With Saturday's upcoming Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France I've been hoping to see and hear some stories about my friend Eros Poli's victory on that mountain in 1994.
VERSUS, the U.S.A. network carrying the live coverage of the Tour de France, put up this video clip on their website yesterday of Eros, "the man, the myth, the legend":
A native of Isola della Scala, Verona, Italy, Eros Poli is best remembered for his 1994 Tour de France stage 15 win of Mont Ventoux after a 106 mile solo escape. Eros, at 6 feet 4 inches and 187 pounds, was not a prospect to win one of the most difficult and famous climbs in the Tour de France. He escaped, however, from the peloton very early on and, under conditions of searing heat, arrived at the base of Mont Ventoux with a 22 minute lead. Steadily, the chase pack of climbers began taking back time. Arriving at the final 300 meters of the climb where the grade is 11% the lead had dwindled to 4 minutes. Eros survived Mont Ventoux and then hammered the descent to arrive in Carpentras to an incredible win by 3 minutes and 39 seconds ahead of Pantani and Virenque. His escape and victory earned him the nickname “Monsieur Mont Ventoux”.
Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com
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It's thrilling to see Eros Poli still on the bike(no helmet, thank you very much). What a stud. He still looks fit. I wonder if he runs the occasional bike tour, could that be the reason he was out riding a stage during the Tour? If he runs tours in Italy, I want in. To be dropped by Eros Poli would be the best.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I believe Eros is working on a special tour for next year; stay tuned. He has organized 3 day weekend tours from Verona for the last several years; search in my blog under "Poli" and you'll find all the stories....
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