CANADA: Steve Bauer

Canada - Steve Bauer

Credit: Cyclingmagazine.ca

Credit: Collections Canada

Steve Bauer remains Canada's most decorated rider in the world's most prestigious and difficult road cycling race: the Tour de France. Bauer finished fourth in the 1988 Tour, won the first stage, and held the Yellow Jersey for five days. Again in 1990, Bauer was atop the General Classification at the Tour holding the Yellow Jersey for ten consecutive days:

Only one other Canadian, Alex Stieda, has held the Yellow Jersey, and only for one day.

Indeed, in the world of male road cycling in Canada, Bauer is only rivalled by current Canadian cyclist Ryder Hesjedal. While Hesjedal has not had the Tour de France success that Bauer has, he has won medals in World Championships, he finished sixth in the 2010 Tour de France, and he actually won the 2012 Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's most revered and difficult races.

Jonathan Vaughters, former professional rider and now General Manager of Hesjedal's professional team, Team Garmin-Sharp (currently, but Garmin-Transitions at the time of the tweet), succinctly summed up the pantheon of Canadian cycling back in 2010:

Hesjedal has perhaps surpassed Bauer in the minds of Vaughters and others, especially due to his 2012 victory at the Giro d'Italia, but Bauer's influence in Canadian cycling remains.

What is striking, however, is the level of disconnect between the average Canadian and Canadian cycling enthusiasts. According to a poll by Canadian Cyclist Magazine of its readership back in 2005, and reported by Cycling News in December of 2005, Steve Bauer's Tour de France achievements sat as second and third consecutively in importance of Canadian cycling achievements. Part of the reason that this was so notable was because Lori-Ann Muenzer had just won Olympic Gold in cycling less than two years prior and still ranked behind Bauer. Also worth noting, even Bauer ranks his fourth at the Tour de France ahead of his silver medal at the 1984 Olympics:

And yet, Bauer remains largely a forgotten memory for the average Canadian by comparison to Muenzer and especially now with Hesjedal's successes. Moreover, while questions surrounding doping plague riders like Stephen Roche, Greg LeMond, and other riders of his generation, Canadian scrutiny over Bauer is virtually non-existant. Far from an automatic suggestion that Bauer was riding clean, this suggests more that people simply do not care. In places where cycling is a major sport, questions of credibility and a moral uneasiness sit over the entire generation starting from the late 1980s right up until the present.

In researching Steve Bauer, an attempt was made to contact him both through Twitter and through e-mail to ask him this question:

What impact do you think your legacy of successes at the Tour de France specifically, but other UCI event successes as well, have had on Canadian cycling and Canadian sport and how?

               -Question posed to Steve Bauer through e-mail correspondence by the author

Though little speculation and certainly no academic inquiry have been made into why Bauer's legacy remains an unimportant relic of the past to the average Canadian, three predominant reasons stand out as possibilities:

First, the Tour de France and cycling in general had no history of success in Canada prior to the 1980s. So Bauer's historically significant successes in the Tour de France had no comparative value for the average Canadian.

Secondly, the coverage of the Tour was much more limited and continentally European back then. But even in Europe, the commercial value paled in comparison to where it stands now. So Canadians largely had no access to view or follow the race, and Canadian news coverage was largely limited to only freelance writers writing very short stories of coverage during Bauer's pinnacle of success (such as CanWest's Stan Shatenstein who was the news service's freelance Tour de France correspondent in 1988). Compounding this issue by comparison to today is the advent of the internet and the legion of television networks which focus primarily on sports, both of which didn't exist back then.

Finally, due to the lack of cycling racing infrastructure back in the 1980s, Bauer needed to live the majority of the year in France, and thus, wasn't a familiar face to the majority of Canadians (as documented in the National Film Board Documentary, Steve Bauer: Inside Out, 1993, which can incidentally be viewed in its entirety on YouTube in seven parts). For anybody interested, the first part follows:

Bauer remains "Mr. Cycling" in Canada, however, and even started and managed Canada's first professional team, Team Spidertech. They were forced to disband in late 2012 due to Spidertech's financial inability to continue sponsoring the team. However, prior to their disbanding, they had put up some significant successes in continental UCI races, and were beginning to draw more and more corporate attention, such as that of Jim Balsillie of Canada-based Research-in-Motion, which produces Blackberry.

Despite being recognized as Canada's "go to" for matters of cycling, and commanding a huge respect in both the Canadian cycling community but even the international cycling community, as Velo News named him their first 'Rider of the Year' in 1988, popularity and funding remain elusive for the sport in Canada. Despite Bauer's successful representation of Canada at every level of cycling, and then his growing successful attempts at developing professional cycling in Canada, Bauer has been defined by poor timing, in his pursuits to promote Canadian cycling:

First, and professionally, he came into the cycling scene as one of the globe's most prolific riders roughly five to ten years before sports television became a mainstay in Canadian households.

Secondly, and as a promoter of the sport, as soon as he began to see some successes with his Canadian team, his sponsors found themselves in financial difficulty, which was immediately followed by Lance Armstrong's confession, which thus poisoned the image of professional cycling much more than ever before.

However, Bauer's prognosis of the sport in Canada is thus:

My results impacted the Canadian public and, at that time, helped them understand the magnitude of the accomplishments. That piece of history has merit and it has value in teaching kids about the sport and as a role model. Just like Ryder winning the Giro d'Italia, which was a marvellous WorldTour victory, these stories have an impact on Canadian cycling and we need to use them to bring more development to our sport, and more money too because programs need financial backing.

                   -Steve Bauer

At the end of the day, individual cyclists and administrators like Bauer, have an important role in Canadian cycling as well as Canadian sports, but without the requisite funding to develop and grow the sport, there is only so much that individuals such as Bauer and now Hesjedal can do. Understandably, Bauer is frustrated and exasperated by this lack of funding, as can be seen in his tone and commentary that "any progress is welcome" with regards to Canadians in the Tour de France and Canadian cycling in general.

In closing, Canadian Press aptly referred to Steve Bauer as an "unsung hero" in Canadian sport on August 29, 1994. In light of Bauer's efforts on the road and as an administrator since that day, and the plethora of difficulties he has faced, the term applies more today than ever before.

An example of Bauer's commitment to cycling in Canada: He auctioned off his own Yellow Jersey to raise money and profile for his Team Spidertech, prior to it disbanding.