The 1990 Tour de France was the 77th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 30 June and 22 July 1990. The race consisted of 21 stages and a prologue. American Greg LeMond () repeated his 1989 victory in the general classification, ahead of Claudio Chiappucci () and Erik Breukink () in second and third place respectively.
The Tour started with a prologue time trial at the Futuroscope theme park, won by Thierry Marie (). On the first stage, a four-rider group escaped and gained more than ten minutes on the rest of the field. Steve Bauer () became the new leader of the race, but faltered in the Alps as Ronan Pensec (), also from the escape group, took over the race lead. Two days later, during a mountain time trial to Villard-de-Lans, the lead passed to Claudio Chiappucci, who had been in the same group as well. Chiappucci fought to hang on to his advantage over defending champion LeMond, but was overtaken in the final time trial on the penultimate stage. It was LeMond's third Tour victory, a feat he achieved without winning an individual stage.
The points classification was won by Olaf Ludwig (), while the mountains classification was won by Thierry Claveyrolat (). Gilles Delion () was the best young rider, while Eduardo Chozas () was awarded the super-combativity prize. , the team of race winner LeMond, won the team classification.
The 1990 race was the first edition in which riders from Eastern Bloc nations participated. Ludwig became the first rider from East Germany and Dimitri Konyshev () was the first Soviet rider to win a stage at the Tour.
Teams
The 1990 Tour had a starting field of 22 teams of 9 cyclists. Of those 22, 16 teams qualified based on the FICP team rankings, while six teams were given wildcards. Notable teams who failed to qualify and were not invited were BH–Amaya Seguros and Café de Colombia with Luis Herrera, a double former winner of the mountains classification.
The largest numbers of riders from a nation came from France (35), with the next largest coming from Belgium (27), Spain (25), Italy (22), Netherlands (19), Colombia (14) and Switzerland (13). For the first time, riders from the Eastern Bloc competed in the Tour, ten in total, enabled by the changing political climate brought about by the revolutions in the Eastern Bloc countries. While several riders from Warsaw Pact nations had transferred to established Western teams, the team was made up of exclusively Soviet cyclists. Three more teams included cyclists of a single nationality: (Belgian), (Colombian), and (Italian).
Of the 198 cyclists starting the race, 58 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The average age of riders in the race was 27.77 years, ranging from the 21-year-old Antonio Miguel Díaz () to the 35-year-old Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (). The cyclists had the youngest average age while the riders on had the oldest. The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place at the lakeside arena at Futuroscope theme park, north of the city of Poitiers, west-central France, which later hosted the prologue stage.
The teams entering the race were:
Qualified teams
Invited teams
Pre-race favourites
In the lead up to the Tour, the main contenders for the general classification were Greg LeMond (), Laurent Fignon (), Pedro Delgado (), and Stephen Roche (). All four were former Tour winners. They were the preeminent stage race specialists, with each one focusing their season around the Tour.
The leading favourite was two-time Tour winner LeMond, who returned to defend his title. After winning the Tour in 1989 and the World Championship road race, LeMond had not taken another victory. He had finished Paris–Nice more than eight minutes behind the winner and struggled at the Giro d'Italia, where he placed 105th. He was considered overweight due to lack of training and had been suffering from mononucleosis. Encouraging signs came during the Tour de Suisse, just weeks before the start of the Tour de France, where he finished tenth. LeMond did not consider himself a favourite for victory going into the race, but declared that he would be disappointed should he not finish on the podium. For the first time at a Tour, LeMond had the support of his whole team, including Robert Millar, who had won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and placed second at the Tour de Suisse just prior to the start of the Tour.
The sport newspaper L'Équipe was expecting a close battle between LeMond and Fignon, who had finished in second place in 1989, only eight seconds behind LeMond. Fignon had previously won the Tour in 1983 and 1984. A crash on stage 5 of the Giro had forced Fignon to abandon the race he had won in 1989. He returned to racing at the Route du Sud and later competed in the Tour de Luxembourg as preparation for the Tour de France and had apparently overcome his injuries. Writing in his autobiography, Fignon later admitted that his crashes and poor results earlier in the season had left him "a tired man, physically and mentally" and that he entered the Tour with "few illusions about what was coming". Fignon's squad was not seen as the strongest, but they were dedicated to him and managed by Cyrille Guimard, who had led multiple riders to Tour victories.
Delgado, the winner of the 1988 Tour, was in good form after placing second at the Vuelta a España earlier in the year. He was part of the strong team, with Miguel Induráin to help him in the mountains. Roche, winner of the 1987 edition, was on the start line, but still troubled by recurring knee pain. His best result of the season had been a second place behind Induráin at Paris–Nice.
