Tour de Trump
The Tour de Trump was a wheel - stage race for men in the United States , which was held in 1989 and the 1990th
prehistory
In 1988 the young sports reporter John Tesh , later known as a pop composer, returned from the Tour de France to the USA and gave his colleague Billy Packer the idea of organizing a bike race of this kind there too. Packer was able to convince entrepreneur Donald Trump of this project, who promised to support it with 750,000 dollars.
Packer suggested the name Tour de Trump . The broadcaster NBC was won as a media partner, and Trump said in an interview: "This race will be as big as the Tour de France." Mike Plant , later president of the US cycling association USA Cycling , became sporting director .
First run
In 1989, the first Tour de Trump , which went over ten stages, started in Albany and ended with an individual time trial with the finish in front of a Trump hotel in Atlantic City . 19 teams, eight professional and eleven amateur teams with athletes from 15 countries participated. The race consisted of six road races, one circuit race and one criterion . The driver with the lowest total time after 837 miles received $ 50,000 for first place.
Among the starters was the local driver Greg LeMond , who became the first US-American to win the Tour de France in 1986 . He rode for Team 7-Eleven , which in turn was the first American professional team in cycling. Another prominent American rider was Andrew Hampsten , who had won the Giro d'Italia the year before .
On the first stage, opponents of Trump blocked the road; they carried banners that read “Hungry? Eat the Rich "," Trump = Lord of the Flies "and" Trump = Anti-Christ ". Trump's lawyers sent a warning to the organizers of a cycle race in Aspen , which was held for the first time last year and was called Tour de Rump . Its organizers cited the fact that it was a local bike race for amateurs. Trump's lawyers stopped speaking; the Tour de Rump is still there today (as of 2016).
The organizers of the Tour de Trump had included the date of the Tour de France in their planning, but did not take into account that the race date from May 5 to 14, 1989 collided with those of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España . For this reason, many stars from Italy and Spain did not take part in the race, even though the sponsor lured Trump with a total of 250,000 US dollars in prize money. The race is said to have been the second highest endowed cycle race in the world after the Tour de France.
The first edition of the Tour de Trump won the Norwegian Dag Otto Lauritzen ; LeMond, in whom great hopes had been placed, finished 27th, Hampsten crossed the finish line even further.
Second edition
The second edition in 1990 lasted 13 stages; Mostly amateur teams were at the start , as the race was not yet entered in the professional calendar. When Packer asked the mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland for permission to drive through the race, they in turn made their approval dependent on that of the local horse racing organizer Joe De Francis . This made it a condition that the Trump yacht Trump Princess , previously owned by the arms dealer Adnan Kashoggi , had to be in the port of Baltimore during the passage of the race. Only after Trump agreed to do so was approval given.
After the race, Trump took the racing drivers on the Trump Princess , where the athletes waved to an enthusiastic crowd from the deck. As the Washington Post reported at the time, Trump expressed the desire to buy a bike and also become a cyclist: “Look at their bodies.” While the Belgian Eric Vanderaerden was offering his bike for sale, the American Davis Phinney hit one Exchange yacht for bike.
The winner of this second event was the Mexican Raúl Alcalá ; the German Olaf Ludwig won the points evaluation .
Then the sponsor Donald Trump got out, probably a financial distress of his company empire was the reason. The race itself continued under the name Tour DuPont until 1996.
Palmarès
| year | winner | Second | Third | team |
| 1989 |
 Dag Otto Lauritzen
|
 Henk Lubberding
|
 Eric Vanderaerden
|
 7-Eleven
|
| 1990 |
 Raúl Alcalá
|
Atle Kvålsvoll
|
Erik Breukink
|
PDM Concorde
|
Web links
- Tour de Trump in the database of Radsportseiten.net
- 1990 Tour de Trump (Complete) on YouTube , February 22, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Lou Dzierzak: The Evolution of American Bicycle Racing . Falcon Guides, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7627-3901-1 , pp. 157 .
- ↑ a b c d Kevin Hogan: The Strange Tale of Donald Trump's 1989 Biking Extravaganza. In: politico.com. April 10, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Of all people, a Mexican won the Tour de Trump. In: radsport-news.com. April 23, 2015, accessed February 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Mr. Mike Plant (USA). UCI, accessed May 8, 2017 .
- ^ Paul Maunder: Tour de Trump: When Donald Trump ran a bike race - Journal. In: rouleur.cc. November 7, 2016, accessed May 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Lou Dzierzak: The Evolution of American Bicycle Racing . Falcon Guides, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7627-3901-1 , pp. 158 .
- ↑ A Mexican won the Tour de Trump. In: sn-online.de. February 7, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Christine Brennan: Baltimore Leg goes to Phinney by hair. In: washingtonpost.com. May 14, 1989, accessed June 29, 2017 .