Starting his second Tour de France on June 28, 1985, Greg LeMond was ready to show his new team sponsor, Bernard Tapie, that he was worthy of the near-$1 million, three-year contract given him by the French businessman. Racing in the Mondrian-design red-yellow-and-black La Vie Claire team jersey, LeMond had already come in third at his debut Giro d’Italia while helping his teammate Bernard Hinault win the race for the third time. Now, after Italy’s maglia rosa, it was the Tour’s maillot jaune that was on the team’s horizon.

Eighteen 10-man teams started the ’85 Tour with a hilly prologue time trial at Plumelec in deepest Brittany. This was Hinault country, and tens of thousands of his fans lined the infamous Cadoudal hill, hoping to give their hero the sendoff he needed to win the Tour for a fifth time.

The defending champion, Laurent Fignon, was sidelined by an Achilles injury, so his Renault-Elf team was leaderless. This was ironic given Renault team director Cyrille Guimard’s attitude that led LeMond to leaving that team and joining La Vie Claire. "You need me. I don’t need you," Guimard said to LeMond. "I’m not giving you an increase [in salary]."

With Fignon not starting the Tour, Hinault was the big favorite, especially after his impressive, but not stressful victory at the Giro. LeMond, who came in third at his Tour debut the previous year, was La Vie Claire’s first lieutenant, ready to step in for the victory should the veteran Hinault falter during the upcoming three weeks.

The chief opposition looked like coming from Irishmen Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly, Australian Phil Anderson, Scotsman Robert Millar, Spaniard Pedro Delgado and Colombian Lucho Herrera.

That spring, Roche (La Redoute) won the Critérium International and two stages of the Dauphiné Libéré; Kelly (Skil-Sem-Kas) won Paris-Nice and two stages of the Vuelta a España; Anderson (Panasonic-Raleigh) took back-to-back overall victories at the Dauphiné and Tour of Switzerland; Millar (Peugeot-Shell) was leading the Vuelta until a conspiracy by the Spanish teams on the penultimate stage gave the win to Delgado (Seat-Orbea) by 36 seconds; and Herrera (Café de Colombia) won the Tour of Colombia, after taking the Alpe d’Huez stage at the 1984 Tour.

Other than Delgado (36th) and Kelly (48th), all of Hinault’s challengers finished in the top 20 at the 6.8km Tour prologue’s. Hinault was the clear winner by four seconds from Belgian prologue specialist and sprinter Eric Vanderaerden (Panasonic), while the English-speaking legion swept third though seventh places with Roche (at 14 seconds), Anderson (at 19 seconds), LeMond (at 21 seconds, after being delayed by a mechanical), Canadian Steve Bauer and Aussie Allan Peiper (both 24 seconds back).

Three days later, Bauer, LeMond and Hinault were towers of strengths in La Vie Claire’s dominant stage victory in the 73km team time trial from Vitré to Fougères. And the next day, on a flat 239km stage to Port Audemer, their Danish teammate Kim Andersen snuck into a seven-man break (which also contained climber Herrera!) and grabbed the yellow jersey.

A very long time trial
LeMond moved up the classification, into third overall, when he took a 20-second bonus on stage 6 into Reims in rather strange circumstances. This was a 127-man field sprint, and the exuberant LeMond decided to take part, just for fun, in the mass charge along the wide street leading to the impressive western façade of the city’s Gothic cathedral. Kelly and Vanderaerden tussled for the stage victory, even exchanging blows, before they crossed the line 1-2; but both were penalized for fighting and relegated to the last places in the group. So LeMond, fourth across the line behind Frenchman Francis Castaing, was awarded second place and its 20-second bonus!

Those 20 seconds canceled out the time LeMond conceded to teammate Hinault in the prologue, but those 20 seconds were dwarfed by the winning margin Hinault scored in the enormously long stage 8 time trial. On a hilly 75km course through the Vosges mountains between Sarrebourg and Strasbourg, the mean-eyed Frenchman defeated all of his rivals by more than two minutes.

Roche was the "best of the beaten" in second place, 2:20 back. Within the next minute came LeMond in fourth (at 2:34), Kelly seventh (at 3:10), Anderson 10th (at 3:14). The other favorites, the climbers, were all more than five minutes back: Delgado 37th (at 5:38), Millar 52nd (at 6:38) and Herrera 60th (at 7:32).

So, with the first mountain stage still three days away, the GC read: 1. Hinault, 45:56:57; 2. LeMond, at 2:22; 3. Kelly, at 2:51; 4. Bauer, at 3:21; 5. Anderson, at 3:44; 6. Roche, s.t. With three La Vie Claire men in the top four, we started speculating that the race might already be over and that the Tour’s final two weeks would be a procession.

Those thoughts were strengthened a hundred-fold when the race entered the Alps. The stage was a tough one, 195km long, with three climbs in the final 57km: the 13km-long, Cat. 1 Pas de Morgins climbing out of the Rhône Valley in Switzerland; the 5km, Cat.2 Col du Corbier; and the 14km, Cat. 1 slog up to the finish line from Morzine to Avoriaz.

A surprise move
Everyone was expecting this opening mountain stage to be decided on the climb to the summit finish; everyone but Hinault. This is where the Frenchman showed his tactical genius. Instead of waiting until the last climb, and perhaps being outgunned by younger legs, Hinault unexpectedly made his move on the Pas de Morgins.

When Herrera, who was out of GC contention, accelerated in search of King of the Mountains points, Hinault leapt out of the group and joined the little Colombian climber. LeMond knew he couldn’t go after his leader, so with La Vie Claire teammates Bauer, Andersen, Niki Rüttimann, Bernard Vallet and Dominique Arnaud, the American set the group’s tempo just high enough to dissuade the other challengers from chasing.

In front, Hinault did a deal with Herrera: If the Colombian shared the work in the break he’d be rewarded with the maximum KoM points and the stage victory. So the gap steadily widened — and LeMond saw his chances of winning this Tour evaporating before the race had truly begun.

While Hinault and Herrera continued with their strong, steady pace up to the summit finish (Herrera took the stage by seven seconds), the challengers and climbers waged a fierce battle behind them. In the end, LeMond was the only challenger who could stay with the two best climbers, Delgado and Herrera’s senior teammate, Fabio Parra.

Delgado claimed third place, just outsprinting Parra and LeMond, with the American eventually conceding another 1:34 to Hinault, though LeMond was clearly getting stronger as the race went on. On this challenging climb to Avoriaz, he gained 24 seconds on Roche and more than a minute on the other challengers. The GC now read: 1. Hinault, 56:23:58; 2. LeMond, at 4:00; 3. Roche, at 5:52.

Nothing much changed on the next day’s overly long alpine stage of 269km — eight climbs in eight-and-a-half hours of riding! A short, rolling 32km time trial at Villard-de-Lans had a much great influence on the race.

It wasn’t a good time trial for LeMond, who again had some mechanical troubles and finished only 19th fastest, losing 1:07 to Roche and 1:23 to Hinault. That put the overall time gap between Hinault and LeMond at 5:23, with Roche only a further 45 seconds behind.

So going into stage 14 from Villard-de-Lans to St. Étienne it seemed that the race was virtually over — but some dramatic developments were about to re-open the debate. I’ll bring you the rest of that 1985 Tour story next time.