The Tour de L'Abitibi - The Junior Tour de France
In the late 80's, I was still a junior cyclist. I had been riding on the very strong New England powerhouse team CCB. We had been winning a lot. I had team-mates who were incredible athletes. Notably among these team-mates was Tyler Hamilton. But also on the team were Erik Kaiter, Chris Davenport, Ainslie MacEachran, and Matt Sudduth.
In '88 or '89, we were asked to do the Tour de L'Abitibi. This race is huge. It's the equivalent of the junior Tour de France. And among it's past winners are a number of renowned cyclists, such as Steve Bauer, Laurent Jalabert, Bobby Julich and Andy Hampsten. All of whom went on to pro cycling fame. The year we went, we were one of 5 American teams invited. I don't remember much about the others save for the face that one of them was the national team containing Lance Armstrong, Bobbi Julich, and George Hincapie among others.
This race is in Quebec north of Montreal. It's in a valley call Val d'Or and it's a mining community. The weather is often bad, wet, during the race and it's more flat than anything else.
It began with a team time trial, one of my favorite events. I've earned a few national championship medals in my life, and all have come in the TTT discipline. However, at this race I got spanked badly and the team dropped me near the end. It was discouraging but, the team was 5th and I contributed at least a little to the effort. All I remember about the subsequent road stages was rain, crashes, and the film of dirt from the dust on the road and in the air. We stayed on cots at a school with all the other teams. There were teams from France, Spain, Italy, Germany and some of the provinces in Canada. It was a fun gathering of juniors from around the world.
Bobbi Julich won, Lance was 2nd or so, and there was a big hub-bub about how Bobbi was supposed to let Lance win but didn't. It was a scandal that never turned out to be anything.
Perhaps one of the best known elements of the race is the post race party. The juniors are turned loose on the town where the drinking age is when-you're-old-enough-to-see-over-the-bar. Girls come in from all the surrounding towns and there's a lot of hijinks. The strip clubs (it's a mining town after all) were of particular interest to 200 eighteen year olds after a few beers. And the local talent was, well, we'll just say: local.
I'm proud to have done this race despite not having gone on to any real fame myself. It's a small club of riders that get to go. And an even smaller club of Americans.
Thanks for reading!
Check me out on Instagram: hugh_maceachran
In '88 or '89, we were asked to do the Tour de L'Abitibi. This race is huge. It's the equivalent of the junior Tour de France. And among it's past winners are a number of renowned cyclists, such as Steve Bauer, Laurent Jalabert, Bobby Julich and Andy Hampsten. All of whom went on to pro cycling fame. The year we went, we were one of 5 American teams invited. I don't remember much about the others save for the face that one of them was the national team containing Lance Armstrong, Bobbi Julich, and George Hincapie among others.
This race is in Quebec north of Montreal. It's in a valley call Val d'Or and it's a mining community. The weather is often bad, wet, during the race and it's more flat than anything else.
It began with a team time trial, one of my favorite events. I've earned a few national championship medals in my life, and all have come in the TTT discipline. However, at this race I got spanked badly and the team dropped me near the end. It was discouraging but, the team was 5th and I contributed at least a little to the effort. All I remember about the subsequent road stages was rain, crashes, and the film of dirt from the dust on the road and in the air. We stayed on cots at a school with all the other teams. There were teams from France, Spain, Italy, Germany and some of the provinces in Canada. It was a fun gathering of juniors from around the world.
Bobbi Julich won, Lance was 2nd or so, and there was a big hub-bub about how Bobbi was supposed to let Lance win but didn't. It was a scandal that never turned out to be anything.
Perhaps one of the best known elements of the race is the post race party. The juniors are turned loose on the town where the drinking age is when-you're-old-enough-to-see-over-the-bar. Girls come in from all the surrounding towns and there's a lot of hijinks. The strip clubs (it's a mining town after all) were of particular interest to 200 eighteen year olds after a few beers. And the local talent was, well, we'll just say: local.
I'm proud to have done this race despite not having gone on to any real fame myself. It's a small club of riders that get to go. And an even smaller club of Americans.
Thanks for reading!
Check me out on Instagram: hugh_maceachran
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