Roche paints the Emerald Isle yellow
The Official Tour de France Centennial 1903-2003 By 1 July 1987, as the riders prepared to start the Prologue of the Tour de France in a still-divided Berlin, Bernard Hinault had retired, Greg LeMond was recovering from gunshot wounds sustained in a serious hunting accident and Laurent Fignon was suffering from a catastrophic loss of form. Cycling had entered a period of transition, and the Tour de France was more open than ever. No Tour had ever had so many stages (25), and none had seen so many different riders wear the yellow jersey; eight, an all-time record, with nine changes of leader. The powerful Ditch rouleur Jelle Nijdam won the Prologue, before Poland’s Lech Piasecki became the first East European to lead the Tour. Switzerland Erick Mächler took over from him, but the real race hierarchy was established during the incredibly long Saumur-Futuroscope time trial (87.5 km/54 miles). Ireland’s Stephen Roche won it, but France’s Charly Mottet took the yellow jersey, a