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THURAU AIMING TO REWARD GERMAN ENTERPRISE IN TIME TRIAL
By J B WADLEY
WEST GERMANY and Belgium remain in the sporting news until the end of the week. Tomorrow, the 67th Tour de France starts from Frankfurt-on-Main, and a few days later a long stage ends at Liege followed by an individual time-trial on the Francorchamps motor circuit near Spa.
Then the 130 riders, making up 13 teams, will rattle over the cobbled roads of Flanders back into France at Lille to begin the long loop leading to the start of the mountains at Pau.
Some of this stretch will be covered by rail. Tour riders are not getting soft. It is simply because the. Union Cycliste Internationale restricts the total length of stage races.
Rather than reduce the circumference to an unbroken line, the organiser prefer to. maintain the round-France image, a formula the cyclists do not like. After six hours' hard pedalling they want the peace and quiet of a bedroom, not a train journey.
It is adding to the problem to take France's great. sporting attraction to Germany. But Frankfurt and district is said to have paid £150,000 for the privilege, a good start to the £2 million necessary to put on the race.
For Frankfurt the Tour is both a sporting and a business affair. The city is the. home of Dietrich Thurau, who held the race lead for 15 days in 1977 and has a good chance of wearing the yellow jersey again - if only a few hours - by winning tomorrow's Prologue time trial.
“Hot spots”
Enormous free-spending crowds are expected to see him try and beer sales should be prodigious.
Only five years ago the prospect of the first 1,200 miles in an anti-clockwise direction was not attractive. The roads are virtually flat, and the prevailing west to south-west winds discourage aggressive riding.
In 1980, racing should be lively enough. Three individuals time trials are included in this stretch and two fairly long unpaced team tests which also count for individual time.
There are also frequent "Hot Spot" sprints carrying time bonuses for the first men over the line.
Though there are less mountains to climb than last year, they are formidable. The Pau-Luchon stages revives the notorious "four col" route (first used, in reverse, in 1910) of the Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde. The Alpine stages are also tough with mountain-top finishes at Pra Loup and Prapoutel les Sept Laux near Grenoble.
The Galibier, at 8,000 feet the Giant of the Alps, is climbed in the easier south-north direction soon after leaving Serre-Chevalier but the stage finishes with a comparatively new " horror," the Col de Joux-Plane near Morzine.
If the issue is still in doubt after the mountains, the final decision could be made in the 25 miles individual time trial at St Etienne two days from the finish.
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Credit: The Daily Telegraph,
Wednesday, June 25, 1980
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Priem narrowly escapes pack and takes stage
by J B WADLEY in Bordeaux
For the fifth stage in succession in the Tour de France a Raleigh bicycle was first over the line; yesterday, in Bordeaux, it was yet another Dutchman pedalling it.
A photograph of the finish gives the impression that Cees Priem out sprinted the main pack, whereas in fact he narrowly avoided being swallowed up by it.
After an eight-up breakaway group had been caught on the Acquitaine Bridge over the Garonne at Bordeaux, Priem broke away with Maurice Le Guilloux and entered the finishing circuit with a 10 second lead.
The Frenchman was caught in the last 50 yards but still took sixth place, while Priem resisted - admirably to win the stage.
Osmont second
Second over the line was a name unfamiliar to the crowd, Jacques Osmont, 26, of France. At the beginning of the season he could not find a sponsor. He was on the point of giving up the sport when, a Belgian firm signed him on.
Osmont lives in Roubaix and between major events be can compete in the tough Kermesse .races in nearby Belgium
This training was invaluable yesterday on the run into Bordeaux in the pouring rain. The smooth roads were like a skating rink and one feared there would be a serious crash as 100 riders pedalled desperately to catch Priem and Le Guilloux.
But somehow they kept upright and Osmont had the unusual distinction of beating the world champion, Jan Raas, to take second place.
Two riders, for different reasons, did not join in the business end of the sprint. Paul Sherwen was involved in a four-man crash with 30 miles to go but managed to rejoin the field.
Sean Kelly (Ireland) decided, after his overnight disqualification in Nantes, that he would keep out of temptation's way at the back of the field.
Bazzo banners
Hopes that the weather would improve as the race moved 100 miles south to Bordeaux were dispelled when rain again came down heavily soon after leaving Rochefort, and it persisted throughout the stage.
Fields of sunflowers, ripe corn and vineyards looked sad. But the huge crowds - not only in towns and villages but in sparsely-populated districts - were in great spirits.
In the Blaye area, they waved banners in praise of the local star, Pierre Bazzo, still lying second on overall time.
A strong headwind added to the difficulties. The pace was slow and racing as dull as the weather. But again the overall leader Rudy Pevenage picked up eight seconds in bonuses slightly to improve his lead over race favourite Bernard Hinault.
Hinault's injured knee apparently gave no trouble, but the real test comes today in the individual time trial. In good health Hinault would probably beat Pevenage by two minutes, then wipe out the arrears entirely in Thursday's "Four Col" stage between Pau and Luchon.
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Credit: The Daily Telegraph,
Tuesday, July 8, 1980
Overall
R Pevenage 50.45.42
P Bazzo 50.48.26
B Hinault 50.50.02
H Lubberding 50.51.53
J Zoetemelk 50.52.02
H Kuiper 50.52.26
....
G Jones 50.57.02
S Kelly 51.00.04
P Sherwen 51.06.58
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