Yesterday, when I was talking on the phone with someone from a certain wholesale distributor,
we were discussing how French rider Luc Leblanc
rode a LOOK KG176
when he won the 1994 World Championship,
and I mentioned that the rear brake shoes
were installed backwards (left and right reversed),
but that was an error on my part.
This is Vélo Sport (ビチスポルト - Japanese cycling magazine) from September-November 1994.
The September issue's cover features
Luc Leblanc, who won the World Championship and put on the rainbow jersey,
and the back cover of the October issue is a Clément (クレメン - tire brand) advertisement
with a photo of the moment he won the World Championship.
The jersey is from the French National Team,
and the shorts are from his team's
Festina kit.
This blue frame is a LOOK KG176.
I'm not sure if it was a special Festina team color.
I doubt it.
Back in those days, especially for pro teams,
rather than creating special team color models,
and rather than adding the team sponsor's logo to the frame,
they would often simply provide frames in colors that were available in the retail lineup
and matched the team jersey color.
This is the victory moment from the magazine article,
taken at roughly the same time as the Clément advertisement photo.
There's a summary article of major riders from the '94 season,
and this shows Richard Virenque wearing the polka dot jersey
in the Tour de France that same year.
The left page is just an advertisement
and has no relation to the KG176 that Virenque is riding.
This is Luc Leblanc after becoming World Champion,
racing in the rainbow jersey for the rest of the '94 season.
By this era, what was already known as the "curse of the rainbow jersey" (アルカンシエルの呪い)
was well understood—there was a jinx that winning the World Championship
would lead to poor results afterward
and misfortune for many riders.
The following year, he moved to a new pro team called Le Groupement (ル・グルップマン),
but the team sponsor was a dubious multi-level marketing company,
facing numerous lawsuits and going bankrupt at the end of June '95,
which meant all the team riders lost the rest of the season.
The dream of seeing "a Frenchman in the rainbow jersey"
race the Tour de France was also shattered.
While I'm at it, I should mention that Laurent Brochard,
a French rider, was working as a domestique for team leader Laurent Jalabert
at the '96 World Championship,
but Jalabert wasn't performing well that day, so
the team tactics shifted to let Brochard go for the win,
and he scored something of a windfall victory in that sense.
The following year, at the 1997 Tour de France,
the team was disqualified after the doping scandal later known as the Festina Affair (フェスティナ事件).
Brochard had signature model pedals released by LOOK
in the rainbow jersey colors.
As far as I know, the only other example like this besides Brochard's
is Mario Cipollini's signature model.
So this is Luc Leblanc's actual KG176,
but not the one he was riding at the World Championship.
You can tell from the orientation of the tire guide fins on the brake shoe holder
that the rear brake shoes are installed with left and right reversed.
Luc Leblanc's bib number at the 1994 World Championship
was 93.
By convention, with nine riders per team, the digit 1 in the ones place is the leader number,
and 2–9 are assigned alphabetically by last name.
Leblanc is L at 93, and Virenque is V at 99.
This is why riders like Richard Virenque (V) or Erik Zabel (Z)
who are not team leaders typically have a 9 in the ones place.
Starting in 2017, the team size for Grand Tours changed from nine to eight riders,
so currently the ones place 1 is the leader, and 2–8 are alphabetical.
↑There is a correction regarding this section (→here).
Recently, many older riders' names have been updated in their Katakana spelling,
so among the riders mentioned in this article,
for example: Mario Cipollini is now Mario Cipollini or Cipollini,
Erik Zabel is now Erik Zabel,
and Luc Leblanc is now Luc Leblanc.
I recall there was a poster somewhere of Luc Leblanc
wearing a Le Groupement jersey (same as his teammates) rather than the rainbow jersey
(probably from handlebar maker Modolo),
but I couldn't find it no matter where I looked.
we were discussing how French rider Luc Leblanc
rode a LOOK KG176
when he won the 1994 World Championship,
and I mentioned that the rear brake shoes
were installed backwards (left and right reversed),
but that was an error on my part.
This is Vélo Sport (ビチスポルト - Japanese cycling magazine) from September-November 1994.
The September issue's cover features
Luc Leblanc, who won the World Championship and put on the rainbow jersey,
and the back cover of the October issue is a Clément (クレメン - tire brand) advertisement
with a photo of the moment he won the World Championship.
The jersey is from the French National Team,
and the shorts are from his team's
Festina kit.
This blue frame is a LOOK KG176.
I'm not sure if it was a special Festina team color.
I doubt it.
Back in those days, especially for pro teams,
rather than creating special team color models,
and rather than adding the team sponsor's logo to the frame,
they would often simply provide frames in colors that were available in the retail lineup
and matched the team jersey color.
This is the victory moment from the magazine article,
taken at roughly the same time as the Clément advertisement photo.
There's a summary article of major riders from the '94 season,
and this shows Richard Virenque wearing the polka dot jersey
in the Tour de France that same year.
The left page is just an advertisement
and has no relation to the KG176 that Virenque is riding.
This is Luc Leblanc after becoming World Champion,
racing in the rainbow jersey for the rest of the '94 season.
By this era, what was already known as the "curse of the rainbow jersey" (アルカンシエルの呪い)
was well understood—there was a jinx that winning the World Championship
would lead to poor results afterward
and misfortune for many riders.
The following year, he moved to a new pro team called Le Groupement (ル・グルップマン),
but the team sponsor was a dubious multi-level marketing company,
facing numerous lawsuits and going bankrupt at the end of June '95,
which meant all the team riders lost the rest of the season.
The dream of seeing "a Frenchman in the rainbow jersey"
race the Tour de France was also shattered.
While I'm at it, I should mention that Laurent Brochard,
a French rider, was working as a domestique for team leader Laurent Jalabert
at the '96 World Championship,
but Jalabert wasn't performing well that day, so
the team tactics shifted to let Brochard go for the win,
and he scored something of a windfall victory in that sense.
The following year, at the 1997 Tour de France,
the team was disqualified after the doping scandal later known as the Festina Affair (フェスティナ事件).
Brochard had signature model pedals released by LOOK
in the rainbow jersey colors.
As far as I know, the only other example like this besides Brochard's
is Mario Cipollini's signature model.
So this is Luc Leblanc's actual KG176,
but not the one he was riding at the World Championship.
You can tell from the orientation of the tire guide fins on the brake shoe holder
that the rear brake shoes are installed with left and right reversed.
Luc Leblanc's bib number at the 1994 World Championship
was 93.
By convention, with nine riders per team, the digit 1 in the ones place is the leader number,
and 2–9 are assigned alphabetically by last name.
Leblanc is L at 93, and Virenque is V at 99.
This is why riders like Richard Virenque (V) or Erik Zabel (Z)
who are not team leaders typically have a 9 in the ones place.
Starting in 2017, the team size for Grand Tours changed from nine to eight riders,
so currently the ones place 1 is the leader, and 2–8 are alphabetical.
↑There is a correction regarding this section (→here).
Recently, many older riders' names have been updated in their Katakana spelling,
so among the riders mentioned in this article,
for example: Mario Cipollini is now Mario Cipollini or Cipollini,
Erik Zabel is now Erik Zabel,
and Luc Leblanc is now Luc Leblanc.
I recall there was a poster somewhere of Luc Leblanc
wearing a Le Groupement jersey (same as his teammates) rather than the rainbow jersey
(probably from handlebar maker Modolo),
but I couldn't find it no matter where I looked.