Countdown to the Tour de France: 6 days | Greg LeMond’s dramatic 8-second victory in 1989

In today’s Tour de France countdown article, we revisit one of the most dramatic finishes the sport has ever seen: Greg LeMond’s astonishing 8 second victory at the 1989 Tour de France. As we count down to the 2025 Tour, let’s look back at LeMond’s remarkable comeback and that heart stopping victory which stunned the cycling world.

It seems incredible that this iconic finish took place nearly 40 years ago now, but its legend endures as perhaps the closest and most thrilling conclusion in Tour de France history. Alongisde Roglic and Pogacar’s battle in 2020, the 1989 edition was as close as it gets.

Greg LeMond was already an icon long before 1989. In 1986, he became the first American to win the Tour de France, overcoming five-time champion Bernard Hinault in an epic internal team battle within la Vie Claire. What made that win ever more significant was that Hinault was attempting to win an unprecedented sixth title, which LeMond denied.

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After 1986, LeMond appeared poised for a dynasty of his own. However, fate intervened the following year in a way no one could have imagined. In the spring of 1987, a hunting accident nearly killed him, he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law, suffering serious internal injuries and losing massive amounts of blood. LeMond was airlifted to a hospital and spent weeks in critical care. Doctors wondered not just if he would race again, but if he would even survive, and it was later revealed that he had been hit by nearly 60 pellets.

For two years, LeMond’s cycling career was derailed as he underwent multiple surgeries and a difficult recovery. By the time he returned to the professional peloton in 1988, he was a shadow of the rider he had been, struggling to finish races, far from his former peak. Many assumed LeMond’s best days were behind him.

Yet, LeMond refused to give up. Slowly but surely, he rebuilt his strength and confidence. In the lead-up to the 1989 Tour de France, he showed the first sparks of a resurgence by performing decently in the Giro d’Italia.

Still, few considered him a serious contender for that year’s Tour. After all, the field included defending champion Pedro Delgado of Spain and France’s Laurent Fignon, a two-time Tour winner in the 1980s. LeMond arrived at the Tour riding for a small Belgian team (ADR) and largely under the radar. But it wouldn’t take long for him to prove the doubters wrong and script a comeback for the ages.

From the start of the 1989 Tour, it became clear this race would be exceptional. Reigning champ Delgado famously missed his start time in the opening time trial prologue, losing over two minutes and dashing his hopes. This opened the door for a new battle to emerge, one that would be waged between Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon.

By Stage 5, an individual time trial, LeMond stunned the field and won the stage, seizing the overall race lead (maillot jaune) from Fignon by five seconds. It was a statement that the American was back to his best. Using innovative aerodynamic “tri-bars” on his handlebars (a novelty at the time), LeMond gained precious seconds in the race against the clock. He ended Stage 5 with a narrow lead of just five seconds over Fignon, signaling that a two-man duel was on.

As the race entered the mountains, the yellow jersey swapped back and forth between the two rivals in see-saw fashion. LeMond rode intelligently, knowing his comparative strength was in time trials while Fignon’s was in the high mountains. The Frenchman Fignon, driven by pride and the hopes of a home nation, attacked repeatedly in the Pyrenees and Alps to try to drop LeMond. At one point Fignon publicly accused LeMond of riding defensively, sitting on his wheel and refusing to cooperate in the climbs. LeMond, for his part, defended his tactics, noting that as the race leader it was up to the others to attack.

This mind-game between them only intensified the rivalry.

The pivotal exchange came in the Alpine stages. In Stage 15, another individual time trial up to Orcières-Merlette, LeMond finished fifth but once again outpaced Fignon and took back the yellow jersey, opening up a 40-second advantage. But Fignon was not done.

On Stage 17, finishing atop the legendary Alpe d’Huez, Fignon launched a ferocious attack. Knowing LeMond’s limits from their days as teammates years prior, Fignon sensed a moment of weakness and broke away. LeMond fought valiantly to limit his losses on the steep switchbacks of Alpe d’Huez, but Fignon’s climbing prowess prevailed.

