The 1985 Tour de France was the 72nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 28 June and 21 July. The course ran over and consisted of a prologue and 22 stages. The race was won by Bernard Hinault (riding for the team), who equalled the record by Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx of five overall victories. Second was Hinault's teammate Greg LeMond, ahead of Stephen Roche ().
Hinault won the race leader's yellow jersey on the first day, in the opening prologue time trial, but lost the lead to Eric Vanderaerden () after stage 1 because of time bonuses. Hinault's teammate Kim Andersen then took over the yellow jersey following a successful breakaway on stage 4. Hinault regained the race lead after winning the time trial on stage 8, establishing a significant lead over his rivals. However, a crash on stage 14 into Saint-Étienne broke Hinault's nose, with congestion leading to bronchitis, which severely hampered his performances. Nonetheless, he was able to win the race overall ahead of teammate LeMond and Roche. For LeMond's assistance, Hinault publicly pledged to support LeMond for overall victory the following year. The large amount of time trials in this edition of the race was decisive for its outcome, leading to a decrease in time trial kilometres for subsequent Tours.
In the Tour's other classifications, Sean Kelly () won a record-equalling third points classification. The mountains classification was won by Luis Herrera (). LeMond was the winner of the combination classification, Jozef Lieckens () of the intermediate sprints classification, and Fabio Parra () was the best debutant, winning the young rider classification. won both the team and team points classifications.
Teams
The organisers of the Tour, the Société du Tour de France, a subsidiary of the Amaury Group, were free to select which teams they invited for the event. 18 teams with 10 cyclists on each started the race, meaning a total of 180 cyclists, which was a record number at the time. Of these, 67 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The riders in the race had an average age of 26.76 years, ranging from the 20-year-old Miguel Induráin () to the 38-year-old Lucien Van Impe (). The cyclists had the youngest average age while the riders on had the oldest. Two former Tour winners, van Impe (who won in 1976) and Joop Zoetemelk of (who had won in 1980), both set a new record, by each starting in the race for the fifteenth time.
The teams entering the race were:
Pre-race favourites
Laurent Fignon () had won the previous year's Tour de France, his second victory in a row, by a substantial margin of more than ten minutes ahead of Bernard Hinault (), a four-time winner of the Tour. However, he was unable to defend his title, as an operation on an inflamed Achilles tendon left him sidelined. According to Dutch newspaper Het Parool, Fignon missing the race was well received, considering that otherwise the race was expected to be as one-sided as the year before.
In Fignon's absence, Hinault was considered the clear favourite to achieve his fifth overall victory, which would draw him level with Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx for the record number of Tour de France wins. Hinault himself commented ahead of the prologue: "If I sound sure of myself, it's because I am." Earlier in the year, he had won the Giro d'Italia. Hinault's team had been significantly strengthened for 1985, with the signings of Steve Bauer, Kim Andersen, and Bernard Vallet. The biggest addition to 's roster however was Greg LeMond. Having turned professional with alongside Hinault and Fignon in 1981, he had enjoyed a steady rise in the cycling world, including a win in the road world championship in 1983 and a third place in the previous year's Tour. During that race, 's team owner Bernard Tapie had approached LeMond, offering him the highest-paid contract in cycling history to set him up as a successor to Hinault. LeMond was therefore considered "the other choice as a possible winner". LeMond himself stated that he would work for Hinault, but that he did not doubt that Hinault would do the same for him should he lose his chances. Equally, Hinault declared before the start that either himself or LeMond would win. The amount of individual time trials, four stages totaling , was considered in Hinault's favour, since he excelled at the discipline. Due to the race start in Brittany, Hinault's home region and the large amount of time trialling, commentators jokingly referred to the edition as the "Tour de Hinault".
The third highly ranked favourite was Phil Anderson (), who had just won both the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and Tour de Suisse, the most important preparation races for the Tour. Among the other favourites, there were mainly riders who were considered climbers, who ascended well up high mountains, but were inferior in time trials. These included Luis Herrera (), Robert Millar (), Peter Winnen (), and Pedro Delgado (). Other favourites included Ángel Arroyo (), Pedro Muñoz (), Claude Criquielion (), Stephen Roche (), and Sean Kelly (). Kelly was ranked number one in the UCI Road World Rankings, after taking victory at Paris–Nice and winning three stages of the Vuelta a España. His Irish compatriot Roche had displayed good form earlier in the year by winning the Critérium International and the Tour Midi-Pyrénées. Charly Mottet (), winner of the , considered the junior Tour de France, in 1984, was considered an outside bet for his team in the absence of team leader Fignon, given his young age.
