Tour De Trump

I was moving some stuff around in the garage this morning and stumbled across a box of old VHS tapes. Amongst this treasure chest of nostalgia are some classic videos of the Tour De France and Paris- Roubaix from the mid to late 80's. I used to tune into the coverage every weekend and mash the record button. Nothing says "80's cycling" like watching Sean Kelly pound the cobbles of Paris- Roubaix and Greg Lemond and Bernard Hinault sore up Alpe D'Huez! All set to great commentary by Phil Liggett and John Tesh! However, one video gem in particular is priceless. That's the 1990 Tour De Trump. Yep, the Donald was the primary bankroll for what was actually a great East Coast race for a couple of years. The Coors Classic had gone by the wayside a couple of years before (what an awesome race that was) and the Tours of California and Georgia weren't around. It was with absolute delight that I killed a couple of hours this morning watching this blast from the past.

Many of the great Euro teams were there fighting for some very decent prize money. PDM (Holland), Panasonic (Holland), Carrera (Italy), Lotto (Belgium) and "Z" (France), were the most notable. The "Commies" sent an amature team over and one of there riders sported the leaders jersey (Why Hot Pink?) for several stages. America was represented by the much accomplished 7-11 team and a number of primarily US based squads such as Coors Light, Crest, Spago, Subaru- Montgomery, and the US National team. Even the Postobon team from Columbia was there.

These were the last of the bygone days of toeclips, downtube shifters, massive helmets (if you weren't wearing a leather hairnet), and Oakley Factory Pilots.

PDM's Mexi- stud, Raul Alcala bided his time and finally put the USSR's young Vladislav Bobrik to the torch on a very tough ("Hell's Kitchen") stage 13, Catskill mountains- Albany, NY. OUCH!!

I always thought Alcala was a great cyclist and a really decent guy. He won the coveted "Malliot Blanc" (white jersey) awared to the best rider under 25 for the 1987 Tour de France. He also won Tour stages in 1989 and 1990. I'm glad he at least got the overall in this race.

I think I'll dig around in the garage some more. I'm quite certain I have a couple of years worth of "Winning Magazines" in there, somewhere, as well.