Cyclist recalls the ‘shock’ of donning yellow jersey
edmonton’s stieda became first north american to win coveted cycling garment back in 1986
Edmonton’s Alex Stieda says he’s better known today than when he became the first North American to win a yellow jersey in the 1986 Tour de France.
“Word gets around quickly on social media these days,” he says. “In 1986, cycling didn’t get a lot of North American media attention and news often spread by word of mouth.”
This year’s 3,480-kilometre tour, the 106th edition, left Brussels on July 6 and ends on the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 28.
It is the world’s third largest sporting event, after the Olympic Games and soccer’s World Cup. The race will be followed by 3.5 billion viewers in 130 countries.
“This is the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the world’s best-known sports jersey,” says Stieda, now 58.
“The yellow jersey was created to show the race leader.”
The jersey has become arguably the most recognizable and fought-over garment in sport, alongside the green jacket given to the champion of The Masters golf tournament.
Stieda’s thoughts when presented with it?
“I was in shock,” he says. “I was exhausted and didn’t appreciate what had happened.”
Some 176 riders from 22 teams are participating in this year’s race and if it were not for the yellow jersey, it would be hard to pinpoint the leader at any time.
It wasn’t the magnificence of the French countryside in summer that decided the colour. Instead it was the idea of Henri Desgrange, editor of L’auto magazine, the publication that had thought up the tour. Yellow was the colour of his publication.
Stieda is today a senior account manager with an Edmonton IT company, and he and his wife Samantha have two children, A.J., 25, and Kalie, 27.
He is still very involved in cycling: coaching youngsters at Edmonton’s Juventus Cycling Club, writing for Pedal, a Canadian cycling magazine, and commentating on cycling events for several television stations.
Stieda is also active in winter sports — he has skied the 55-km route at the Birkebeiner Ski Festival eight times — and has helped many charities. One of his favourites was Project Rwanda, which saw him help take specially designed bikes to Rwanda so youngsters could bring bigger coffee loads in from the fields.
Stieda grew up in Coquitlam, B.C., and like many youngsters dreamed of becoming a hockey professional.
“I cycled to hockey practice at 5 a.m.,” he says. “With cash earned from a newspaper route, I bought a 10-speed bike and made trips to the Gulf Islands.”
On discovering the NHL scouts had mistakenly overlooked him, he took his hockey anaerobic power and well-developed leg muscles to track cycling.
“A Brit neighbour, Harold Bridge, was president of B.C.’S provincial cycling association. I was 16 when he told me he was going to teach me to ride.”
Stieda quickly won every event at the junior track nationals and became mentored by Ron Hayman, a professional cyclist on the U.s.-based 7-Eleven team, then the best in North America.
“Ron told me to go to Europe and prove to people I could ride,” Stieda says.
In Belgium in 1981, Stieda won six races and learned about the world of racing.
A local rider would usually try to win a race finishing in his hometown and Stieda often found himself with the leaders.
“A cyclist next to me one day said in Flemish, ‘2,000 francs,’ which was about $300 or $400 dollars then,” says the cyclist. “It took me a moment to realize he was offering me money to let him win.
“He propositioned all the cyclists with us. Locals usually won in their hometowns and could then often command more money when they turned pro.”
Stieda, with Hayman’s help, signed with 7-Eleven as an amateur in 1982 and went on to represent Canada at the 1984 Olympics, placing 10th in the individual pursuit.
As a member of the 7-Eleven team in 1986, he cycled in the Tour de France and found himself breaking away from the field in an 80-km race on the second day.
“I picked up many time bonus points, but while five guys eventually passed me, I became the overall leader,” Stieda says.
“I was presented with the yellow jersey and four other jerseys for category wins. It was early days in the tour.”
He was tired later, but race veterans told him the yellow jersey meant little if he didn’t pedal over the finish line in Paris.
He did.