It was actually 1989. Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon in the final stage time trial to win the Tour.
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You are both correct due to my poorly worded question. I do remember Greg LeMond’s win. But I meant a different scenario, that is on the last day of the Tour. Pogacar’s feat was a miracle somewhat like Gregs’ 8 second win. I love both, great for the sport.
Chas
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Pogacar’s feat is really amazing given that his professional resume to date is limited. He looks to have a successful career ahead of him.
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Slovenia is taking bicycle racing seriously. There are many opportunities to race, it is popular, and there are mountains everywhere upon which to practicing climbing and descents. I think this is the beginning of Slovenia’s successes.
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Winning 3 jerseys, yellow, climbing and best young rider, emphatically puts a stamp on Pogacar’s career expectations. This is most exciting for the fans, me especially.
Chas
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Yes, that was an epic day of cycle racing. I can still remember watching that stage, one of the best days of any tour in my lifetime!
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Pretty tragic for Roglic but that was a very impressive time trial of Pogacar. Could tell from Roglic that once they screwed up the change of bike, he just couldn’t bounce back. Very hard to watch, must have been pure hell for him.
Now… where do I line up for those used Bianchis? Happy to help the team get rid of them so they won’t haunt the riders in the future.
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It was a great Tour. And also great how Phil Liggett and Bob Roll could seamlessly comment on what was happening in the race in France while one was in the UK and the other in the US. Bravo.
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How much time would you estimate that Roglic lost on the change of bikes. If he was suffering before the change, the change just might be a point in time for people to critique when in actuality, he was simply going to loss a little time every kilometer regardless. I am not sure but didn’t he have 50 to 60 seconds to tactically play with. Maybe his team managers goofed.
Chas
I wouldn’t dare to give an estimate of time but to me it looked like it was not about time. If he was already struggling, then a botched swap would have been a moral blow and you could tell from his looks and body language that from that on that he was defeated.
I agree, its a shame he couldn’t find that “something deep within”.
Chas
Can’t imagine how he must feel like. As harsh as it sounds, it’s not really that someone else took the victory from him. He gave it away. It was so good to watch the Jumbo Wisma team throughout the Tour working brilliantly as a team just to have such an end to it all.
Edit: struggling to get the quotations right.
Sorry, I edited my quotation to “something”. I am happy, and well entertained, with the way stage 20 played out. I love the efforts each of the cyclist made.
Chas
I haven’t watched the final stage yet but I hear it was great. It’s now coming 10am on Monday here and I usually watch a day late on Euro Sport player but apparently the final stage was good as well.
I am about to call a dealer soon, got a good offer from Oltre XR3 disc. I’m afraid I will reject it but not because of the TdF 
I’m 6’4" and weight about 210 pounds (pretty solid, still got my skier legs) so most wheels can’t handle my weight and with custom wheels the XR3 becomes too expensive as great a bike as it would be. Just destroyed the rear wheel of my commuter bike on the weekend, gave it a max push and the wheel just wobbled and shortly afterwards did a full 360 somersault when the wheel did something weird. Luckily in low speed so no injuries other than bruises. There were some witnesses and they were really excited about how awesome it looked. Yeah, must look great a tall guy somersaulting with an XXL bike
Do you cyclocross? I hear they make strong equipment (and men out of cyclist. ) Just kidding I rode for 45 years before heart problems and that was at 220 lbs. I got dropped on every hill. Oh well life is fun, when you want to enjoy the ride. I used cyclocross wheels, they usually just weighed a few ounces more than the lightest Zipps.
Chas
Given my somersaulting skills, maybe I’d ace cyclocross. I’m looking into wheel options and cyclocross wheels may be the way to go. Ironically, the cheaper the wheel the higher the weight rating thanks too aluminium. Need to also ensure that the fork can fit wide enough tyre to make sure the bike stops when told to. The roads here are quite bumpy so need a plenty of margin for safety.
No TdF special 50% off all Bianchis.
Several years ago, when I was down to about 210-220, I built myself a pair of HED Belgiums the carried me very well. They were reputed to be good for Clydesdales, and they weren’t wrong.
The theoretical calculations by the teams showed that a road bike would be 20-30sec (or even more!) faster on the climb. Changing a bike takes about 5 seconds and probably another 10 seconds to get up to speed (although you’re not stationary during that time, so actual time loss is probably ~5sec).
The bike change for Roglic wasn’t perfect, but also it wasn’t a complete disaster. He might’ve lost 2sec more than he should’ve.
I think the big think is physiological challenges of a bike change. Anyone that has done TT’s knows that you are in your own painful world and once you stop, even for a brief moment, you tend to lock up. Some can handle this better than other and get back in the “haze”.
I do think we have to keep in mind that Roglic got 5th in the TT and only 30sec behind 2nd place… that should usually be quite sufficient to hold on to yellow when you start with almost a minute at hand. Pogacar just did a once in a lifetime ride and crushed everyone in the TT. Winning a 32k TT by 1.21 is almost unheard of!
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What an amazing Tour, the most exciting and dramatic I’ve ever seen. I think a big factor was that Roglic had a very strong team to protect him most of the race, and Pogacar did not. The final time trial exposed weaknesses in Roglic that were hidden by his team. Also, the time trial ending up a steep hill was huge. I don’t think the slowed bike change was a big issue for Roglic, he was simply resoundingly beat by a superior rider. He lost the TT by nearly 2 minutes.
If Pogacar had had a strong team throughout, he would’ve been comfortably ahead coming into the final TT.
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good analysis