I would have to say Lemond in '89...and I don't even think it's close. Lemond raced the Giro a few weeks before that Tour..and he suffered like a dog. He said later that he was close to retiring from the sport because he thought he would never be the same after his hunting accident. Anyway..all that suffering in the Giro would pay dividends later...as Lemond found his best form in years during the early days of the 89 Tour. That said...he still would have lost that race had it not been for his aero bars. I suspect that without those bars...Lemond would have lost the tour by around 20 seconds or more. Fignon was killing everyone in the mountains...and Greg was simply limiting his losses each stage...and managing to stay close enough to Fignon to give himself a chance to overtake him in the TT. I also often wonder what would have happened had Delgado not missed his start time during the prologue. Delgado was 'dead last' after the prologue due to his massive penalty for missing his start time. Three weeks later Delgado would be on the podium in Paris.