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WASHINGTON – Eclectic, irreverent and controversial, Donald Trump – newly elected US President – wanted to make America great also in cycling. In 1989 he created the first men’s stage race, renamed the “Tour de Trump”, with the aim of surpassing the already well-known “Tour de France“.
The United States did not have an equal-weight bicycle race at the time. The only one was the Coors Classic. But it was the tycoon himself who transformed cycling into a real business.
The basic idea of creating a tour came to the mind of John Tesh, a CBS journalist sent to the Tour de France in 1987, and Billy Packer, an entrepreneur and TV commentator on basketball. However, someone was needed to sponsor the project. At that point the tycoon entered the scene. Initially doubtful about the name proposed by Packer, it didn’t take long for the new US president to be convinced to give his name to the race. Made up of 10 stages for a total of 1,400 kilometres, the race took place between May and June. First stop was New Albany in New York state. Nineteen teams participated in the first cycling competition on May 5, 1989, including eight first category teams.
There were several roadside signs against the tycoon. Not exactly a happy debut for his race. To name a few: “Die, you yuppie scum,” “Trump = antichrist.”
The following year the tour resumed. Trump arrived at the press conference by helicopter and a few minutes before the start of the race. The reason? A few hours earlier he had witnessed the fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas in Tokyo.
“We made the transfers on Trump’s planes and the hotels were almost always his,” recalled the Italian-English Max Sciandri, third on the stage in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1990. “It was a great race but still naive. But beautiful,” he commented.
The race was permanently canceled in 1996, after Trump’s commitment as a sponsor was not renewed. But given the ambitions and unpredictability of the tycoon, his great return to the sports sector cannot be ruled out. Maybe by bicycle.
