The Handmade Cyclist has released three new prints and we think they’re great. They represent a particular iconic race, described below. They’re available from this site:

http://thehandmadecyclist.tumblr.com/

MERCKX ‘69

On the 15th July, 1969, Eddy Merckx scored perhaps his greatest triumph. Riding in his debut Tour de France, Merckx – already in yellow – attacked early.

He rode for 140km alone through the Pyrenées’ feared ‘Circle of Death’, across the Col de Peyresourde, Col d’Aspin, Col du Tourmalet and the Col d’Aubisque.

He won the stage by an incredible eight minutes, and the era of Merckxissimo was born.

HAMPSTEN ‘88

The Gavia is one of the Dolomites most feared roads.

In 1988 the Giro d’Italia returned for the first time in nearly thirty years, with the weather worsening and the riders threatening to strike.

One by one, they begged Andy Hampsten not to attack… So he rode solo into the teeth of the blizzard, taking the Maglia Rosa he would keep until Milan and becoming the first US rider to win Italy’s grand tour.

HINAULT ‘80

Was this the greatest Classics victory of all time?

Within 70 kilometres of the 1980 Liège-Bastogne-Liège monument over half the field had abandoned. Bernard Hinault himself was going to quit, before his famed pride prevented him from doing so.

Attacking over the Haute-Levee (‘to keep warm’, he said after the race), Hinault rode the final 80km of the race alone, riding into Liège an astonishing nine minutes clear of the chasing pack.

This was the day Bernard Hinault truly became le Patron.

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