TOUR DE FRANCE 89
Domex / Ducale, Belgium, 1989


 

 

This is a promotional deck issued by the short-lived Belgian team Domex for the 1989 Tour de France. Actually the team was called Domex-Weinmann, Weinmann being a Swiss bicycle parts manufacturer, which was or became the main sponsor: the team was called the team was called Weinmann-SMM Uster in 1990, and Weinmann - EVS and then Weinmann - Eddy Merckx in 1991, after which the team disappeared from the professional peloton.

 



 

 



 

This deck was manufactured in France by Ducale (which was subsequently absorbed by France Cartes SAS/Cartamundi, as many other French card makers). This poses an interesting question about which is the country of origin of the game. I have chosen Belgium, but you may disagree.
 


 

 

 

 

 

Only jokers and court cards minus the queens represented riders, which means that only 14 cyclists were represented, while the team had some more cyclists. Probably someone thought that it was not a good idea that some riders were represented by queens. I am afraid that this can only be described as homophobia. (Of course, we must keep in mind that this was 30 years ago, and fortunately some things have changed. Compare it to this recent deck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This deck, unfortunately, does not appear to have brought good luck to the team. Their performance during that 1989 Tour was quite poor. Adri Van Der Poel was out of the race after only 9 stages and their best rider in the GC was Beat Breu, 21st at 38min 35sec. Remark that Breu is NOT featured in the deck, not even under "et aussi..."

 


Description written in December 2019.

 

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