The bike was a 1984 Gitane Tour de France, which is how I figured out the race was in '85. It surprised me, too, when I figured that out, as for many years now I "remembered" that I started racing in my 20s, and this clearly proves I started at 30 (I had a couple of races the year before this, on an old Sekai touring bike).
It was a fun bike, with some unusual components - Ofmega Mistral crankset, brakes and derailleurs. And this was obviously before I upgraded to those first-generation white Look pedals. It was reddish-orange, with a very fine-grained metallic base and the old "balloon" style Gitane logo, even on the front of the chrome fork. Like a red (and less expensive) version of the bikes Lemond and Co. rode when they were with Renault-Elf. And it had bar tape - it just doesn't show up well in the photos because it was that old "Velo" brand shiny plastic stuff that was so popular (and uncomfortable) back then (at that time, about the only other choice was woven cotton). Mine was bright yellow, to play off the yellow outlines of the Gitane graphics, and the yellow brake hoods and saddle (Selle Italia Turbo). My bike, if not me, was certainly stylin'.
Also note the wheels - what was then in-your-face graphics, with "ASPIN" spelled out in between the spokes. It looks so tame nowadays.
One other note - I was absolutely
wiped by the time I finished. I thought my knees were going to buckle climbing up to and down from the hay-bale "podium," where I got a nice little glass jar with the sponsoring hospital's name on it. I still use it to keep my daily change.