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Marianne Martin was born November 1, 1957. The first women's Tour De France held in July, had 18 stages covering between 616 to 620 miles. The women's tour ran the same time as the men's during the last two weeks of the men's edition. Marianne Martin won the tour with a time of 29 hours, 39 minutes, and 2 seconds. Another America Deborah Shumway came in 3rd. Martin suffered from Anemia earlier in the year and had been riding poorly, but she took the lead in the 14th stage when they encountered the climbs. Martin was a good climber and never gave up the lead after that into Paris. The streets were said to contain more two million spectators watching the race. A bonus was that her father had flown in to watch the finish for her victory lap along the Champs Elysees. It was a dream come true that almost never happened, since the race conflicted with the games in LA, so the USCF didn't send a team and the North Jersey Women's Bicycle Club took up the slack. A French company supplied the equipment and clothes since they couldn't wear the national team jerseys. Martin had said that she begged to get on the team, so the outcome was quite remarkable. Also between the 1984 women's Tour De France victory and Connie Carpenter successes during the games, women were credited with bringing the level of awareness and prestige to cycling in America. Felix Levitan created the Tour de Feminin in 1984, in which teams from the United States, England, Canada, Netherlands, and France took part. He had also hoped to attract a team from China B, the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world, but that did not happen until 1985. Of course this initiative was far from interesting, but that does not alter the fact that women's bicycle racing was hugely stimulated now that it could profit from the prestige of the Tour de France. The winners of the yellow and green jerseys, the American Marianne Martin and the Dutch Mieke Havik, stood on the podium that had been erected on the Champs Elysees for Fignon, Hinault and Greg LeMond, and in this way got far more publicity than had ever come the way of their predecessors. Links to articles about Marianne Martin.
Photo of Marianne Martin at the bottom of this Velonews link with Thomas Prehn, click on the image to enlarge in a new window. |
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