# Phil Anderson (cyclist)

Philip Grant Anderson OAM (born 20 March 1958) is a British-born Australian former professional racing cyclist who was the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France.

## Origins

Phil Anderson was born in London but moved to Melbourne, Australia, when he was young. He grew up in the suburb of Kew and graduated from Trinity Grammar School in 1975. He first raced with Hawthorn Cycling Club, where Allan Peiper, another future professional, was also a member. Peiper said: "Phil went to a private school and joined the club with his mate, Peter Darbyshire. My best friend was Tom Sawyer, later a six-day racer in Europe, and we were the two rough nuts, while Phil and Darbs were the two upper-class boys".

## Amateur career

Anderson won the 1977 Dulux Tour of the North Island in New Zealand and the Australian team time-trial championship at Brisbane in 1978. In that year he also won the Commonwealth Games road race in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was 19.
He moved to France in 1979 to join the ACBB, a club at Boulogne-Billancourt in the suburbs of Paris with a reputation of placing riders in professional teams, particularly Peugeot. Whilst he was with the ACBB he lived and raced alongside Robert Millar and Mark Bell. That season he won the Tour de l'Essonne, the Tour de l'Hérault and the amateur version of the unofficial world time-trial championship, the Grand Prix des Nations, in Cannes.

## Professional career

Anderson turned professional in 1980, for Peugeot, one of the oldest French teams. He won two races in his first season – the Prix de Wetteren and a stage in the Étoile des Espoirs, and came second in two others. He moved to Lokeren, Belgium, to ride criteriums.
    It was a big change; I'd never lived out of home before, so that was a big difference, and then there's the length of the races; you know all of a sudden you're riding 200 km a day instead of back here you'd be racing 80 or 100 km a day; huge fields, you turn up at a race and you'd have 200 riders, 250 riders. It's difficult because I was on a French team, and I felt that the French riders got priority, and I had to go a bit deeper or had to be a little better than some of my colleagues on the team. But that hardened me, and put pressure on me, and I think became part of my make-up in the end.
He came fifth in the 1982 Tour de France, in which he held the white jersey of best young rider, and again fifth in 1985, the year he won the Tour de Suisse. That same season he finished second in the Super Prestige Pernod International, forerunner of the UCI points championship. His highlights were wearing the yellow jersey of the 1981 Tour de France and then again for nine days of 1982. He was the first rider from outside Europe to lead the race. Anderson described what it meant in 1981:
    It happened in the Pyrenees. This was my first Tour de France. I didn't have aspirations of becoming the wearer of the yellow jersey or anything like that. I was given my instructions and I was supposed to look after a rider on my team, the team leader, a Frenchman, and I forgot my instructions and just sort of went into survival mode over a number of mountain passes, just staying up with some of the top riders, and before I knew it, my team director came up beside me in his car and told me, 'Listen, what happened to your leader, the guy that you've been instructed to watch today?' you know. And to help if he has any troubles, or just pace him back if he's having some troubles. And I said, 'Oh gee, that's right. Where is he?' And he said, 'he's five or ten minutes back, in the next group.' I said, 'No worries I'll wait up for him.' He said, 'No, no, stay up here, you're doing OK, just stay out of trouble and try and hang on as long as possible.'
    So hang on I did, and whistled down the next mountain and got to the last climb and I stayed up with Bernard Hinault; there was one rider, a Belgian rider, Lucien Van Impe rode away, an excellent climber, he rode away and so we came in a couple of minutes later, but I had enough time from some good days previously, that I climbed into the yellow jersey, and I had no idea of what the sort of yellow jersey represented, because I mean there's so much history to it, and for me it was just like, 'Oh yes, great, I don't have to wash my old jersey tonight, you know, get a new one'. But really, you're sort of at the highest level of the sport.
His best year was 1985, when he won the Tour Méditerranéen, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Suisse, as well as finishing second in the Tour of Flanders and Gent–Wevelgem. He continued to ride the Tour until 1989, when he came 38th, but by then he had arthritis. In 1991 he joined the American team, 7-Eleven – "Speculation has it that he took a big pay cut; maybe that is what turned into motivation which resulted in his comeback to the big league", said Peiper – and he won the Tour Méditerranéen and the Tour of Sicily and stages of the Tour de Suisse and Tour de France. He also won the Tour of Britain in 1991 and 1993.

## Retirement and honours

Anderson retired to a farm he bought in Jamieson and has what he calls the life of a gentleman farmer. He was given the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 1987 Australia Day Honours for service to cycling. In 2000, he received the Australian Sports Medal and in 2001 he received a Centenary Medal for service to society through cycling. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2015, he was an inaugural Cycling Australia Hall of Fame inductee.

