‘80s Icon: Vitus 979

AN ICON OF 1980S CYCLING WAS France's Vitus 979 frame which exemplified many of the innovations of the decade which it outlasted to become one of the most successful racing bicycles ever.

One of the last triumphs of the French racing bicycle, the 979 is instead best remembered for its participation in the globalization of the pro peloton. This was the machine that the “Foreign Legion”— Australia’s Phil Anderson, Ireland’s Sean Kelly and Colombia’s Luis Herrera— rode to tête de la course of the Continental racing circuit.

So pop-in a cassette of Kraftwerk's Tour de France in your Walkman, and rediscover the 1980s when the Neuf Sept Neuf and the Foreign Legion ruled pavé and peloton.

SUPPLANTING STEEL

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