The following feature forms part of our 'I love the 90s week'
Nobody ever said cycling was fair. For almost 90 kilometres, from the leaf-littered shores of Lake Como all the way to the drab industrial hinterland of Monza, Gilles Delion had ridden wholeheartedly in the five-man break that would decide the 1990 Tour of Lombardy. Federico Echave, Robert Millar and Charly Mottet had all played their parts, too, but one man was more sparing in his efforts – Delion’s own Helvetia teammate, Pascal Richard. This feature is part of Cyclingnews' week-long look back at the lost decade of the 1990s.
Since the group formed on the Valcava, Richard had taken only the most cursory of turns at the front, yet, to Delion’s increasing frustration, none of the escapees had seen fit to complain. Five kilometres from the finish, Paul Koechli drew up alongside the break, and Delion and Richard inched closer to listen to their directeur sportif’s instructions.
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The bespectacled Swiss had been ruminating over how best to make his team’s tenuous numerical advantage count in the finale, and Koechli outlined the play as baldly as the situation demanded: Delion to attack at the flamme rouge, Richard for the sprint. Delion bit his tongue as Koechli spoke, but his baleful expression registered his dissent.
“I think he understood that I’d decided I would do the sprint,” Delion tells Cyclingnews. “I wasn’t prepared to pass up my chance that day like I had on other occasions.”
After Koechli rolled up his window, Delion called an audible. "The best-placed one of us with a kilometre to go should attack,” he said to Richard, and his teammate nodded. Richard was nothing if not canny, but after weighing up the percentages, he sensed an opportunity at the red kite and accelerated. He tore off a small advantage for himself and held it tightly. Behind, nobody flinched. Delion’s plan, it seemed, had backfired.
Find a home with Koechli
Just as quickly, the new dawn faded
No dwelling on the past
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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