Last Sunday saw the cancellation of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and the GP di Lugano due to snow. While cycling is ostensibly a summer sport, we are not even at the end of April and the riders have already got through 15% of the year’s days of racing. So while we may associate pro cycling with glorious summer days riding through fields of sunflowers, the sport also has a long association with snow. Here are three of the most epic days in the history of cycling.
1910 Milan-San Remo
Sixty-five riders took to the start of the fourth edition of the race. Only four of these hardy souls would reach the finish on the Ligurian coast. Eugene Christophe, the multiple French cycle-cross champion, put his off road skills to good use to win the race, but not after considerable suffering:
‘It was hard to keep going. In places there were 20 centimetres of snow. Each time I was obliged to get off and push. Then I had to stop with stomach cramp. I collapsed on to a rock at the side the road. I was freezing. All I could do was move my head a little from left to right and right to left.’
In an attempt to warm himself, Christophe made a stop at an inn at the side of the road where he warmed himself with rum. While he was in there two other riders came in, one of whom had lost a shoe without noticing, and plunged their hands into the fire.
Despite spending 25 minutes in the inn, Christophe, who would finish second in the Tour de France the following year, won the race by over an hour to his nearest rival, Giovanni Cocchi. The 289km course had taken a staggering over 12 hours to complete.
1980 Liege-Bastogne-Liege
Bernard Hinault has a reputation as one of the hardest men in cycling, but surely this was his hardest win of all. Dubbed Niege-Bastogne-Niege by the commentators, the blizzard was already in full flow at the start line in Liege. Within the first hour of racing, a few teams had already abandoned as a whole. However, undeterred by the conditions, Hinault increased the pace on the Col du Stockeu, with Silvano Contini and Henk Lubberding the only men able to stay with him. But with 90km to go the Frenchman rode clear of his companions to complete an epic solo win in the bitter cold. He finished an incredible 9’24” clear of Hennie Kuiper in second place.
1988 Giro d’Italia, Stage 14
Going into stage 14 of the 1988 Giro, Andy Hampsten was lying fifth in GC, 1’18” behind the maglia rosa of Franco Chioccioli. It was a manageable deficit, but Hampsten, arguably not the best climber in the race, needed a good performance on the stage over the Passo di Gavia to reduce the gap. Race director Vincenzo Torriani ignored weather reports to plow on with the 120km stage which also included the climb of the Passo Aprica.
Hampsten reached the top of the Gavia at the front of the race, but to put on a jacket, neoprene gloves and a balaclava for the descent. Although Hampsten lost the stage to Erik Breukink, he became the first American to wear the pink jersey, and stopping at the top of the Gavia to put on warm clothing may well have won him the race.
Johan Van der Velde, who passed Hampsten while he was stopped at the top of the Gavia, had to stop and recover in the team car half way down the descent, and ended up losing three quarters of an hour. Two former Giro champions, Roberto Visentini and Giuseppe Saronni, were seen in tears on the descent, with the former stopping three times to put on a ski jacket, drink tea, and have his muscles rubbed back to life, losing half an hour
Hampsten put five minutes into the other GC contendors in this stage, and won the race overall by almost two minutes over Breukink
Student Cyclist 