Saturday, July 5, 1997
It was a sunny day in Rouen on Saturday, July 5, 1997, and Chris Boardman was happy. The Englishman was a prologue specialist and this was the prologue of the Tour de France. But it was the sunshine that mattered to him most.
Two years before he had crashed out of the Tour in the prologue on wet roads. A year later in the wet once again, a cautious ride seen him finish second to Alex Zulle. He was due and he wanted to make up for lost time. And Britain expected.
Boardman was a British cycling hero. He was a track champion who took the World Hour record before converting to the road in 1994. In his first Tour that year he won the prologue and took the first yellow jersey by a British rider since Tom Simpson in 1962. In 1997, a successful Tour for British Cycling might be a day in yellow for Boardman and a day in the break for Max Sciandri.
And so all eyes were on the prologue. It began that afternoon, right about the same moment Martina Hingis was becoming the youngest person to win Wimbledon. Jan Ullrich started early, looking to post a good time in case conditions changed later in the day. And while conditions did worsen, it didn't rain, and that was enough for Boardman. The GAN rider stomped his way around the 7.3km course and finished 2 seconds up on Ullrich with a time of 8 minutes 20 seconds. It wasn't as fast as his 1994 prologue, the fastest stage in Tour history, but it was enough to put him in yellow. Evgeni Berzin came in 5 seconds down and Bjarne Riis was in 13th place at 15 seconds. Ullrich may not have won the stage but he had laid down a marker for the rest.
In 1994 Boardman managed to keep the jersey for three stages. His hopes now would be to do the same, but the sprinters lurked. What he had done though was delight the British fans with a rare home rider in yellow and a stage victory. There would be hopes he might win again in one of the later time-trials, though by then he would be well out of yellow.
So, as evening set on Rouen, 22 teams made up of 198 riders had started the 1997 Tour de France. (Twenty years on, only three of those teams would remain, at least in name: FDJ, Lotto and Cofidis. Another three remain as the same organisation: Casino are now AG2R, Rabobank are now LottoNL-Jumbo, and Banesto are now Movistar. In 2017 there are the likes of Sky, Quickstep, Astana, BMC and Trek. In '97 the big names rolling Telekom, Mapei, Festina, ONCE and GAN.)
General classification after the Prologue:
1. Chris Boardman (GAN) in 8'20"
2. Jan Ullrich (Telekom) +2"
3. Evgeni Berzin (Batik-Del Monte) +5"
4. Tony Rominger (Cofidis)
5. Alex Zulle (ONCE) both same time
6. Peter Meinert (US Postal) +7"
