American Marianne Martin won the 1984 Tour de France Féminin, an 18-stage race that included climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees. The women’s stages were shorter than the men’s, but the mountains remained central to the contest.
After she was not selected for the Los Angeles Olympics, she secured the final place on the Tour team just weeks before the start. Victory on stage 12 brought the climber’s jersey; two stages later came yellow, which she kept to Paris.
Martin was elected to the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame’s class of 2020. Her story is a reminder that women’s experience of stage racing and mountain victories belongs firmly in cycling’s history.