Route and stages
The 1985 Tour de France started on 28 June, and had one rest day, in Villard-de-Lans. The race started in Brittany in North-West France, Hinault's home region, with a prologue time trial in Plumelec. The route then headed north towards Roubaix, then south-east to Lorraine, then south through the Vosges and Jura mountains into the Alps for stages 11 through 13. From there, the Tour passed through the Massif Central en route to the Pyrenees for three high-mountain stages. After leaving the high mountains, the route moved north to Bordeaux, before travelling inland, with a time trial at Lac de Vassivière on the penultimate day, followed by a train transfer to Orléans for the final, ceremonial stage into Paris. It was the first time since 1981 that the Tour was run clockwise around France. The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage 17.
The 1985 Tour was the last one to contain split stages, where two stages on the same day had the same number and were distinguished by an "a" and "b". Until 1991, there were still two stages held on the same day, but given separate stage numbers. It was also the first time that two mountain stages were held on the same day, stages 18a and 18b in the Pyrenees.
+ Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner P28 June Plumelec Individual time trial 129 June Vannes to Lanester Plain stage 230 June Lorient to Vitre Plain stage 31 July Vitre to Fougères Team time trial 42 July Fougères to Pont-Audemer Plain stage 53 July Neufchâtel-en-Bray to Roubaix Plain stage with cobblestones 64 July Roubaix to Reims Plain stage 75 July Reims to Nancy Plain stage 86 July Sarrebourg to Strasbourg Individual time trial 97 July Strasbourg to Épinal Hilly stage 108 July Épinal to Pontarlier Hilly stage 119 July Pontarlier to Morzine Avoriaz Stage with mountain(s) 1210 July Morzine Avoriaz to Lans-en-Vercors Stage with mountain(s) 1311 July Villard-de-Lans Individual time trial 12 July Villard-de-Lans Rest day 1413 July Autrans to Saint-Étienne Hilly stage 1514 July Saint-Étienne to Aurillac Plain stage 1615 July Aurillac to Toulouse Plain stage 1716 July Toulouse to Luz Ardiden Stage with mountain(s) 18a17 July Luz-Saint-Sauveur to Aubisque Stage with mountain(s) 18b Laruns to Pau Stage with mountain(s) 1918 July Pau to Bordeaux Plain stage 2019 July Montpon-Ménestérol to Limoges Plain stage 2120 July Lac de Vassivière Individual time trial 2221 July Orléans to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Plain stage Total
Classification leadership and minor prizes There were several classifications in the 1985 Tour de France, six of them awarding jerseys to their leaders. 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. There were two ways to gain time bonuses, which subtracted seconds from a rider's overall time. One was at stage finishes, where the first three riders across the line received 30, 20, and 10 seconds bonus respectively. The split stage 18 awarded full-time bonuses for each of its two legs. Secondly, riders were able to gain 10, 6, and 3 seconds bonus for the first three to cross the line at intermediate sprints. Unlike the previous year, where these were only given out during flat stages, the time bonuses at intermediate sprints were awarded during every road stage of the 1985 Tour.
Additionally, there was a points classification, where cyclists were given points for finishing among the best in a stage finish. The cyclist with the most points led the classification, and was identified with a green jersey. The system for the points classification was changed for the 1985 Tour: in previous years, more points were earned in flat stages than in mountain stages, which gave sprinters an advantage in this classification; while in 1985, all stages gave 25 points for the winner, down to 1 point for 25th place. Unlike in many other years, between 1984 and 1986, intermediate sprints did not award points for this classification. Sean Kelly won the classification for a record-equalling third time. His 434 points were 69.4% of the maximum possible amount obtainable, a record .
There was also a mountains classification. The points system for the classification was changed: mountains in the toughest categories gave more points, to reduce the influence of the minor hills on this 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. Hors catégorie climbs awarded 40 points to the first rider across, down to 1 point for the 15th rider. First-category mountains awarded 30 points to the first rider to reach the top, with the other three categories awarding 20, 7, and 4 points respectively to the first man across the summit. The cyclist with the most points led the classification, and wore a white jersey with red polka dots. Luis Herrera won the mountains classification.
The combination jersey for the combination classification was introduced in this year's Tour. This classification was calculated as a combination of the other classifications: a first place in one of the classifications awarded 25 points, down to 1 point for 25th place. Only the general, mountains, points, and intermediate sprint classifications were included here. The winner of this classification was Greg LeMond.
Another classification was the young rider classification. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders that rode the Tour for the first time were eligible, and the leader wore a white jersey. The winner of this classification was Fabio Parra, who finished in eighth place in the general classification.