The 1996 Tour de France stage from Chambery to Les Arcs will always be remembered as the day on which Miguel Indurain’s (Banesto) five-year reign at the race finally came to an end.
The moment Indurain cracked came in dramatic fashion, not because the Spaniard was put under immense pressure or because of a barrage of attacks, but simply because it was so unexpected. And when the end came it was mercilessly exploited. Bjarne Riis would have to wait another day to assume yellow, with Evengi Berzin (Gewiss), a former teammate of Riis, becoming the first Russian to wear the maillot jaune.
The Guardian’s cycling correspondent, and former Procycling editor, William Fotheringham, also shares his vivid experiences of the race, and several other riders, including Gan’s Chris Boardman, sift through their memories of the race as well.
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
