1985 Tour de France

The 1985 Tour de France was the 72nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 28 June and 21 July. The course ran over 4,109 km (2,553 mi) and consisted of a prologue and 22 stages. The race was won by Bernard Hinault (riding for the La Vie Claire team), who equalled the record by Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx of five overall victories. Second was Hinault's teammate Greg LeMond, ahead of Stephen Roche (La Redoute).

Hinault won the race leader's yellow jersey on the first day, in the opening prologue time trial, but lost the lead to Eric Vanderaerden (Panasonic–Merckx–Agu) after stage 1 because of time bonuses. Hinault's teammate Kim Andersen then took over the yellow jersey following a successful breakaway on stage 4. Hinault regained the race lead after winning the time trial on stage 8, establishing a significant lead over his rivals. However, a crash on stage 14 into Saint-Étienne broke Hinault's nose, with congestion leading to bronchitis, which severely hampered his performances. Nonetheless, he was able to win the race overall ahead of teammate LeMond and Roche. For LeMond's assistance, Hinault publicly pledged to support LeMond for overall victory the following year. The large amount of time trials in this edition of the race was decisive for its outcome, leading to a decrease in time trial kilometres for subsequent Tours.

In the Tour's other classifications, Sean Kelly (Skil–Sem–Kas–Miko) won a record-equalling third points classification. The mountains classification was won by Luis Herrera (Varta–Café de Colombia–Mavic). LeMond was the winner of the combination classification, Jozef Lieckens (Lotto) of the intermediate sprints classification, and Fabio Parra (Varta–Café de Colombia–Mavic) was the best debutant, winning the young rider classification. La Vie Claire won both the team and team points classifications.

The organisers of the Tour, the Société du Tour de France, a subsidiary of the Amaury Group, were free to select which teams they invited for the event. 18 teams with 10 cyclists on each started the race, meaning a total of 180 cyclists, which was a record number at the time. Of these, 67 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The riders in the race had an average age of 26.76 years, ranging from the 20-year-old Miguel Induráin (Reynolds) to the 38-year-old Lucien Van Impe (Santini). The Renault–Elf cyclists had the youngest average age while the riders on Verandalux–Dries–Nissan had the oldest. Two former Tour winners, van Impe (who won in 1976) and Joop Zoetemelk of Kwantum–Decosol–Yoko (who had won in 1980), both set a new record, by each starting in the race for the fifteenth time.

The teams entering the race were:

Laurent Fignon (Renault–Elf) had won the previous year's Tour de France, his second victory in a row, by a substantial margin of more than ten minutes ahead of Bernard Hinault (La Vie Claire), a four-time winner of the Tour. However, he was unable to defend his title, as an operation on an inflamed Achilles tendon left him sidelined. According to Dutch newspaper Het Parool, Fignon missing the race was well received, considering that otherwise the race was expected to be as one-sided as the year before.

In Fignon's absence, Hinault was considered the clear favourite to achieve his fifth overall victory, which would draw him level with Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx for the record number of Tour de France wins. Hinault himself commented ahead of the prologue: "If I sound sure of myself, it's because I am." Earlier in the year, he had won the Giro d'Italia. Hinault's team had been significantly strengthened for 1985, with the signings of Steve Bauer, Kim Andersen, and Bernard Vallet. The biggest addition to La Vie Claire's roster however was Greg LeMond. Having turned professional with Renault–Elf alongside Hinault and Fignon in 1981, he had enjoyed a steady rise in the cycling world, including a win in the road world championship in 1983 and a third place in the previous year's Tour. During that race, La Vie Claire's team owner Bernard Tapie had approached LeMond, offering him the highest-paid contract in cycling history to set him up as a successor to Hinault. LeMond was therefore considered "the other choice as a possible winner". LeMond himself stated that he would work for Hinault, but that he did not doubt that Hinault would do the same for him should he lose his chances. Equally, Hinault declared before the start that either himself or LeMond would win. The amount of individual time trials, four stages totaling 159 km (99 mi), was considered in Hinault's favour, since he excelled at the discipline. Due to the race start in Brittany, Hinault's home region and the large amount of time trialling, commentators jokingly referred to the edition as the "Tour de Hinault".

The third highly ranked favourite was Phil Anderson (Panasonic–Raleigh), who had just won both the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and Tour de Suisse, the most important preparation races for the Tour. Among the other favourites, there were mainly riders who were considered climbers, who ascended well up high mountains, but were inferior in time trials. These included Luis Herrera (Varta–Café de Colombia–Mavic), Robert Millar (Peugeot–Shell–Michelin), Peter Winnen (Panasonic–Raleigh), and Pedro Delgado (Seat–Orbea). Other favourites included Ángel Arroyo (Zor–Gemeaz Cusin), Pedro Muñoz (Fagor), Claude Criquielion (Hitachi–Splendor–Sunair), Stephen Roche (La Redoute), and Sean Kelly (Skil–Sem–Kas–Miko). Kelly was ranked number one in the UCI Road World Rankings, after taking victory at Paris–Nice and winning three stages of the Vuelta a España. His Irish compatriot Roche had displayed good form earlier in the year by winning the Critérium International and the Tour Midi-Pyrénées. Charly Mottet (Renault–Elf), winner of the Tour de l'Avenir, considered the junior Tour de France, in 1984, was considered an outside bet for his team in the absence of team leader Fignon, given his young age.