Steve Bauer

Steven Todd Bauer, MSM (born June 12, 1959) is a former professional road bicycle racer from Canada. He is an Olympic medalist and winner of several professional races. He is the winner of the first Olympic medal in road cycling for Canada.

This article is about the Canadian bicycle racer. For the Cuban-American actor, see Steven Bauer.
Steve Bauer
Personal information
Full nameSteve Bauer
Born (1959-06-12) June 12, 1959
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Team information
DisciplineRoad & Track
RoleRider (retired)
Sporting director
Amateur teams
1977-1979SCCC
1980AMF Racing
1981–1984GS Mengoni
Professional teams
1985–1987La Vie Claire
1988–1989La Suisse
1990–19957-Eleven
1996Saturn Cycling Team
Managerial team
2008–2012Team R.A.C.E. Pro
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
1 individual stage (1988)

One-day races and Classics

National Road Race Championships
(1981, 1982, 1983)
Züri–Metzgete (1989)

Cycling career

Bauer joined the Canadian national cycling team in 1977, competing in team pursuit. He would remain on the national team for seven years, winning the national road race championship in 1981, 1982, and 1983, competing in the Commonwealth Games (1978, 1982), the Pan American Games (1979).

He capped his amateur career with a silver medal in the men's cycling road race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[1] This was the first medal in road cycling for Canada at the Olympics.[2]

Bauer turned professional following the Olympics, and in his second professional race, won the bronze medal at the world cycling championship road race in Barcelona.

Between 1985 and 1995, he competed in 11 Tours de France. He began his professional career in 1985 on the La Vie Claire team of Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond, where he stayed until leaving for Weinmann / La Suisse in 1988. Bauer finished fourth in the 1988 Tour, winning the first stage and wearing the yellow jersey for five days, the second Canadian to wear the jersey. The first was Alex Stieda in 1986, who was also the first North American to wear the yellow jersey.[3]

At the 1988 world championship, Bauer disputed the final sprint with Belgium’s Claude Criquielion and Italy’s Maurizio Fondriest. As Criquielion tried to pass against the barriers, he rode into Bauer, Criquielion lost equilibrium, struck a policeman and the feet of the barriers, crashing. Meanwhile, Fondriest passed and won the race. Bauer was disqualified, but once Criquielion sued Bauer for assault and battery, the municipal court of Oudenaarde ruled in Bauer's favour. The ruling was upheld in both the Appeal Court and the Supreme court, at which stage Criquielion was fined for bringing the case a third time in a process that lasted for more than five years. [4] [5]

In 1989 Bauer won the Züri-Metzgete. In 1990, he took second place in Paris–Roubaix to Belgian Eddy Planckaert. The finish was so close that the officials had to study the photo-finish for more than ten minutes before Planckaert was finally declared the winner. After 266 kilometers of racing, Planckaert had just edged Bauer by less than a centimeter, making it the closest finish of the race's history.[6]

Riding for 7-Eleven, Bauer wore the Yellow Jersey for nine stages during the 1990 Tour, finishing 27th. For his 1993 Paris-Roubaix campaign, he had a bike built by the Merckx factory with "an extreme rearward seat position" to test his theory that it would "engag[e] the quadriceps more efficiently" and with it "more power to the pedals". He failed to make the top ten (finishing over 4 minutes behind the winner in 23rd place [7]) and never rode the bike again.[8]

In 1994, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (civil division) for having "paved the way for Canada's coming generations of cycling enthusiasts".[9]

In 1996, with professionals allowed in the Olympics, Bauer became a member of the Canadian team for the 1996 Summer Olympics, finishing 41st in the road race. He announced his retirement later that year at 37. The following year, he co-founded Steve Bauer Bike Tours.

In 2005 Steve was inducted to the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame[10] and the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame.[11] Bauer also participated in the Red Bull Road Rage held on Tuna Canyon, Malibu, California.

In 2013, Bauer raced in the Canadian Cycling Championships in the Men's 50-59 road race and finished fourth.[12]

In 2015, Bauer raced in the Canadian Track Championships in the Men's 50-59 and finished 1st in the Scratch race, 1st in the Individual Pursuit and 2nd in the Points Race.

