Heading into the final stage, an individual time trial finishing in Paris, LeMond was in second place overall. He was 50 seconds behind Laurent Fignon, who had won the Tour in 1983 and 1984. LeMond rode the time trial using novel aero bars, which gave him an aerodynamic advantage, to beat Fignon by 58 seconds and to claim his second yellow jersey with a final margin of eight seconds—the closest in the Tour’s history.

Champagne flowed on the Champs-Elysees well past midnight. LeMond and his wife Cathy spent a lot of time with the ABC caravan as we traversed the countryside of France, celebrating a race that will never be forgotten by the French or the Americans.