Steven Todd Bauer, MSM (born June 12, 1959) is a retired professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

from Canada. He won the first Olympic medal in road cycling for Canada and until 2022 he was the only Canadian to win an individual stage of the Tour de France (both

Ryder Hesjedal Eric Ryder Hesjedal (; born December 9, 1980) is a Canadian retired professional racing cyclist who competed in both mountain biking and road racing between 1998 and 2016. Hesjedal won a silver medal at the 1998 Junior, 2001 Under-23, and Elite ...

and

Svein Tuft Svein Tuft (born May 9, 1977) is a Canadian former road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2019 for the , , , and teams. Tuft was the winner of the 2006–07 UCI America Tour, and was a thirteen-time champion at the Canadia ...

and Alex Stieda had been part of winning team time trial squads).

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 The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

(1978, 1982), the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

(1979). He capped his amateur career with a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the men's cycling road race at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

in Los Angeles. This was the first medal in road cycling for Canada at the Olympics. Bauer turned professional following the Olympics, and in his second professional race, won the bronze medal at the

world cycling championship The UCI world championships are annual competitions promoted by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to determine world champion cyclists. They are held in several different styles of racing, in a different country each year. Championship winne ...

road race in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. Between 1985 and 1995, he competed in 11

Tours de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists o ...

. He began his professional career in 1985 on the

La Vie Claire La Vie Claire was a professional road bicycle racing team named after its chief sponsor La Vie Claire, a chain of health food stores. History The La Vie Claire team was created in 1984 by Bernard Tapie and directed by Paul Köchli. The tea ...

team of

Bernard Hinault Bernard Hinault (; born 14 November 1954) is a French former professional road cyclist. With 147 professional victories, including five times the Tour de France, he is often named among the greatest cyclists of all time. In his career, Hinault ...

and

Greg LeMond Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961) is an American former professional road racing cyclist, entrepreneur, and anti-doping advocate. A two-time winner of the Road Race World Championship (1983 and 1989) and a three-time winner of the Tou ...

, where he stayed until leaving for Weinmann / La Suisse in 1988. Bauer finished fourth in the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Tour, winning the first stage and wearing the

yellow jersey The general classification is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey (french: maillot jaune ). History Th ...

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. At the 1988 world championship, Bauer disputed the final sprint with Belgium’s

Claude Criquielion Claude Criquielion (11 January 1957 – 18 February 2015) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer who raced between 1979 and 1990. In 1984, Criquielion became the world road race champion in Barcelona, Spain on a gruelling course. ...

and Italy’s Maurizio Fondriest. As Criquielion tried to pass against the barriers, he rode into Bauer. Criquielion lost equilibrium, and 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. In 1989 Bauer won the

Züri-Metzgete Züri-Metzgete (Zürich German; en, Championship of Zürich; german: Meisterschaft von Zürich) was a European Classic cycle race held annually in Zürich, Switzerland, and continued as a non-professional mass participation event from 2007 unt ...

. In 1990, he took second place in

Paris–Roubaix Paris–Roubaix is a one-day professional bicycle road race in northern France, starting north of Paris and finishing in Roubaix, at the border with Belgium. It is one of cycling's oldest races, and is one of the 'Monuments' or classics of the ...

to Belgian

Eddy Planckaert Eddy Planckaert (born 22 September 1958 in Nevele) is a former professional road racing cyclist from Belgium. In 1988, Planckaert enjoyed perhaps his best year by capturing the green jersey (points competition) at the 1988 Tour de France and w ...

. 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. Riding for 7-Eleven, Bauer wore the Yellow Jersey for nine stages during the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Tour, finishing 27th. For his

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

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 the

quadriceps The quadriceps femoris muscle (, also called the quadriceps extensor, quadriceps or quads) is a large muscle group that includes the four prevailing muscles on the front of the thigh. It is the sole extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large ...

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 ) and never rode that bike again. In 1994, he was awarded the

Meritorious Service Medal A Meritorious Service Medal is an award presented to denote acts of meritorious service, and sometimes gallantry, that are worthy of recognition. Notable medals with similar names include: * Meritorious Civilian Service Award *Meritorious Service Me ...

(civil division) for having "paved the way for Canada's coming generations of cycling enthusiasts". In 1996, with professionals allowed in the Olympics, Bauer became a member of the Canadian team for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, 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 and the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame. 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. 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 from 2008 to 2010 and a UCI Pro Continental men road cycling team in 2011 and 2012. Bauer was the co-owner and head

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' ( French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...

of the team, which raced under a UCI Continental licence as in 2008, in 2009 and in 2010, before it stepped up to UCI Professional Continental status for 2011 and 2012 under the name . In 2021 he joined Astana–Premier Tech as a sporting director.

Career achievements

Major results

;1981 : 1st MaillotCan

Road race, National Road Championships : 1st MaillotCan

Points race, National Track Championships :

Coors Classic The Coors International Bicycle Classic (1980–1988) was a stage race sponsored by the Coors Brewing Company. Coors was the race's second sponsor; the first, Celestial Seasonings, named the race after its premium tea Red Zinger, which began in 1 ...

::1st Stages 9 & 11 ;1982 : 1st MaillotCan

Road race, National Road Championships : 1st MaillotCan

Points race, National Track Championships : 2nd Silver medal blank

Road race,

;1983 : 1st MaillotCan

Road race, National Road Championships : 5th

Gran Premio della Liberazione Gran Premio della Liberazione is an Italian road bicycle race that has been held annually on 25 April since 1946. It marks the anniversary of the 1945 fall of Benito Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. It is a Single-day race that is rated 1.2 ...