Team management

In September 2007, Bauer co-founded Cycle Sport Management which developed and owned a UCI Continental men road cycling team for 2008-2010 and a UCI Pro Continental men road cycling team 2011 & 2012.

Bauer was the co-owner and head directeur sportif of the team, which raced under a UCI Continental licence as Team R.A.C.E. Pro in 2008, Planet Energy in 2009 and SpiderTech–Planet Energy in 2010, before it stepped up to UCI Professional Continental status for 2011 and 2012 under the name SpiderTech–C10.

Major results
1981
1st Road race, National Road Championships
1st Points race, National Track Championships
Coors Classic
1st Stages 9 & 11
1982
1st Road race, National Road Championships
1st Points race, National Track Championships
2nd Road race, Commonwealth Games
1983
1st Road race, National Road Championships
5th Gran Premio della Liberazione
1984
2nd Road race, Olympic Games
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Gran Premio della Liberazione
1985
1st Grand Prix d'Aix-en-Provence
Coors Classic
1st Stages 2, 11 & 16
1st Stage 2a Route du Sud
3rd Overall Tour du Haut Var
3rd Züri–Metzgete
4th Tour Méditerranéen
8th Rund um den Henninger Turm
9th Milan–San Remo
10th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 3 (TTT)
Held after Prologue–Stage 16
1986
2nd Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stage 2
2nd Züri–Metzgete
2nd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Gent–Wevelgem
1987
1st Stage 1 Critérium International
3rd Overall Tour de Picardie
4th Tour of Flanders
6th Overall Vuelta a Andalucia
8th Overall Three Days of De Panne
10th Overall Giro d'Italia
10th Züri–Metzgete
1988
1st Overall Tour de Picardie
1st Grand Prix des Amériques
1st Trofeo Pantalica
1st Stage 1b Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
2nd Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 8
3rd Giro del Lazio
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 1
Held after Stages 1 & 8–11
Held after Stages 1–2
4th Overall Etoile de Bessèges
1st Stage 1
6th Amstel Gold Race
6th Gent–Wevelgem
8th Paris–Roubaix
1989
1st Züri–Metzgete
1st Prologue Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
3rd Amstel Gold Race
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
5th UCI Road World Cup
7th Omloop Het Volk
10th Tour of Flanders
1990
2nd Paris–Roubaix
5th Grand Prix des Amériques
7th UCI Road World Cup
8th Overall Nissan Classic
9th Gent–Wevelgem
Tour de France
Held after Stages 1–9
1991
Tour DuPont
Stage 7 & 10
4th Paris–Roubaix
1992
1st Stage 2 Volta a Galicia
1994
1st Stage 3 Tour DuPont
6th Paris–Tours
8th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
1996
Rheinland–Pfalz Rundfahrt
1st Stage 9 & 10
Niedersachsen–Rundfahrt
1st Stages 1b & 6

See also

References
  1. "Steve Bauer Olympic Results". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  2. Canadian Press (22 June 2012). "London 2012: Hesjedal and Hughes to lead Canadian road cycling team at London Games". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  3. "History of Canadians in the Tour". TSN.ca. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  4. https://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/news/worlds-flashback-1988/
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI4W2l2J7fg
  6. Birnie, Lionel (5 April 2010). "Cycle Sport's Classic Race: 1990 Paris–Roubaix". Cycling weekly. Archived from the original on 31 January 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  7. "1993 Paris - Roubaix complete results". www.bikeraceinfo.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-11-09.
  8. Velominati (Keepers of the Cog) (2013). The Rules: The way of the cycling disciple. London: Sceptre. p124. ISBN 978-1-444-76751-3.
  9. "Mr. Steve Bauer". Office of the Secretary to the Governor-General. Archived from the original on 2020-04-13. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  10. Bailey, Donovan (2005-04-15). "Schmirler Curling Team Among Inductees into Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame This Evening". The Canadian Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-20. Retrieved 2015-02-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "June 28/13 - Results Canadian Masters Cycling Championship 2013" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-02-20. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
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