Need ancient memory clarified

babyjebus
babyjebus Posts: 93
edited July 2009 in Pro race
This is an odd one, but there is a specific reason that I'm asking, and this forum is the obvious place to ask. I'm sure that in the early nineties I watched a then dominant Miguel Indurain very nearly fall off an Alp (or maybe a Pyrenee) on a mountain descent in the Tour. He wobbled over the road marker line on an unfenced corner, but just about stayed on the tarmac. Then probably rode off to win a couple of TTs and topped the podium a few days later.
I can't find it on YouTube. Did I imagine this? Was it even Big Mig? Any idea where and what year? (I can remember the chair I was sittiing in, so it must be 1991-4). As a vertigo sufferer, I probably don't want to see it again, but if anyone could help, cheers.

Comments

  • ColinJ
    ColinJ Posts: 2,218
    You didn't imagine it - I have it on one of my old tapes. I remember him unclipping one foot as he nearly lost it. I can't remember what year it was, but it was probably the early 90s.
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    I remember watching it on Channel 4's coverage, he had a BIG moment, locked his back brake.
    Couldn't tell you where/when, so not much use I'm afraid.
    (E-mail Eurosport, I'll bet the commentators know!)
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,909
    descent of the ventoux in 1994

    Poli won the stage
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • shinyhelmut
    shinyhelmut Posts: 1,364
    mididoctors wrote:
    Poli won the stage

    only cos Armstrong let him :lol:
  • intothe12
    intothe12 Posts: 190
    indurain was in the chance group of about 4 - 6 riders....
    nearly came a cropper coming into a right then left bend..
    foot out...I think I remember the motor bike cloking 70 mph...
    hair raising stuff.
  • disquieting_museeuws
    disquieting_museeuws Posts: 601
    My memory is of his front wheel briefly flicking underneath him and forcing him wide, as said above on Poli's stage on the Ventoux decent. I think Phil Liggett said at the time that Indurain always used a clincher at the front in the mountains because he didn't trust tubs on the high-speed descents (maybe he'd had a blow-out in the past & couldn't get past it psychologically)?
  • babyjebus
    babyjebus Posts: 93
    Thanks to all. This remains the single hairiest incident I recall seeing in a bike race, though I'm sure someone will remember something even scarier (possibly with links)
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Frank Schleck going over the rail into a tree at last years Tour De Suisse?
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • disquieting_museeuws
    disquieting_museeuws Posts: 601
    edited July 2009
    Here it is, (Indurain that is) about 2.15 in. It was the back wheel, my bad.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdZfOyc04k
  • mididoctors2
    mididoctors2 Posts: 96
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    Frank Schleck going over the rail into a tree at last years Tour De Suisse?

    that was totally mentalist!

    dam lucky not to be bust up like horillo...

    the schlecks frank particularly has a lot of crashes
  • ColinJ
    ColinJ Posts: 2,218
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    Frank Schleck going over the rail into a tree at last years Tour De Suisse?
    Video of it here.
  • babyjebus
    babyjebus Posts: 93
    That Schleck fall is astonishing, thansks. Yet seeing Indurain on the Ventoux is, though obviously striking, less scary than I imagined. I always thought it was sunnier, and on the right side of a blind sweeper with a clean drop of two thousand feet at 45 degrees. Odd how time plays tricks...
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,822
    It's stramge. I remember seeing that somewhere, with full Liggett commentary, but I don't know where now. I know it certainly wasn't live, 'cos my only memory of Indurain is of him cracking at Les Arcs, and that's VERY vague.

    P.s. Sorry for making you feel old!!!
  • nick hanson
    nick hanson Posts: 1,655
    disquieting_museeuws wrote:
    My memory is of his front wheel briefly flicking underneath him and forcing him wide, as said above on Poli's stage on the Ventoux decent. I think Phil Liggett said at the time that Indurain always used a clincher at the front in the mountains because he didn't trust tubs on the high-speed descents (maybe he'd had a blow-out in the past & couldn't get past it psychologically)?
    I seem to recall he used a HP on the front,in the mountains,due to him being a big guy,on the descents,using the front brake,getting heat build up,from the brake rim,& into the front tub.With the heat build up,the tub will 'creep' on the rim,& this can rip the valve out of the tub.
    This is something i have had descending courcheval,to a lesser extent.(I stopped & turned my front wheel around when i felt the bounce of the valve on the road)
    so many cols,so little time!

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