1981 Tour de France

Late 1980, there were plans to make the tour "open", which meant that amateur teams would also be allowed to join. This would make it possible for teams from Eastern Europe to join.[1] The plan did not materialize, so only professional teams were invited. In January 1981, the organisation decided that there would be 15 teams with 10 cyclists, or 16 teams with 9 cyclists each. At that point, 16 teams had already submitted a request to join, and the organisation was in discussion with four additional Italian teams, and the American national team.[2] In the end, the American team did not apply, and the Italian teams decided to focus on the 1981 Giro d'Italia. The organisation selected 15 teams, who each selected 10 cyclists, for a total of 150 participants.[3]

The teams entering the race were:[3][4]

Bernard Hinault, the winner of the 1978 and 1979 Tour de France and reigning world champion, was the main favourite. His knee problems, that caused him to leave the 1980 Tour de France, were solved, and he was in form: Hinault had won important races in the spring, and he had skipped the 1981 Giro d'Italia to focus on the Tour.[5][6] His main rivals were 1980 Tour de France winner Joop Zoetemelk, 1976 Tour de France winner Lucien Van Impe and Joaquim Agostinho, although they had never been able to beat Hinault when he was in form, and of these rivals only Zoetemelk was ever able to keep Hinault within striking distance.[5]

Freddy Maertens, the winner of the points classification in the Tour de France in 1976 and 1978, had won only three minor races in 1979 and 1980, but in 1981 he was selected again for the Tour.[6]

The route for the 1981 Tour de France was revealed in December 1980.[7] Originally, the thirteenth stage was planned as a time trial, followed by a transfer of more than 500 km on the same day, with the fourteenth stage the next day as a mountain stage. A few months before the Tour, there were many teams interested in the Tour, and the Tour organisation was afraid that there would not be enough time on 9 July to have the time trial for that many cyclists, followed by the transfer. For this reason, the thirteenth stage was changed into a criterium, and the fourteenth stage became the time trial.[8] The 1981 Tour de France started on 25 June, and had two rest days, in Nantes and Morzine.[9] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,000 m (6,600 ft) at the summit of the Col de la Madeleine mountain pass on stage 19.[10][11]

Stage characteristics and winners[12][9][13][14]

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
P	25 June	Nice	6 km (3.7 mi)		Individual time trial	Bernard Hinault (FRA)
1a	26 June	Nice	97 km (60 mi)		Hilly stage	Freddy Maertens (BEL)
1b		Nice	40 km (25 mi)		Team time trial	TI–Raleigh–Creda[15]
2	27 June	Nice to Martigues	254 km (158 mi)		Plain stage	Johan van der Velde (NED)
3	28 June	Martigues to Narbonne	232 km (144 mi)		Plain stage	Freddy Maertens (BEL)
4	29 June	Narbonne to Carcassonne	77 km (48 mi)		Team time trial	TI–Raleigh–Creda
5	30 June	Saint-Gaudens to Pla d'Adet	117 km (73 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Lucien Van Impe (BEL)
6	1 July	Nay to Pau	27 km (17 mi)		Individual time trial	Bernard Hinault (FRA)
7	2 July	Pau to Bordeaux	227 km (141 mi)		Plain stage	Urs Freuler (SUI)
8	3 July	Rochefort to Nantes	182 km (113 mi)		Plain stage	Ad Wijnands (NED)
	4 July	Nantes			Rest day
9	5 July	Nantes to Le Mans	197 km (122 mi)		Plain stage	René Martens (BEL)
10	6 July	Le Mans to Aulnay-sous-Bois	264 km (164 mi)		Plain stage	Ad Wijnands (NED)
11	7 July	Compiègne to Roubaix	246 km (153 mi)		Plain stage	Daniel Willems (BEL)
12a	8 July	Roubaix to Brussels (Belgium)	107 km (66 mi)		Plain stage	Freddy Maertens (BEL)
12b		Brussels (Belgium) to Circuit Zolder (Belgium)	138 km (86 mi)		Plain stage	Eddy Planckaert (BEL)
13	9 July	Beringen (Belgium) to Hasselt (Belgium)	157 km (98 mi)		Plain stage	Freddy Maertens (BEL)
14	10 July	Mulhouse	38 km (24 mi)		Individual time trial	Bernard Hinault (FRA)
15	11 July	Besançon to Thonon-les-Bains	231 km (144 mi)		Hilly stage	Sean Kelly (IRE)
16	12 July	Thonon-les-Bains to Morzine	200 km (120 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Robert Alban (FRA)
	13 July	Morzine			Rest day
17	14 July	Morzine to Alpe d'Huez	230 km (140 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Peter Winnen (NED)
18	15 July	Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Le Pleynet	134 km (83 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Bernard Hinault (FRA)
19	16 July	Veurey to Saint-Priest	118 km (73 mi)		Plain stage	Daniel Willems (BEL)
20	17 July	Saint-Priest	46 km (29 mi)		Individual time trial	Bernard Hinault (FRA)
21	18 July	Auxerre to Fontenay-sous-Bois	207 km (129 mi)		Plain stage	Johan van der Velde (NED)
22	19 July	Fontenay-sous-Bois to Paris (Champs-Élysées)	187 km (116 mi)		Plain stage	Freddy Maertens (BEL)
	Total		3,753 km (2,332 mi)[16]

