1984 Tour de France
The 71st Tour de France was held to 22 July 1984 of June 29. On 23 stages over 4021 km, the 170 previous to the starting driver fought for victory. 124 drivers were classified at the end. The tour became one generation duel between Bernard Hinault and his compatriot Laurent Fignon. Hinault, who had already won the Tour and four times in the previous year due to an injury had not been able to participate, met the winner of 1983, six years younger than Fignon, who also won the Tour.
Race course
After Hinault won the prologue, moved the yellow jersey on the first stages several times the carrier, before it landed on the shoulders of Vincent Barteau. The teammate of Fignon retained the overall lead up into the mountains, where he had to hand it over after the stage to L' Alpe d' Huez. At this stage, Fignon was in second place behind Luis Herrera, who won a Tour stage for himself as the first Colombian. Fignon had Hinault taken previously in the first two time trial time already. At the end of the tour Fignon had five stage wins, including victories in all three are longer ITT to book.
In Paris Hinault was more than 10 minutes behind his compatriot who could repeat his success from last year with it. Third place on the podium was taken by the American Greg Lemond, who then intervened in the years even in direct battle for the Tour victory. Although he was weakened by a cold, Lemond was the first American to achieve a place on the podium.
The battle for the green jersey was significantly narrower than in previous years, the Belgian Frank Hoste the jersey secured only on the Avenue des Champs- Elysees in front of Sean Kelly. The mountains classification was won by the Scot Robert Millar.
The longest stage was 1984 on 338 km Nantes to Bordeaux, the 21 stage was also more than 320 km long. For the first time since 1969, there was thus again a stage which was longer than 300 km. Winner in Bordeaux was the Dutchman Jan Raas, he needed for the track more than 9.5 hours.