Stephen Roche saving the 1987 Tour at La Plagne and Fignon winning the stage after having a major "incident" earlier in the day where he ended up down a ravine and his bike was fished out of a tree.
Stephen Roche saving the 1987 Tour at La Plagne and Fignon winning the stage after having a major "incident" earlier in the day where he ended up down a ravine and his bike was fished out of a tree.
Stage 10 of the 1999 TDF. Guerini being taken out by the camera man on the finish of the Alp was high drama. I was just glad he was able to get up and take the stage victory.
Remember that these weren't taken in the last few years and therefore people didn't wait until the last 900 meters to start racing on the final hill. Roche had been on the attack nearly all of the day... You should try that sometime and you'll find that a bigger gear is required to keep the speed up - that and the fact that both Fignon and Roche were in the 53 ring coming over the line, it's hardly like they were compromised for gears
Times have changed. Most top riders race less now than they used too. Given race calendars of old, I'm not sure that the current crop of riders could race all year with some of those positions that seem like they're bent over double and able to almost gnaw off their own bat.