Return to Alpe D'Huez

The 1987 Tour de France is remembered for a number of key contributing factors.

The first stage or Prologue and a following split day with a road race and team time trial were in Berlin, at that time still a divided city. The race was wide open due to the retirement of the dominant and rather dictatorial Bernard Hinault, Greg Lemond was absent whilst nursing a gunshot wound to the buttocks and Laurent Fignon had bottomed out on form and confidence.

The second defining characteristic was that the race was run over a record 25 stages and was widely held as being one of the fastest in speed and hottest in weather terms on record.

The Yellow jersey changed shoulders more than any Tour to date as an indication of the competitiveness amongst the peleton until eventually won by the Irishman Stephen Roche.

It was also notable for the participation for the first time in the history of the Tour by a British sponsored trade team , ANC Halfords, made possible through the sponsorship and chaotic management of Tony Capper, a businessman who had made his money by selling the ANC parcel delivery franchise and just fancied himself as a cycling impresario if not only for the thrill of driving the team car at speed in the frantic race convoy of a major european cycling tour.

The team who had been awarded a wild card place in the 1987 Tour de France on the basis of early season results was a bit out of its depth from Stage 1 through a combination of exhaustion, inadequate equipment and low morale amongst the riders arising from not being paid as per their contracts.

I wrote about the elements of fiasco and farce just a couple of days ago in "Give it Large", alluding to the character of Tony Capper, often described as larger than life.

I recently came across a feature in the UK publication Cycling Weekly (October 1st 2015) which added a further dimension to the 1987 story of ANC Halfords and one very remarkable coincidence.

Out of the nine  members of the team only four managed to limp through and complete the epic 4,331km Tour, amongst them the 23 year old Adrian Timmis.

Now aged 51 Timmis runs a bike shop in the English Midlands and admits to not having ridden that regularly in more recent years although having been a pro-Rider I do not think that you lose that motivation and determination to fiercely compete on a bike even if just back and forth from the shops or out with family and friends.

There is an iconic photograph of Timmis and his team mate Malcolm Elliott in the last week of the 1987 Tour at the foot of the massive Alpe d'Huez climb, a wriggling route ending at a ski station with a viscious ascent made up by 21 hairpins, each cruelly numbered to further demoralise those attempting to get up it.

The British pair were in difficulty after the first couple of weeks and a 110 mile run up to the foot of the climb.

Timmis does not recall much about that day, July 21st, no doubt a strategy to blank out the pain and suffering of the gruelling physical process of pedalling a bike in such an endurance event.

On the same day this year (2015) Timmis returned to the Alpe d'Huez and using the actual or authentic equipment including his Peugeot racing bike and kit from 28 years ago made the same ascent.

His reasons for doing this included part of the celebrations to mark his milestone 50th birthday and that this years Tour was to finish in Paris on the same day as his triumphant finishing ride all those years ago.

It took some planning especially renovating the bike which he had actually sold in 1988 but was able to buy back after tracking it down through social media. He had kept the memorabilia of jersey, race number 228 , shoes and Oakleys and managed to source other items through e-bay.

I find it annoying amongst natural athletes that they can maintain their weight and get back to fitness rapidly. Timmis weighed in for the 2015 ride some 4kg lighter than his peak racing years and using the latest in scientific training and nutrition claimed to have found the potentially hellish ride an absolute pleasure.

He cites that he would have been an even better rider back in the day had he been able to harness the strength he had as a 23 year old Pro with the knowledge and techniques that are available to all now.

Unbeknown to Timmis, until the morning of his ride up Alpe d'Huez, was that July 21st 2015 also happened to be the actual day of the funeral of Tony Capper. A very wierd but strangely apt coincidence.