;1984 : 2nd Silver medal olympic

Road race,

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

: 3rd

Road race,

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and a mixed team relay. Events ...

: 3rd

;1985 : 1st Grand Prix d'Aix-en-Provence :

::1st Stages 2, 11 & 16 : 1st Stage 2a

Route du Sud The Route d'Occitanie is a road bicycle race with 4 stages held annually in Southern France. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It is usually held a week before the Tour de France ...

: 3rd Overall

Tour du Haut Var The Tour du Haut Var ( en, Tour of the Haut Var) is an early-season two-day road bicycle race in the Var department region in the south of France. Until 2008 it was run as a one-day race, part of the UCI Europe Tour. In 2009, the race transformed ...

: 3rd Züri–Metzgete : 4th

Tour Méditerranéen Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed b ...

: 8th

Rund um den Henninger Turm Rund is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Cathleen Rund (born 1977), German swimmer * Hanno Rund (1925–1993), German mathematician * Thorsten Rund (born 1976), German road and track cyclist See also * Rand (surname) * Ruud R ...

: 9th

Milan–San Remo Milan–San Remo (in Italian ''Milano-Sanremo''), also called "''The Spring classic''" or "''La Classicissima''", is an annual road cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy. With a distance of 298 km (~185.2 miles) it is t ...

: 10th Overall

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

::1st Stage 3 ( TTT) ::Held Jersey white

after Prologue–Stage 16 ;1986 : 2nd Overall

Nissan Classic The Tour of Ireland (Irish: Turas na hÉireann, known from 1985 to 1992 as the Nissan Classic) was a bicycle stage race held in August, which ran for 35 editions over a 56-year period. Irish rider Seán Kelly recorded the most wins, four. Th ...

::1st Stage 2 : 2nd Züri–Metzgete : 2nd

: 4th

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organi ...

: 5th

Gent–Wevelgem Gent–Wevelgem, officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields, is a road bicycle racing, road cycling race in Belgium, held annually since 1934. It is one of the classic cycle races, classic races part of the Flemish Cycling Week, run in late ...

;1987 : 1st Stage 1

Critérium International The Critérium International was a two-day bicycle stage race held in France every spring from 1932 until 2016, typically the last weekend of March. It was formerly known as the Critérium National de la Route, first run in 1932. For many years ...

: 3rd Overall

Tour de Picardie The Tour de Picardie was a professional multi-stage cycle road race that was held between 1936 and 2016 in Picardy, France. In its last twelve editions, it was organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a se ...

: 4th

: 6th Overall Vuelta a Andalucia : 8th Overall

Three Days of De Panne 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 n ...

: 10th Overall Giro d'Italia : 10th Züri–Metzgete ;1988 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

: 1st Grand Prix des Amériques : 1st

Trofeo Pantalica The Trofeo Pantalica was a professional road bicycle race held annually in Province of Syracuse, Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the ...

: 1st Stage 1b Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 2nd Overall

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

::1st Stage 8 : 3rd

Giro del Lazio The Giro del Lazio is a semi classic European bicycle race held in the region of Lazio, Italy. From 2005 to 2008, the race has been organised as a 1.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing ...

: 4th Overall

::1st Stage 1 ::Held Jersey yellow

after Stages 1 & 8–11 ::Held Jersey green

after Stages 1–2 : 4th Overall Etoile de Bessèges ::1st Stage 1 : 6th

Amstel Gold Race The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classics r ...

: 6th

: 8th

;1989 : 1st Züri–Metzgete : 1st Prologue Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 3rd

: 4th Overall

: 5th

UCI Road World Cup The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road cycling competition held from 1989 until 2004 and comprising ten one-day events. History The competition was inaugurated in 1989, and replaced the Super Prestige Pernod International. In the first ...

: 7th Omloop Het Volk : 10th

;1990 : 2nd

: 5th Grand Prix des Amériques : 7th

: 8th Overall

: 9th

::Held

after Stages 1–9 ;1991 :

Tour DuPont The Tour DuPont was a cycling stage race in the United States held annually between 1989 and 1996, initially called the Tour de Trump in the first two years. It was intended to become a North American cycling event similar in format and prestige ...

::Stage 7 & 10 : 4th

;1992 : 1st Stage 2

Volta a Galicia Volta may refer to: Persons * Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italian physicist and inventor of the electric battery, count and eponym of the volt * Giovanni Volta (1928–2012), Italian Roman Catholic bishop * Giovanni Serafino Volta (1764– ...

;1994 : 1st Stage 3

: 6th

Paris–Tours Paris–Tours is a French one-day classic road cycling race held every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours. It is a predominantly flat course through the Chevreuse and Loire valleys; the highest point is 200 m, ...

: 8th

E3 Prijs Vlaanderen E3 Saxo Bank Classic, previously known as E3 BinckBank Classic, E3 Harelbeke, Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke and E3-Prijs Vlaanderen, is an annual road cycling race in Flanders, Belgium. The race starts and finishes in Harelbeke, covering 203 kil ...

;1996 : Rheinland–Pfalz Rundfahrt ::1st Stage 9 & 10 : Niedersachsen–Rundfahrt ::1st Stages 1b & 6

References

External links

Steve Bauer Bike Tours

Team Planet Energy
* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bauer, Steve 1959 births Living people Canadian male cyclists Canadian Tour de France stage winners Cyclists from Ontario Cyclists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Meritorious Service Decoration Olympic cyclists of Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Sportspeople from St. Catharines Olympic medalists in cycling Tour de Suisse stage winners Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada Commonwealth Games medallists in cycling Cyclists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games