The Frenchman gained back time and regained the race lead, putting himself 26 seconds ahead of LeMond. The very next day, Fignon pressed on with another bold move, winning Stage 18 and extending his cushion to 50 seconds on the general classification. With only a couple of stages left, Fignon, a supremely confident and proven champion, seemed to have one hand on the Tour de France trophy.

Heading into the final stage in Paris, the 1989 Tour was Fignon’s to lose. The last stage that year was highly unusual by modern standards: it was a short 24.5 km individual time trial from Versailles to the Champs-Élysées, rather than the traditional processional stage.

LeMond trailed Fignon by 50 seconds at the start of that final day. Most experts believed such a deficit over such a short distance was insurmountable, especially against a rider of Fignon’s caliber. The media had effectively written Fignon’s victory story already. But Greg LeMond had other ideas, and what unfolded on July 23, 1989 became the stuff of legend.

LeMond rode the time trial of his life on the streets of Paris. Employing his tri-bar aerobars and a streamlined helmet, he was a man possessed, cutting through the air at an average speed of over 54.5 km/h, the fastest time-trial performance ever recorded in the Tour up to that point.

LeMond had instructed his support team to give him minimal time checks, fully committed to an all-out effort. As he sped down the Champs-Élysées towards the finish line, crowds realized the impossible was happening: LeMond was obliterating Fignon’s time gap. When the dust settled, LeMond beat Fignon by 58 seconds in the stage, enough to overturn the overall deficit.

After three weeks and over 3,200 kilometers of racing, LeMond won the 1989 Tour de France by a mere 8 seconds, which is still the smallest winning margin in Tour history. Incredibly, LeMond had told his wife before the started that due to his poor form since his hunting accident, he would retire from cycling, and so clearly did not remotely expect to win.

The aftermath was pure drama. Fignon, who had started the day in the yellow jersey, crossed the finish line in anguish, slumping over his handlebars when he learned he had lost the Tour by such a cruelly slim margin. The French star was inconsolable, in his post-race remarks he lamented that losing by 8 seconds was like losing “the length of a long sigh… nothing.” After the race, Fignon revealed that he had been suffering with saddle sores which impacted his performance, but still neither he or any of the fans expected LeMond to overturn the mammoth deficit.

For LeMond, it was absolute jubilation. He had not only completed a comeback that once seemed impossible, but he did so in record-breaking fashion and in the most dramatic way imaginable. French fans were stunned and heartbroken to see their hero Fignon falter at the final hurdle, while LeMond’s triumph captivated the world. The 1989 Tour is often hailed as one of the greatest Tours ever, defined by the battle between two champions and an ending no scriptwriter could have improved upon.

LeMond’s victory in 1989 was more than just a Tour de France win – it was a testament to resilience. In the span of two years he went from fighting for his life, to struggling at the back of the pack, to standing on the top step of the Tour podium once more. His 8-second victory remains the Tour de France’s closest finish and a reference point for high drama in the sport.

In the following year, LeMond would go on to win the 1990 Tour de France as well, securing a third career Tour title and proving that his renaissance was no fluke. He cemented his legacy as one of cycling’s great champions and showed that non-Europeans could be kings of the Tour de France.

By the mid-1990s, LeMond’s performance level declined as he faced health issues and a rapidly changing, doping-fueled era of cycling that he staunchly criticized. He retired from competition in 1994, but his impact on the sport remains profound.

Nearly four decades later, Greg LeMond’s 1989 Tour de France triumph is still remembered with awe. It was the ultimate comeback story and a finish for the ages, a reminder that in the Tour de France, it’s never over until Paris. LeMond’s determination, innovation, and heart on that final day in 1989 earned him a place in cycling immortality, and it’s a story that still gives fans chills as one of the most dramatic conclusions we have ever seen.