Bernard Hinault (pictured in 1982), winner of the general classification

Hinault started out strong and won the prologue. Freddy Maertens showed he was still able to win sprints by winning the first part of the first stage. The second part was a team time trial, won by Ti-Raleigh, which put Gerrie Knetemann in the lead of the race. Ti Raleigh also won the second team time trial in stage four.[5]

The Pyrenees were only briefly visited, in the fifth stage.[6] For the last mountain, Hinault was the lead group, together with Lucien Van Impe and Phil Anderson. Van Impe escaped in the last kilometers and won the stage, 27 seconds ahead of Hinault. Anderson, who finished in third place, became the new leader, the first Australian cyclist to wear the yellow jersey.[5] Anderson had started as domestique for Jean-René Bernaudeau, and nobody was expecting him to be able to follow Hinault.[17] In the time trial of stage six, Hinault won as expected, and became the race leader. Anderson surprised with a third place, and he now followed Hinault by 13 seconds in the general classification.

In the following stages, through Northern France and Belgium, Hinault slowly increased his margin over Anderson by winning amelioration sprints, until lead by 57 seconds after stage 13. In stage 14, Hinault won the time trial, and added two more minutes to the margin.

In the sixteenth stage in the Alps, Anderson was not able to follow anymore. He lost 4 minutes to Hinault, but stayed in second place. Anderson lost this second place in the 17th stage, where he lost 17 minutes, making Van Impe the new second placed cyclist, nine minutes behind. Hinault showed his dominance by winning the eighteenth stage.

The time trial in stage 20 was also won by Hinault, who increased the margin to Van Impe to more than 14 minutes.[12]

There were several classifications in the 1981 Tour de France, four of them awarding jerseys to their leaders.[19] The most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour.[20] The time bonus for stage winners had been absent in the years before, but it returned in 1981;[12] 30, 20 and 10 seconds for the first three cyclists in every stage.[21]

Additionally, there was a points classification, were cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey.[22]

There was also a mountains classification. The organisation had categorised some climbs as either hors catégorie, first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and wore a white jersey with red polka dots.[23]

Another classification was the young rider classification. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only cyclists younger than 24 were eligible, and the leader wore a white jersey.[24]

The fifth individual classification was the intermediate sprints classification. This classification had similar rules as the points classification, but only points were awarded on intermediate sprints. In 1981, this classification had no associated jersey.[25]

For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. The riders in the team that led this classification were identified by yellow caps.[25] There was also a team points classification. Cyclists received points according to their finishing position on each stage, with the first rider receiving one point. The first three finishers of each team had their points combined, and the team with the fewest points led the classification. The riders of the team leading this classification wore green caps.[25]

In addition, there was a combativity award given after each mass-start stage to the cyclist considered most combative. The split stages each had a combined winner. The decision was made by a jury composed of journalists who gave points. The cyclist with the most points from votes in all stages led the combativity classification.[26] Bernard Hinault won this classification, and was given overall the super-combativity award.[27] The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass a point in the Landes forest 42 km (26 mi) before the end of stage 7 in Bordeaux.[28][29] This prize was won by Theo de Rooij.[30]

Classification leadership by stage[31][32][33]

