Pic of the Day: Robert Millar, Tour de France 1991

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Robert Millar, scanned by Steve Selwood from an original slide.

Robert Millar grinding his way up the lower slopes of Alpe D’Huez in the 1991 Tour de France. Millar came in 75th on the stage 8:53 down on stage winner Gianni Bugno. ’91 wasn’t a memorable Tour – on an earlier stage he had suffered one of the worst crashes of his career, and the Z team leader Greg Lemond failed to win three tours in a row.

He was writing a Tour diary for Cycling Weekly, which is quoted in Richard Moore’s In Search of Robert Millar – he said he ‘needed earplugs to get up Alpe d’Huez’ , such was the noise from spectators.

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  • http://www.velocast.co.uk VeloCast

    I *think* I still have all of channel 4's coverage of the 1991 TDF on video. Unfortunate thing is I'm not sure I even have a video player now even if the tape has survived!

    When you look at the z-vetements jersey now it's bloody awful, but at the same time it's still one of the best. Wish I still had mine.

    Also noticed Millar is riding an Lemond bike. Must have been one of the first ones as I think the company founded in 90?

    Great pic. Thanks for posting, Owen.

    Scott.

  • owen_p

    Thanks for commenting Scott.

    Keep the tape- one day it might be good to go back to!

    I'm not too up on my Lemond bikes history. Millar said himself on the Bikeradar forum that a titanium Lemond, used by the Z team, was his favourite of all the bikes he raced on. Not sure if it's one of the above or not.

    Yes, the Z jersey- to you and I it's bad, but for The Youth Of Today, I think that 80's-style fluo (yes I know it was '91) is back in a big way now.

    Also, @brendanmilliken said today “rumour has it he would do 15 reps of the crow road in one session for training!”.