cheese curtain, I get to see some good documentaries about the last Frenchman to win the tour.
It's hard to resume a lot, but suffice to say, decisions back then and with media fuss, and with time, and with retrospective, there is much more a balanced view compared to in the film "Slaying the Badger". As a youth, I still rate this an epic period. It's still the man in the middle who made it happen, even if you love or loath him.
I've said it before, Bernard Tapie RIP for modernising bike racing out of the stagnation and making it global. When all said and done, what
an epic time and no one could make the stories up from essentially rags and tatters to owning it all.
Hinault said no sponsor told him how to ride a bike. And he would refuse any conversation from a sponsor to tell him how to ride a bike on the road. The reality is a little bit more murky. Story goes Bernard Tapie is miffed that 5 days into the tour, the La Vie Clair jersey is no where on TV. He zooms in and wants to get a handle on it all, and see his investment bear some fruit. Apparently he his outraged and tells the Director Sportif and Mechancis the level needs to be increased and results have got to come through. The Director Sportif and mechanics practically plead that they have no make-up of sprinters in the team and it's not on early flat stages the tour is won. Tapie eventually addresses the riders saying "I have not seen you on TV, you must be saving yourself for the mountains. You must be all like fresh babies". Passive aggressive bollocking right there and making it clear who is writing the pay check, and then who is getting seriously involved to secure the investment. We will never entirely know what was said on the road, but all effort was done to have a La Vie Claire on the podium for a grand paycheck and continue. The risks were incredibly high at the end of the day to sponsor a Hinault with knee trouble, forming his own team in his own mind, and drawing in an unknown talented Greg Lemond. Split or double seems appropriate.
ChromeChainstay
Retro Guru
Fernando Escartin, Mavic, Double downtube
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