Boyer secured the GC victory by getting in a first lap break and lapping the field 2 (THREE!!!!!!!) times at the North Boulder Park Criterium. I think the stage was won by a young Steve Bauer. (In prior years it was considered a feat to lap the field twice - it was done by Phil Anderson from Oz.). When Boyer did it, he needed to make up a minute and change to the Columbian Antonio Londono (sp?). I was there working for the Shimano Men's Team and couldn't believe my eyes. To this day, Boyer's GC victory (I think he was 5th in the stage) was the second most exciting thing I ever saw in the sport, but the most exciting thing I ever saw in person.
e-RICHIE
chester, ct
losgatos_dale@yahoo.com quoted:
"Oh, yeah -- he also won the Coors Classic (the long-since defunct American version of Le Tour) way back in 1980. Boyer's cycling career included an impressive 87 amateur victories and 49 professional ones. Boyer was inducted into the United States Cycling Hall of Fame in 1998."
His 1980 victory was a grudge come-back of sorts. The '79 title had been snatched from him by a dubious five minute yellow line penalty, which handed the overall win to Dale Stetina. Boyer came very close to making up the five minutes, as I recall -- I think that the difference from first overall to second overall was well under a minute.
One of those two years (both?) he rode with the Grab-On team. They were the stylin' bad boys of the event, with lots of confidence, attitude, and perfect hair. It made quite an impression on me that Jacques had ridden the entire stage race with a straight block (Colorado's roads are generally engineered for winter conditions, with grades much less steep than is common in California, or New England, for that matter). At that point, he had already been riding in Europe with the BP-Lejeune squad.
Speaking of inductions, has his more recent induction come to an end?
Cheers,
Peter Bridge
Just east of the Morgul Bismarck course
Colorado