Favorite Tour de France Moments: 1994...

The 2012 edition of the Tour de France begins on June 30. Leading up to that I am going to present a favorite moment of mine from a different Tour each day, or as many days as I can. No order to them (although, by the time I am finished I may be able to come up with a list). If you are a fan, you will likely be familiar with many. If you are new to the Tour, perhaps you will be inspired.

"On the way into the curve, I was going at 29, 30 kilometres an hour, then BAM! I looked down and it was nine, eight, nine, ten…At that moment, I said to myself that I was dead. Fortunately, after a kilometre or so, I got my breathing right, found a decent cadence and ended up climbing in exactly the same way that I usually did in the gruppetto.”

If you have a great memory for dates and events you might remember the event to which that quote relates as one of the most memorable of Tour history. In 1994, on the fifteenth stage, a 231.0 km run between Montpellier and Carpentras, Eros Poli became one of the most, if not the most, unlikely stage winners of all time. Poli, known best as Mario Cipollini's lead out man, freed from those duties due to Cipollini crashing out during an earlier stage, threw all caution to the wind, took his chance and secured what was arguably the biggest win of his career. Poli, all 6'-4" and 187 pounds, in no regard resembled a Tour climber. Yet on this day, in sweltering heat, he took on the savage and barren slopes of Mont Ventoux. Calculating how much time he thought he would need by the base of the climb he struck out on his own early, opened a twenty-two minute gap before hitting the Ventoux; by the top of the brutal climb there was only four minutes left of that gap with the run down to Carpentras still to go. He did it, though, with more than three minutes to spare. I still remember his tears of joy as he rode those final few hundred meters hardly daring to believe that his gamble had paid off.

From everything I have ever read, Eros Poli, to this day remains one of the most personable champions you could ever hope to meet, and leads bicycle tours around Europe including, of course, one up the legendary Mont Ventoux. Check his website Eros Poli Mont Ventoux Bike Emotions.

The quote at the top is from a 2009 interview with Eros Poli,

by Daniel Friebe for bike radar.com