Paris Celebration Chilled as American Cyclist Wins

In one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of the Tour de France bicycle race, American Greg LeMond defeated heavily favored Frenchman Laurent Fignon in a gritty, heart-stopping sprint through the streets of Paris on Sunday.

With a huge lead going into the final day of the 23-day, 2,030-mile race that is a national passion, Fignon was France’s Bicentennial hope on a steamy afternoon.

French newspapers had already crowned him “Laurent the Magnificent,” and French racing enthusiasts talked openly of regaining the vaunted maillot jaune --yellow jersey--worn by the winning racer, after four years of frustration at the hands of foreign competition.

Not since the reign of famed Belgian racer Eddie Merckx in the early 1970s had the French been so frustrated in their national race. A victory would be even sweeter this summer, they reasoned, on the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the French Revolution.

With only the 15-mile Versailles-to-Paris sprint left, it was the wiry LeMond, 28, and Fignon, the sleek, blond Frenchman--a two-time winner--at the head of the pack of 200 racers as they started Sunday.

Fignon, also 28, had built a 50-second lead with a tough performance in the French Alps earlier last week that left LeMond dragging. Most experts felt the lead was insurmountable in the short Sunday sprint, a race against the clock over flat, even streets.

But LeMond, hunched over his special handlebars, his yellow racing helmet aimed like a bullet at the urban course from Versailles to Paris’ Place de la Concorde, rode like a man possessed.

“I decided to ride until I exploded,” LeMond explained in fluent French after his victory. “I had nothing to lose. I thought if I exploded at one kilometer or at five kilometers, it was still the best I could do.”

LeMond never blew up. Averaging 33 m.p.h. on the straightaways, never faltering, never flagging, the part-time California resident shot past Paris monuments, hugged the River Seine like a train on a banked track and soared triumphantly up the Avenue des Champs-Elysees as thousands cheered his blurred image on the last leg of the race. He finished a remarkable 33 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

‘Why Should I Smile?’

The leader, Fignon, was still on the course behind LeMond. But whereas the egotistical Frenchman (“Why should I smile?” he asked a woman photographer a few days ago. “I’m just as cute when I don’t smile.”) had been magnificent in the mountains, he appeared drained on the flatlands. It was as though the gutsy, determined LeMond had sucked the spirit from the course, leaving Fignon wallowing.

At the finish line, Fignon collapsed on the pavement. After 87 hours, 38 minutes and 43 seconds of the world’s most prestigious bicycle race, the Frenchman had fallen to the American by eight seconds. It was the closest finish to the Tour de France in history.

LeMond, who was born in Lakewood, Calif., first broke a seven-decade European dominance of the sport with a victory here in 1986. But after a near-fatal hunting accident near Sacramento in 1987 and a series of other ailments that kept him out of the last two races, few gave him any realistic chance this year on the grueling, multi-grade track that ranges from the heights of the Pyrenees to the flatlands of Belgian Walloonia.

Even LeMond rated his chances poor.

Shotgun Pellets

“When the race started I never dreamed I could make it in the Top 10,” said the American, who still carries shotgun pellets in the lining of his heart from the hunting mishap. “The Top 20 would have been a great achievement.”

On the victory stand, hoisting his 5-year-old son, Geoffrey, on his shoulders, LeMond tried to be sympathetic to the defeated French racer. “I’m a little shocked myself by the victory,” LeMond said. “If I were in his position, I would be terribly disappointed.”

But the consolation ended abruptly as the French band broke into an awkward version of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

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