Steve Bauer: Canadian cycling legend

Steve Bauer was one of Canada's most successful cyclists, taking a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Source: https://olympic.ca/team-canada/steve-bauer/

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When I heard today that Canadian Michael Woods had won a prestigious stage on the Tour de France, my mind immediately went to one of Canada’s great cyclers: Steve Bauer.

Then CBC interviewed Woods’ coach – Steve Bauer.

While Canada had a lot of cyclists who were successful in the velodrone, Bauer took his bike on the road. He may be older now, but back in the 1980s Steve Bauer did Canada proud, on the seat of his bike, in the Olympic road race and the Tour de France.

Los Angeles Olympics
The 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles was Canada’s most successful Olympics to date, aided in part by a boycott of Eastern Bloc countries – except Romania.

Although that is often pointed out, I like to think those Canadians who won medals were competing against the best athletes put in front them. That was all they could control, and they excelled. Plus, no one knows how they would have done against the athletes whose countries boycotted the Games.

Into that mix came a cyclist from St. Catharines, Ontario who was already making noise on the national stage.

According to Wikipedia, Bauer had joined the Canadian national cycling team in 1977, competing in team pursuit.

He stayed with the national team seven years, winning the national road race championship in 1981, 1982, and 1983. He competed in the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in 1978, and in Brisbane in 1982, winning a silver medal in the individual road race. He also competed in the Pan-American Games in 1979.

Bauer travelled to Los Angeles with little hype and little expectation. Like virtually every other Olympics, Canadians don’t pay too much attention to the four years between the Games, then pin their medal hopes on athletes who had dwelled for four years in obscurity.

I remember watching the 1984 Summer Olympics and soon there was this developing story. Cyclist Steve Bauer was making noise in the cycling road race and threatening to win Canada’s first medal ever in the sport.

He did.

Steve Bauer took the silver medal.

I distinctly recall celebrating that win too.

Bauer turned pro after the Olympics, and won the bronze medal at the world cycling championship in his second professional race.

He would go on to make more history for our nation.

Yellow with pride
Starting in 1985 and going to 1995, Bauer competed in 11 straight editions of the Tour de France.

The Tour de France is a cycling road race divided into stages. The winner is determined by the best overall time, when the times of each stage are added together. Consequently, the winner is not the rider who wins the most stages, but the most consistent cyclist over the course of the event.

However, winning a stage is a prestigious thing, as is being the leader of the event. In fact, at the beginning of each day, the leader of the event wears a yellow jersey.

It was in 1988 that he made Canadian history. Steve Bauer won the first stage of the Tour de France. He would go on to wear the yellow jersey for five stages.

I remember how he did catch the notice of the nation. Every day, I would watch the sports news to see how Steve Bauer had faired that day. I bulged with pride when I saw him don the yellow jersey, and was saddened when he gave it up and subsequently fell further and further behind

In the end he finished fourth, but it was the highest finish for a Canadian ever at the Tour de France.

And the country was proud of his efforts, especially in such a grueling event.

The years after
In 1989, Bauer won another prestigious race, the Züri-Metzgete in Zürich, Switzerland, a race he also finished second in 1986 and third in 1985. The following year, 1990, he finished second in a photo finish in the Paris-Roubaix race, and finished fourth in that race in 1991.

In 1990, he wore the yellow jersey at the Tour de France for nine stages before finishing 27th. He returned to the Summer Olympics in 1996, when professionals were allowed in, but finished 41st in the road race. Later that year he retired.

He also received several honours. In 1994 he received the Meritorious Service Medal for his contributions to cycling and paving the way for Canada’s coming generations of cyclists. He was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame in 2005.

Bauer then entered coaching and team management in 2007.

Parting thoughts
Seeing Steve Bauer coached the latest Canadian to win a stage at the Tour de France made me bubble with pride all over again.

He put Canada on the map in 1984, winning that silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics, then cemented his place in Canadian history by winning the first stage of the Tour de France, wearing the leader’s yellow jersey for five stages, and ultimately finishing fourth.

I remember rising and falling with him in his pursuit of the Tour de France title.

He was awarded Meritorious Service Medal and paving the way for Canada’s coming generations of cyclists. What better way to honour that then by coaching the next generation to success.