Stage	Stage winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Young rider classification	Combination classification	Intermediate sprints classification	Team classifications		Combativity award
								By time	By points
P	Bernard Hinault	Bernard Hinault	Bernard Hinault	no award	Theo de Rooij	Bernard Hinault	no award	Renault–Elf–Gitane	TI–Raleigh–Creda	not awarded
1a	Freddy Maertens		Rudy Pevenage	Charly Bérard	Phil Anderson		Rudy Pevenage		Renault–Elf–Gitane	Jean-René Bernaudeau
1b	TI–Raleigh–Creda	Gerrie Knetemann			Ad Wijnands			TI–Raleigh–Creda		not awarded
2	Johan van der Velde			Bernard Hinault					Miko–Mercier–Vivagel	Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle
3	Freddy Maertens		Freddy Maertens			Phil Anderson			Capri Sonne–Koga Miyata	Willy Teirlinck
4	TI–Raleigh–Creda					Daniel Willems				not awarded
5	Lucien Van Impe	Phil Anderson			Phil Anderson	Phil Anderson	Freddy Maertens	Renault–Elf–Gitane		Bernard Hinault
6	Bernard Hinault	Bernard Hinault				Bernard Hinault			Renault–Elf–Gitane	not awarded
7	Urs Freuler									Jean-François Pescheux
8	Ad Wijnands								Capri Sonne–Koga Miyata	Eddy Verstraeten
9	René Martens								Peugeot–Esso–Michelin	Patrick Perret
10	Ad Wijnands									Régis Ovion
11	Daniel Willems									Serge Beucherie
12a	Freddy Maertens									Daniel Willems
12b	Eddy Planckaert
13	Freddy Maertens									Rudy Pevenage
14	Bernard Hinault									not awarded
15	Sean Kelly									Pierre Bazzo
16	Robert Alban			Lucien Van Impe				Peugeot–Esso–Michelin		Hubert Linard
17	Peter Winnen				Peter Winnen					Dominique Arnaud
18	Bernard Hinault									Juan Fernández Martín
19	Daniel Willems									Phil Anderson
20	Bernard Hinault									not awarded
21	Johan van der Velde									Gerrie Knetemann
22	Freddy Maertens									Dominique Arnaud
Final		Bernard Hinault	Freddy Maertens	Lucien Van Impe	Peter Winnen	Bernard Hinault	Freddy Maertens	Peugeot–Esso–Michelin	Peugeot–Esso–Michelin	Bernard Hinault

The 1981 Tour de France is seen as the year in which the globalization of the Tour became important. Before that most cyclists came from France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands, with only occasional successes by other European cyclists. Anderson was the first non-European cyclist to lead the Tour de France, and more would follow in the coming years.[40] The plans to make the Tour de France open to amateurs were not forgotten, and it happened in 1983.[41]

Anderson would again wear the yellow jersey in the next year, when he also won the young rider classification.

Hinault won five stages as reigning world champion. This had happened before, most recently in 1979 with Gerrie Knetemann and in 1980 with Jan Raas, but after 1981 it became a rare occurrence. The next time that this happened was in 2002 with Óscar Freire, and after that in 2011 with Thor Hushovd.[42]

Maertens who also won five stages would make his comeback year complete by winning the 1981 UCI Road World Championships later that year, but after that never reached his 1981 level again.

Jacques Boyer became the first American to ride in the Tour de France, acting as a domestique for Hinault.[43]

• Augendre, Jacques (2016). Guide historique [Historical guide] (PDF). Tour de France (in French). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
• Dauncey, Hugh; Hare, Geoff (2003). The Tour de France, 1903–2003: A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values. London: Frank Cass & Co. ISBN 978-0-203-50241-9.
• Martin, Pierre; Penazzo, Sergio (1981). Tour 81: The Stories of the 1981 Tour of Italy and Tour de France. Keighley, UK: Kennedy Brothers Publishing.
• McGann, Bill; McGann, Carol (2008). The Story of the Tour de France: 1965–2007. 2. Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59858-608-4.
• Nauright, John; Parrish, Charles (2012). Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice. 2. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-300-2.
• van den Akker, Pieter (2018). Tour de France Rules and Statistics: 1903–2018. Self-published. ISBN 978-1-79398-080-9.

Media related to 1981 Tour de France at Wikimedia Commons