1985 Tour de France

Teams

In June 1985, 21 teams had requested to start in the 1985 Tour. Three Italian teams, (Gis, Alpilatte and Malvor) withdrew, so the 1985 Tour started with 18 teams. Each team had 10 cyclists, so the 1985 Tour started with 180 cyclists.

The teams entering the race were:

Pre-race favourites

Laurent Fignon, the winner of the 1984 Tour de France was injured, and could not defend his title. Riding for the La Vie Claire team, Bernard Hinault, who already had won the Tour de France four times, and finished second in the previous two editions, was the main pre-race favourite.

Greg LeMond had finished in third place in 1984 as a team mate of Fignon, and was also considered capable of winning the Tour. LeMond had however changed teams, and was now a team mate of Hinault. There was no clear team leader decided before the Tour; their team decided that they would ride for whoever was showing the best results.

Route and stages

The 1985 Tour de France started on 28 June, and had one rest day, in Villard-de-Lans.

Race overview

Hinault won the prologue, with LeMond in fifth place. Hinault lost the lead in the next stage to Eric Vanderaerden because of time bonuses, but the relative margin to LeMond stayed the same.

The La Vie Claire team showed that they were dominant by winning the team time trial in stage 3. Vanderaerden kept his lead, but places 2 to 9 in the general classification were taken by riders from the La Vie Claire team, with Hinault in second place and LeMond in fourth place.

In the fourth stage, Kim Andersen from the La Vie Claire team was part of a successful breakaway, and became the new leader. LeMond collected some time bonuses in the fifth and sixth stage, which put him two seconds ahead of Hinault in the general classification. In the sixth stage, he initially finished fourth, but initial winner Vanderaerden and second-placed Sean Kelly were relegated for not sprinting according to the rules, making Francis Castaing the stage winner.

Hinault was a time trial expert, which he showed in the individual time trial of stage 8. He beat al the other cyclists by more than two minutes, and became the new leader in the general classification. In that time trial, Dietrich Thurau was penalized for drafting to close to another cyclist. At the start of the next stage, Thurau was still angry and attacked a race official, and was removed from the race.

The next challenge for the general classification was in the first mountain stage, stage eleven. Hinault attacked early in the stage, together with Luis Herrera. Herrera was already far behind in the general classification, but was interested in the mountains classification. Hinault and Herrera worked together: Hinault was only interested in the time gains, and Herrera was only interested in reaching the mountain tops first. Herrera won the stage, with Hinault seven seconds back. LeMond had to stay in the next group, because team tactics did not allow him to attack his team mate.

Stage thirteen was run as an individual time trial. Hinault was not so strong anymore, and did not win the stage, but still won time on LeMond, who was now in second place in the general classification, more than five minutes behind Hinault.

In stage fourteen, Herrera attacked early again to win points for the mountain classification. He was followed by a group of eight cyclists, including LeMond but not Hinault. Herrera won the stage, with the LeMond group reaching the finish one minute later. One minute after that, the group with Hinault reached the finish, but less than one kilometer from the finish, Hinault and five other cyclists crashed. The rules of the Tour says that time losses due to crashes in the last kilometer are not counted, but a cyclists has to reach the finish on his own strengths. Hinault, still on the ground, was checked by the Tour doctor for some minutes, but was able to get back on his bike and finish the stage, his face all covered with blood. His nose was broken, and breathing was more difficult than normal.

Hinault survived the next two flat stages, but ran into problems in the seventeenth stage, with the Col d'Aspin, the Col du Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden. On the Tourmalet, Hinault had to let LeMond, Stephen Roche and Pedro Delgado go. Delgado then left on his own, with Roche chasing him, and LeMond staying close to Roche, who was the biggest threat in the general classification. LeMond felt that he was stronger, and asked his team director Paul Koechli permission to attack. Koechli refused that, and told LeMond to stay with Roche. LeMond stayed with Roche while some other cyclists caught up and Herrera and Fabio Parra went clear of the group. At the end of the stage, LeMond finished almost three minutes behind Delgado, with Hinault a further minute behind. In the general classification, Hinault remained in front, with LeMond 2 minutes 25 seconds behind.

LeMond was frustrated after the stage, because he felt that he could have won the stage, and could have led the general classification for a few days. Hinault, who knew that his Tour victory was now certain only because LeMond had been waiting for him, promised that in the next edition, he would help LeMond to win the Tour.

In the remaining stages, Hinaults lead was not seriously challenged. LeMond was able to win the individual time trial in stage 21, his first Tour stage victory.

Classification leadership

There were several classifications in the 1985 Tour de France, six of them awarding jerseys to their leaders. The most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour.

Additionally, there was a points classification, where cyclists were given points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey. The system for the points classification was changed for the 1987 Tour: in previous years, more points were earned in flat stages than in mountain stages, which gave sprinters an advantage in this classification; in 1984 all stages gave 25 points for the winner.

There was also a mountains classification. The points system for the classification was changed: mountains in the toughest categories gave more points, to reduce the influence of the minor hills on this classification. The organisation had categorized some climbs as either hors catégorie, first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorized climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a polkadot jersey.

The combination jersey for the combination classification was introduced in 1985. This classification was calculated as a combination of the other classifications.

Another classification was the young rider classification. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders that rode the Tour for the first time were eligible, and the leader wore a white jersey.

The sixth individual classification was the intermediate sprints classification. This classification had similar rules as the points classification, but only points were awarded on intermediate sprints. Its leader wore a red jersey.

For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. The riders in the team that lead this classification wore yellow caps.

Aftermath

In previous years, cyclists tied their shoes to their pedals with toe-clips, allowing them to not only push the pedals down but also pull them up. In 1985, Hinault had used clip-ins (clipless pedals), which allowed the shoes to snap into the pedal. His victory in this Tour made these clip-ins popular.

There was some criticism that the time trials were too important. If the time trials would have not counted towards the general classification, the result would have been as follows:

The total length of the time trials reduced from 223 kilometres (139 mi) in 1985 to 180 kilometres (110 mi) in 1986. Tour director Levitan felt after the 1985 Tour de France that the race had been too easy, and made the course in 1986 extra difficult, including more mountain climbs than before.

After every stage, around four cyclists had been selected for the doping controls. None of these cyclists tested positive for doping.