Saturday, September 4, 2010

From the library: 1987 Tour de France...

Those who are in the know are aware of my fondness for all things Irish - my Irish book and music collection, Master's work on Irish culture, trips to the Ould Sod, even an Irish flag I used to have flying from my saddle, are all testaments to that. As a result, 1987 was a fantastic year, it was the year Stephen Roche won the so called Cycling Triple Crown - the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and World Championships. One year for my birthday some racing buddies got me this Winning magazine special edition recap of the Tour. It is 64 pages, in length, full of photos from each stage, along with a written account of each, Roche's Tour diary entries, posters of Roche, Andy Hampsten and Raul Alcala. It is a quite well put together piece of cycling memorablia and Tour history. (My apologies for the photo quality, the printed versions are much better).


Roche being interviewed by Ruppert Guinness during a restful moment.


Raul Alcala gets a page and numerous other photos.


Laurent Fignon celebrates victory on stage 21 ahead of Anselmo Fuerte. Fignon would finish this Tour in 7th, 18:24, back with Fuerte right behind at 18:33.


Meanwhile Roche collapses following his stage 21 effort to minimize his time loss to race leader Pedro Delgado. Three stages later Roche would out ride Delgado in an individual time trial to seal his victory.


American Jeff Pierce of the 7-11 team wins the finale on the Champs-Elysees. At this point he was only the third American to win a Tour stage.

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