Tour de France - TTT Returns
Welcome to Day 1 of Tales of the Tour by Chris Sidwells. Each day we will be sharing a story from the past that connects to the current stage. Read on for Day 1...
The team time trial returns to the Tour de France today with new rules, but its essential meaning remains the same. It is a public examination of collective strength in cycling; eight riders, one rhythm, one line, one sponsor’s name repeated until it becomes a moving billboard of power.
Few teams understood that better than one in today’s photo, Peter Post’s legendary TI-Raleigh squad, and few teams performed it with such chilling authority.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, TI-Raleigh owned Tour de France team time trials, winning all 8 between 1978 and 1982. When they lined up in perfect file, they carried more than speed, they carried menace.
Their rivals knew they were not just racing against the clock, but displaying order, strength, discipline and intent. TI-Raleigh’s Tour de France team time trial statistics speak not only of talent, but of preparation and a shared belief in the system Peter Post built.
Post understood the psychological nature of the event as well as its sporting value. “Winning team time trials is important for two reasons,” he told the author, Chris Sidwells...
“First, it creates a big impression in the minds of your rivals, they see how strong all the team is and begin to doubt themselves. The other reason is purely for the sponsors. If you win the Tour de France team time trial, you have a big photo across the front page of every sports newspaper in Europe next morning. That means a unified body of riders in the same kit, with the same sponsor’s names on them. That’s worth a lot of advertising money.”
Those photos, like the one we’ve posted today, were TI-Raleigh in one image; athletic excellence and commercial clarity fused into a single, fast-moving formation. Every rider had a job, every pull on the front mattered, everyone gave everything for the common good.
Today’s Tour team time trial will be interesting, of course, but it allows individual ambition to disturb the purity of the line. Today’s photo recalls the purity of when great teams became one thing; a machine with eight engines, one purpose and no visible weakness.
You can read more about TI-Raleigh in Chris’ book, Cycling Legends 02: TI-Raleigh, cycling’s first super team - https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/.../cycling-legends-02-ti...
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