Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

That was an amazing race. Hinault just rode away from everyone. He dropped Baronchelli (who was doing his best to sit in the whole way) on the last lap and took a minute out of him. The way he raised his hands in the end like a fighter is truly appropriate.

This video is a good example of how bike racing showed me early on how coverage effects what happened.

For example, this coverage had an obvious Belgian angle even though it used the same footage of the French video I have of the race where you don’t really notice DeVlaeminck and DeMunck. This edit, somewhat takes away the drama of Hinault dropping everyone. You can sort of see how difficult the climb was, but not really. That course was just brutal. It was a race of attrition. This edit sort of makes it seem like the wet downhill sections sorted out the pack, but it dried up fairly early in the race.

I think where I first noticed this was during the ‘85 Tour. I had followed it on French TV and saw the US coverage later on video tape. The race I saw I had no impression that Hinault was ’stealing’ the race from Greg. I was kind of shocked when I saw the US version of the story. That and how disco-y it was thanks to John Tesh. Yuck.