The cycling race that Donald Trump created to beat the Tour de France

This Tuesday, November 5, 2024, is a big day in the USA. It is election day, and Donald Trump is playing for the presidency of the country with Kamala Harris. A few will remember that back in the 80's, the presidential candidate financed his own race to try and contest with the Tour de France.  

Trump's name is on everyone's lips as usual. For this reason we remember the year when the American tycoon wanted to create a cycling race that would leave behind the Tour de France as a great reference of the sport. This came during the golden years of Greg LeMond, a time in which the sport was hitting big numbers in the USA.

In an interview with NBC in 1989, Donald Trump presented his ambitious project to overthrow the dominance of the Grande Boucle in the cycling season: the 'Tour de Trump'. "I put my name in the race because I always look to the future and I think the Tour de Trump is going to be as important as the Tour de France," the man now fighting for his second U.S. presidency (the first was from 2017 to 2021) said at the time.

The race was intended to be the most important in the world. To this end, it was presented as a race that was going to cross more U.S. states than any other, in addition to having a prize of $250,000 for the winner of the race. A greater financial reward than any other race in the world, with the exception of the Tour de France itself.

The Tour de Trump had two years of life as such. It was disputed in 1989 and 1990. The first winner was the Norwegian Dag-Otto Lauritzen, and the following year the race was won by the Mexican Raúl Alcalá. Due to financial problems, the race was renamed Tour de DuPont due to the main investment of the chemical company DuPont. Under this name, it had up to 6 editions before its demise with the 1996 edition, which was won by Lance Armstrong (he also won the 1995 edition) - whilst Greg Lemond was also part of the winner list.