The 1989 edition of Tour de France was won by Greg LeMond with the narrowest margin in its history: eight seconds. It was LeMond’s second Tour victory.
Before the final stage of the 1989 Tour de France, Frenchman Laurent Fignon (Système U) was 50 seconds ahead of American Greg LeMond (ADR). Fignon took the yellow jersey from LeMond after the Alpe d’Huez stage, thanks to a withering attack by Gert-Jan Theunisse, Fignon was able to rid himself of LeMond on the ascent.
Group riding is the main activity of a cycling club or a friend group. In every group ride, you should follow some rules and apply some tips for the group’s safety, and better performance.
The main cornering technique on a two-wheeled vehicle is countersteering. In cycling, cornering is very important, especially in criteriums, during long downhills, and when a road race enters a city. By learning the true techniques, you can corner faster and much safer way, and conserve your energy. Having good cornering skills gives you a great advantage while racing.
Countersteering is the technique used by single-track vehicle operators, such as cyclists and motorcyclists, to initiate a turn toward a given direction by momentarily steering counter to the desired direction: “steer left to turn right”, or vice versa.
Look at these two great photos about cycling, with no bikes. The photos were taken by Robert Capa in Pleyben, Brittany, France, during the 1939 Tour de France. The owner of the small bicycle shop in Brittany, Pierre Cloarec was competing in the 1939 tour for the French team A. Leducq-Hutchinson. The excited crowd in the photos watching the tour come by in front of the bicycle shop owned by Cloarec. He won two stages in this Tour, stages 3 and 14.
Specialized Roubaix 2013: named after Paris-Roubaix, “the queen of the classics”, the famous classic race over the cobbles, Specialized’s endurance bike was designed to soak up the worst of the bumps through its innovative Zerts inserts.
The Zerts are essentially a damper placed in the rear stays and the forks that absorb road vibration. Specialized Roubaix is specifically designed for the cobbled classics in Europe and is good for bad road surfaces, cobbled roads, and long-distance endurance rides (i.e. century rides).
In 1919, Frenchman Eugène Christophe became the first rider to wear the race leader’s yellow jersey (maillot jaune) of the Tour de France.
In the first few years after the 1st world war, there was a shortage of material and dye for jerseys. So many of the teams wore the same grey colored tops: the cycle industry was not yet in action again, and La Sportive was the only marque supplying material was, and there was little difference between any of the jerseys they supplied.
Two great cycling rivals, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali were protagonists of an exceptional derby (a football match between local rivals. i.e. teams that are from the same city or the same part of the country) which took place on 14 January 1950 at the Milan Arena. Football (calcio) was the second popular sport after cycling, in post-war Italy.
Specialized Venge 2013 – Venge is one of the top-end racing bike models of Specialized (the other one is Tarmac). It is produced and optimized for better sprint performance and aerodynamics, while Tarmac is an all-round racing bike.
Specialized Tarmac 2013: Tarmac may be the most successful racing bike in recent years. Only in 2012, Spring Classics Amstel Gold Race and Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), Monumental Spring Classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vuelta a España, and Olympic Men Road Race are won by the cyclists riding Specialized Tarmac.
UCI WorldTour teams Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Astana use Specialized bikes, and most of the races, they use Specialized S-Works Tarmac.
Giuseppe Marinoni, the famous Italian framebuilder, broke the hour record for the 74-79 age group on October 20. He broke the record in Brescia, Italy. Marinoni covered 35.728 km in one hour.