Erik Breukink was among several other riders named as favourites. Sean Kelly, was the record winner of the points classification and appeared in good form, having just won the Tour de Suisse, but was thought to be working for Breukink. Spanish newspaper El País considered Delgado to be the top favourite, but also named Fignon, LeMond, and Gianni Bugno (), who had won the Giro earlier that year, as potential winners. Mundo Deportivo also named Charly Mottet () among the favourites. His best result that season had been a second place behind Bugno at the Giro. Also on the start line was Marco Giovannetti, winner of the Vuelta and third at the Giro. According to cycling journalist Geoffrey Nicholson, his ability to perform in another three-week Grand Tour was doubted from the start, and it was agreed that he only participated to ensure a wildcard entry for his team, Seur.
Gert-Jan Theunisse (), fourth the previous year and winner of the mountains classification, did not start due to two positive doping tests earlier in the season.
Route and stages
The 1990 Tour de France started on 30 June, and had two rest days. The race had its Grand Départ (opening stages) in and around the Futuroscope theme park, whose owners paid around $1 million for the right to host the beginning of the race. After two stages, both held on the same day, also at Futuroscope, the Tour took a clockwise route around France. The race traveled north towards the English Channel and then east to Rouen. A plane transfer on the first rest day brought the field to Sarrebourg on the border to Germany before the race turned south towards the Alps. On the second rest day, the Tour remained in Villard-de-Lans. The race then turned south-west to the Pyrenees before turning north again towards Paris, ending with the ceremonial Champs-Élysées stage.
Stage 5 from Avranches to Rouen was the longest at . , this is the last time that a Tour de France stage exceeded . The shortest road stage was the tenth, from Geneva to Saint-Gervais, at . The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage 16. It was among five hors catégorie (beyond category) rated climbs in the race.
+ Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner P30 June Futuroscope Individual time trial 11 July Futuroscope Plain stage 21 July Futuroscope Team time trial 32 July Poitiers to Nantes Plain stage 43 July Nantes to Mont Saint-Michel Plain stage 54 July Avranches to Rouen Plain stage 5 July Rouen Rest day 66 July Sarrebourg to Vittel Plain stage 77 July Vittel to Épinal Individual time trial 88 July Épinal to Besançon Plain stage 99 July Besançon to Geneva (Switzerland) Hilly stage 1010 July Geneva (Switzerland) to Saint-Gervais Stage with mountain(s) 1111 July Saint-Gervais to Alpe d'Huez Stage with mountain(s) 1212 July Fontaine to Villard-de-Lans Mountain time trial 13 July Villard-de-Lans Rest day 1314 July Villard-de-Lans to Saint-Étienne Hilly stage 1415 July Le Puy-en-Velay to Millau Hilly stage 1516 July Millau to Revel Plain stage 1617 July Blagnac to Luz Ardiden Stage with mountain(s) 1718 July Lourdes to Pau Stage with mountain(s) 1819 July Pau to Bordeaux Plain stage 1920 July Castillon-la-Bataille to Limoges Plain stage 2021 July Lac de Vassivière to Lac de Vassivière Individual time trial 2122 July Brétigny-sur-Orge to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Plain stage Total
Race overview
Grand Départ at Futuroscope
The prologue at Futuroscope was won by Thierry Marie (), a specialist in the discipline, who had also taken the first yellow jersey in 1986. He recorded a time of 7:49 minutes, four seconds faster than LeMond and Raúl Alcalá () in second and third respectively. Fignon finished in 15th place, 19 seconds slower than Marie, with Delgado in 26th place losing a further five seconds.
The first and the second stage were run on the same day, the second stage in the team time trial format. After just of the first stage, Claudio Chiappucci () broke away from the field. He had won the mountain classifications at both Paris–Nice and the Giro d'Italia that year and aimed at getting the jersey early on in the Tour as well. He was joined in his breakaway by Steve Bauer (), Ronan Pensec (), and Frans Maassen (). With the team time trial looming in the afternoon, the field allowed the break to draw out an advantage. Additionally, a blockade by sheep farmers delayed the peloton, the main field, and caused several crashes, including one involving Delgado. Chiappucci took the points at the mountain sprints, ensuring that he would wear the polka-dot jersey for the next stage. from the finish, the lead was still at 13 minutes. As Maassen took the stage victory ahead of Pensec, the four-man group still retained an advantage of 10:35 minutes over the rest of the field. Bauer took the lead in the general classification, having posted the fastest time in the prologue. Later in the day the team time trial was won by the team. Seven seconds slower, finished in second place. Fignon's Castorama squad finished fifth, 33 seconds slower than Panasonic, but 20 seconds faster than LeMond's Z team, who were seventh. In between them were 7-Eleven with yellow-jersey wearer Bauer, who retained his overall lead.
North-west