1989 Tour de France

The 1989 Tour de France was the 76th edition, 21 stages and a prologue over 3,285 km, starting in Luxembourg on 1 July and running anti-clockwise round France to finish in Paris on 23 July. Greg LeMond won his second Tour after two seasons spent recovering from a near-fatal hunting accident, ahead of two-time winner Laurent Fignon and the defending champion Pedro Delgado. Delgado had started as favourite but lost almost three minutes by missing his start time in the prologue, and the race became a duel in which LeMond and Fignon swapped the yellow jersey several times. Fignon matched LeMond in the prologue but lost time in the other three time trials to LeMond's triathlon-style aero handlebars; he rode strongly in the mountains and took the lead at Alpe d'Huez on stage 17, while Delgado attacked to finish third. It was the closest Tour in history.