This has been a marvellous race in every way,’ reported Phil Liggett from the Champs-Élysées on the morning of the final stage of the 1986 Tour de France. ‘It started with a record field in Paris almost a month ago of 210 riders; it cost a record amount of money, almost £5 million; and there’s been a record number of journalists and media following the race, almost 1,500 people. So this has been a very special Tour de France, but when you break it all down, although there was that record field of 210 men, this has been a battle of just two: Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond.’
Hinault and LeMond had history. Teammates on Bernard Tapie’s La Vie Claire team, the 1986 Tour was Hinault’s eighth and final appearance and LeMond’s third. The American had finished second in 1985, a race won by Hinault, who had claimed his fifth Tour, drawing level with Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx as record-holders.