1989 - The greatest Tour de France ever

20 years ago this summer, the most exciting Tour in history had cycling fans enthralled. It had everything – a brilliant route, drama, attacking riding and an unpredictable two-way battle which swung backwards and forwards from the Grand Départ in Luxembourg, all the way to the final metres of the Champs Elysées. Greg LeMond's final eight second victory over Laurent Fignon remains the closest margin in the event's history.

The current edition of Cycle Sport is celebrating the anniversary of this greatest of all Tours with a special 20-page feature. There are interviews with the protagonists, an extract from runner-up Laurent Fignon’s new book, unseen pictures, eyewitness accounts from journalists who saw it first hand and a special bonus feature by award-winning journalist Paul Kimmage, whose retirement as a professional cyclist came during that Tour.

To run in conjunction with the Cycle Sport feature, we’ve uploaded the original, contemporary race reports from the Cycling Weekly archive, written by Keith Bingham, who followed the Tour from start to finish. We’ve got an exclusive picture gallery from renowned cycling photographer Graham Watson, and video extracts from ‘Never So Close’, the DVD of the 1989 Tour, which is available from the Cycling Weekly shop.

THE FULL STORY OF THE 1989 TOUR

Stage reports, pictures, videos, analysis and an extract from Cycle Sport's special feature on the 1989 Tour.

The Greatest Tour - extract from Cycle Sport August 2009

How the 1989 Tour happened

Graham Watson's pictures from the 1989 race

Video highlights of the race, from the race DVD, Never So Close!

Bikes Internationale

1989 - The greatest Tour de France ever

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