“Cyrille Guimard, Fignon's team manager, was riding behind me. And on the final climb, he could see from LeMond's behavior that he was no longer quite okay and was shaking a little.”


LeMond was struggling to keep up with the pace, and Guimard, who had been the American's team manager for years, noticed this and wanted to let Fignon know. But De Cauwer put a stop to that.

Nowadays, a team manager would simply say this into the rider's earpiece, but they didn't have those back then. “And I didn't let Guimard pass. There's always a huge crowd on Alpe d'Huez, so you really have to move aside to let someone pass with a car.”


“At one point, Guimard starts honking his horn and making noise, and immediately you hear on the race radio: ‘ADR, let Mr. Guimard pass’. But I pretend I don't hear it.”

 

“I held him back for about a kilometer, which is almost 10 minutes uphill. It was really bumper to bumper: bam, bam. But I just stopped him and cut him off a few times.”

That way, Guimard can't immediately inform Fignon. “In the end, I have to let him pass and he catches up with Fignon. Guimard tells his team leader to attack and LeMond has no answer and has to let go.”