78th Tour de France 1991

The Arrival of the Indurain Era

The French media’s list pre-race favorites did not include defending champion Greg LeMond for the 1991 Tour de France title. Early season health problems and excess weight forced LeMond to abandon the 1991 Giro d’Italia. Questions remained before the start of the Tour. Another notable rider missing from the list of contenders was Delgado’s main lieutenant for the past two years, Miguel Indurain (Spa). The large framed Spaniard struggled in the mountains during the Vuelta a Espana and most experts thought he would struggle again when the Tour got tough.

Disaster struck race leader Rolf Sorensen (Den) in the closing kilometers of stage 5. The peloton aggressively negotiated one of the many new roundabouts (traffic circles) on the outskirts of Valenciennes. The speed of the peloton and narrowing of the road caused a large crash, which included the race leader. Sorensen quickly remounted, chased the lead group, and managed to finish the stage with no time loss. He retained the race lead, but the injuries suffered (broken collarbone) caused Sorensen to abandon the Tour before the next stage.

SPECIAL NOTE: Stage 6 on the flat roads of Brittany Castorama’s Thierry Marie used the 259 km race route to achieve a small place in Tour history. He broke away from the peloton in the first 25 km of the stage and steadily built a lead. His 234 km solo escape was the second longest solo breakaways in Tour history. 

The first major test, the 73 km ITT from Argentan to Alencon, gave the contenders a chance to step forward. Miguel Indurain, a strong time trialer, started to show his potential. He cruised to the stage win, 8 seconds ahead of second placed Greg LeMond. The American’s time gain gave him the race lead and returned the Maillot Jaune to his back.

SPECIAL NOTE: The PDM team found disaster the morning of stage 10 in Rennes. At the team hotel Uwe Raab (Ger) and Nico Verhoeven (Ned) spiked a high fever and did not start the stage. Three other teammates abandoned late that day. The remaining four riders, Breukink, Jos Van Aert (Ned), Sean Kelly (Ire) and Raul Alcala (Mex), retired from the race the next day. Rumors of doping spread through the caravan, but the official PDM statement indicated a bad injection of a dietary supplement had unintentionally poisoned the riders. 

SPECIAL NOTE: A minor controversy arose the day after the PDM mystery was breaking with the disqualification of Motorola's Urs Zimmerman. The talented Suiss rider had a fear of flying and was disqualified after he refused the official Tour airplane transfer from Nantes to Pau. He was later reinstated by Tour officials at the strong request of the other riders.

Miguel Indurain with an impressive display of power escaped on the Col d’ Aspin. Chiappucci, sensing the opportunity, chased hard and joined Indurain by the summit of the Aspin. The breakaway duo pulled steadily away from the elite chasers. Indurain and Chiappucci pushed a fast pace on the final climb to Val Louron (average 9% grade) and had a substantial gap at the finish. Chiappucci out sprinted Indurain for the stage win and Indurain’s great effort on Val Louron re-wrote the General Classification. He pulled on the Maillot Jaune for the first time in his career. LeMond finished ninth, more than 7 minutes behind and dropped to fifth place in the GC. 

Through the Alps Indurain rode defensively and did not leave the side of his closest rivals. At the top of Alpe d’Huez Indurain finished second behind Gianni Bugno, who won the classic climb for the second year in a row. 

Gianni Bugno’s last chance to makeup 3’09” on Indurain was the 57 km ITT to Macon. Unfortunately for Bugno, Indurain was a master of the time trial. Miguel Indurain powered his way to the stage win and in the process confirmed his superiority. He gained 27 seconds on Bugno and 48 seconds on LeMond.

Miguel Indurain rode onto the Champs Elysees to claim his first grand Tour de France victory.

SPECIAL NOTE: The excitement on the Champs Elysees was provided by Carrera’s Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb). The wild sprinter led out the final sprint when he hit a barrier 50 meters from the finish line. Abdou crashed in devastating fashion. Dazed and badly injured Abdou walked across the line to claim the Maillot Vert (Green points Jersey). 

Stage and Distance

Stage Winner

Race Leader

Prologue LYON, 5.4 km ITT	Thierry Marie (Fra)	Thierry Marie (Fra)
Stage 1 LYON-LYON, 114 km	Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb)	Greg LeMond (USA)
Stage 2 BRON-CHASSIEU, 36.5 km TTT	ARIOSTEA	Rolf Sorensen (Den)
Stage 3 VILLEURBANNE-DIJON, 211 km	Etienne De Wilde (Bel)	Rolf Sorensen (Den)
Stage 4 DIJON-REIMS, 286 km	Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb)	Rolf Sorensen (Den)
Stage 5 REIMS-VALENCIENNES, 149 km	Jelle Nijdam (Ned)	Rolf Sorensen (Den)
Stage 6 ARRAS-LE HAVRE, 259 km	Thierry Marie (Fra)	Thierry Marie (Fra)
Stage 7 LE HAVRE-ARGENTAN, 167 km	Jean-Paul Van Poppel (Ned)	Thierry Marie (Fra)
Stage 8 ARGENTAN-ALENCON, 73 km ITT	Miguel Indurain (Spa)	Greg LeMond (USA)
Stage 9 ALENCON-RENNES, 161 km	Mauro Ribeiro (Bre)	Greg LeMond (USA)
Stage 10 RENNES-QUIMPER, 207 km	Phil Anderson (Aus)	Greg LeMond (USA)
Stage 11 QUIMPER-ST HERBLAIN, 246 km	Charly Mottet (Fra)	Greg LeMond (USA)
Stage 12 PAU-JACA (Spa), 192 km	Charly Mottet (Fra)	Luc Leblanc (Fra)
Stage 13 JACA (Spa)-VAL LOURON, 232 km	Claudio Chiappucci (Ita)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 14 ST GAUDENS-CASTRES, 172 km	Bruno Cenghialta (Ita)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 15 ALBI-ALES, 235 km	Moreno Argentin (Ita)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 16 ALES-GAP, 215 km	Marco Lietti (Ita)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 17 GAP-ALPE D'HUEZ, 125 km	Gianni Bugno (Ita)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 18 BOURG D'OISANS-MORZINE, 255 km	Thierry Claveyrolat (Ita)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 19 MORZINE-AIX LES BAINS, 177 km	Dimitri Konyshev (Urs)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 20 AIX LES BAINS-MACON, 160 km	Vjatceslav Ekimov (Urs)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 21 LUGNY-MACON, 57 km ITT	Miguel Indurain (Spa)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
Stage 22 MACON-PARIS/Champs Elysees, 178 km	Dimitri Konyshev (Urs)	Miguel Indurain (Spa)
	POLKA DOT JERSEY	Claudio Chiappucci (Ita)
	GREEN POINTS JERSEY	Djamolidine, Abdujaparov, (Uzb)

TdF 1990

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