Professional Cycling For the Fans - Bob Roll - "The Day the Champions Died" (Hampsten, Gavia, 1988)

Years ago I heard Bob Roll mention his article titled (something like) "The Day the Champions Died," about Andy Hampsten's epic stage over the Gavia in the 1988 Giro. I've never seen a copy of it anywhere. Have any of you read it, or know where I could find a copy of it?

I believe it is “The Day the Big Men Cried" which may be a chapter in one of Bob Roll's books, Bobke II.

You're exactly right. I had remembered the title wrong after about a decade. And it is a chapter in Bobke II. Thanks for the help!

Here's A. Hampsten's take on it:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/41272-June-5th-1988-The-day-the-strong-men-cried........

That is by far my favorite racing story, followed closely by the account
of Charly Gaul at the Giro 30 years before Andy.


The 1956 triumph at the Giro was a forerunner of Andy Hampsten’s epic on the Gavia pass three decades later. With blizzards suffocating the Dolomites, Gaul started 15 minutes down overall, but ploughed through the snow to swing enough time around on the Monte Bondone to win the overall. He smashed the field as much as the weather – 57 guys abandoning in the snow.
courtesy Pez Cycling News

That is by far my favorite racing story, followed closely by the account
of Charly Gaul at the Giro 30 years before Andy.


courtesy Pez Cycling News

I like some other stories a bit better. Perhaps my favorite is abotu Bahamontes being off the front in A Mountian stage in hte TDF and the GC leaders suddenly thinking he could get enough time to displace them. So they work their butts off to stay close enough, only to make it to the top of the final climb and find him eating an ice cream cone. He was only after the KOM points.

Funny things happened before instant radio updates.

I like some other stories a bit better. Perhaps my favorite is abotu Bahamontes being off the front in A Mountian stage in hte TDF and the GC leaders suddenly thinking he could get enough time to displace them. So they work their butts off to stay close enough, only to make it to the top of the final climb and find him eating an ice cream cone. He was only after the KOM points.

Funny things happened before instant radio updates.:lol:

:lol:

There is another story, I'm pretty sure from the very very early days of the TDF where some riders thought they were chasing the leader, whose position they thought they had from the lights (of the cars) up ahead, only to discover it was the rising moon.

In the very early days some of the races were brutal.

With Luck Diablo Scott may rememebr this one. Things like this are hard enough to find when you know the riders names. All but imposible otherwise.

I tried to find the moon incident. No surprise google search was useless. I then checked sites I know have some writeups. No hit, but found one about Hinault in the 1980 LBL. It sounds at least every bit as bad as these. Only 21 riders finished.

1910 milan san-remo

only 4 finished.
the winner won by an hour

http://www.milansanremo.co.uk/1910story.htm

There is another story, I'm pretty sure from the very very early days of the TDF where some riders thought they were chasing the leader, whose position they thought they had from the lights (of the cars) up ahead, only to discover it was the rising moon.

In the very early days some of the races were brutal.

With Luck Diablo Scott may rememebr this one. Things like this are hard enough to find when you know the riders names. All but imposible otherwise.

Never heard that one... but I smell baloney... perhaps it appeared in l'Auto or somewhere but I can't see such a deception actually lasting more than a few minutes during the stage.

Never heard that one... but I smell baloney... perhaps it appeared in l'Auto or somewhere but I can't see such a deception actually lasting more than a few minutes during the stage.

I'm sure the report I saw was exagerated, but this would have been close to if not over 100 years ago.

Eugene Christophe, Milan-San Remo, 1910. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Christophe#Milan_.E2.80.93_San_Remo)

Maybe the unluckiest man ever to race a bike (twice broke a fork while leading the TdF) and, on the strength of the 1910 Milan-San Remo, certainly one of the hardest.

I havent read his books, but Bobke's looking a little rough these days, I just saw him in a print ad.