1983 Tour de France
Jacques Michaud (born 11 July 1951 in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, Haute-Savoie France) won on 20 July 1983 the eighteenth stage in the Tour de France from Le Bourg-d’Oisans to Morzine over 247 km. In this stage, he climbed the Col des Aravis, the Col de la Colombière and the Col de Joux Plane first, and finished with an advantage of 66 seconds on the second placed cyclist, Ángel Arroyo.

1983 Tour de France
Lucien Van Impe (BEL) from the Metaurobili-Pinarello team in the polkadot jersey and Ángel Arroyo (ESP) from Reynolds slighty behind Michaud on the Col de Joux Plane to Morzine.

1983 Tour de France
Laurent Fignon (FRA) from Renault-Elf-Gitane and Peter Winnen (NED) from TI-Raleigh-Campagnolo (winner of the previous stage to Alpe d’Huez)

1983 Tour de France
1983 Tour de FRance winner Laurent Fignon: Initialy, Renault-Elf-Gitane team manager Guimard did not want to send Fignon to the Tour de France, because two grand tours could be too much for a 22-year old rider. When Hinault, winner of four of the five previous Tours, announced that he would not start due to injury, the Renault team was without a team captain. Fignon was added to the 1983 Tour de France selection for the Renault team, and the team decided to go for stage wins, with hopes of having Fignon or Marc Madiot compete for the best debutant category. After stage nine, the first mountain stage, Fignon was in second place, behind Pascal Simon, and he was allowed to be team leader. In the tenth stage, Simon crashed and broke his shoulder blade. Simon continued, and only lost little time the next stages. In the fifteenth stage, a mountain time trial, Fignon was able to win back so much time that he was within one minute of Simon. In the seventeenth stage, Simon had to give up, and Fignon became the new leader. In the next stages, Fignon was able to answer all attacks from his opponents, and he even won the time trial in the 21st stage. At 22 years old, Fignon was the youngest man to win the Tour since 1933.
Fignon later said that he was lucky to have won the 1983 Tour: if Hinault had been present Fignon would have helped him, as Hinault was the team leader.
With his round glasses and air of debonnaire, Fignon was a contrast to Hinault’s hard-knocks image. He earned the nickname “The Professor”, not only because of these glasses, but also because he was one of the few cyclists who had passed his baccalaureat exams.

1983 Tour de France
Pedro Delgado (ESP) from Reynolds team in the white jersey, of the best debutant.

1983 Tour de France
Bernard Gavillet from the Cilo-Aufina team

1983 Tour de France
José Patrocinio Jiménez (COL) from the Colombia-Varta team, the runner up in the Mountains classification.

1983 Tour de France
Jean-René Bernaudeau (FRA) from Wolber. Career highlights include four wins in the Grand Prix du Midi Libre between 1980 and 1983 as well as wearing the maillot jaune for one day after the first stage in the 1979 Tour de France. In 1982, he said that dope controls in cycling were a breach of the freedom of work…

1983 Tour de France
Didier Vanoverschelde (LaRedoute-Motobecane), Eugène Urbany (Bouled’Or-Colnago), Philippe Chevallier (Renault-Elf-Gitane), Kim Andersen (Coop-Mercier-Mavic) and Enrique Aja (Reynolds).

1983 Tour de France
Johan Lammerts (TI Raleigh-Campagnolo)

1983 Tour de France

These historic photos from the 1983 Tour de France, the 18 stage on 20 July 1983 from Le Bourg-d’Oisans – Morzine. Photos are shot on the hills of the Joux Plane by me and are part of my Historic Photography Archive.