## Private life

Anderson has married twice, first to Anne, whom he married just after turning professional, and then Christi Valentine, who in 1999 wrote Anderson's biography, Phil Anderson: Cycling Legend. Anderson and Valentine married on 29 April 1994 and separated in 2005. Anderson has been in a relationship with Anne Newell since 2006.

## Career achievements
### Major results
#### 1978

    1st Road race, Commonwealth Games
    1st Stage 2 Red Zinger Bicycle Classic

#### 1980

    2nd Overall Étoile des Espoirs
       1st Stage 3
    3rd Overall Paris–Bourges
    10th Paris–Tours

#### 1981

    1st Overall Tour de l'Aude
    1st Stage 6 Paris–Nice
    6th Grand Prix de Cannes
    7th Amstel Gold Race
    7th Tour du Haut Var
    9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
    9th Grand Prix de Monaco
    10th Overall Tour de France
       Held after Stage 6

#### 1982

    4th Overall Tour de l'Aude
    5th Overall Tour de France
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Stage 2
       Held after Stages 2–11
    5th Amstel Gold Race
    6th Rund um den Henninger Turm
    7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
    7th Gent–Wevelgem
    8th GP Ouest-France
    9th La Flèche Wallonne

#### 1983

    1st Overall Tour de l'Aude
       1st Stage 3
    1st Amstel Gold Race
    2nd Overall Tour de Romandie
       1st Stage 5a
    3rd Overall Paris–Bourges
    3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    3rd Grand Prix de Wallonie
    6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
       1st Points classification
       1st Prologue & Stage 3
    6th Grand Prix de Monaco
    7th Super Prestige Pernod International
    8th Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
    8th Giro di Lombardia
    9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
    9th Overall Tour de France
    9th Tour of Flanders
    10th Rund um den Henninger Turm

#### 1984

    1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
       1st Stage 4b (ITT)
    1st Züri-Metzgete
    1st Rund um den Henninger Turm
    2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    3rd Super Prestige Pernod International
    4th Grand Prix of Aargau Canton
    5th Overall Tour de Suisse
    5th Paris–Tours
    7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
       1st Stage 6
    7th Paris–Brussels
    9th La Flèche Wallonne
    9th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
    10th Overall Tour de France

#### 1985

    1st Overall Tour de Suisse
       1st Points classification
       1st Mountains classification
       1st Stages 3, 5b (ITT) & 8
    1st Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 1b
    1st Overall Tour Méditerranéen
       1st Stage 4b
    1st Rund um den Henninger Turm
    1st E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
    2nd Overall Tour of Belgium
       1st Stages 2 & 3b (ITT)
    2nd Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
       1st Stages 2 & 3
    2nd Tour of Flanders
    2nd Gent–Wevelgem
    2nd Super Prestige Pernod International
    3rd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
    4th Overall Paris–Nice
       1st Stage 4b (TTT)
    4th Brabantse Pijl
    4th Grand Prix of Aargau Canton
    5th Overall Tour de France
    5th Amstel Gold Race
    7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

#### 1986

    1st Paris–Tours
    3rd Overall Coors Classic
       1st Stage 3
    3rd Giro di Lombardia
    5th Grand Prix d'Isbergues
    9th Overall Nissan Classic
       1st Stages 3b & 4

#### 1987

    1st Milano–Torino
    5th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
    6th Amstel Gold Race
    7th Overall Giro d'Italia
    7th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
    7th Grand Prix Impanis
    7th Druivenkoers Overijse
    8th Grand Prix Pino Cerami
    9th Rund um den Henninger Turm
    10th Gent–Wevelgem

#### 1988

    1st Overall Danmark Rundt
       1st Stage 3
    Nissan Classic
       1st Stage 2 & 4
    2nd Tour of Flanders
    2nd Milano–Torino
    6th Züri-Metzgete
    7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
       1st Stage 1 (ITT)
    8th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
    9th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    10th Overall Tour de Luxembourg

#### 1989

    1st Overall Tour de Romandie
       1st Stage 1
    1st Stage 17 Giro d'Italia
    1st Stage 5b Nissan Classic
    3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    4th Overall Three Days of De Panne
    7th Overall Kellogg's Tour
       1st Stage 2
    10th Trofeo Pantalica

#### 1990

    Giro d'Italia
       1st Intergiro classification
       1st Stage 4b
    1st Stage 5 Tour de Luxembourg
    2nd Paris–Tours
    4th Overall Three Days of De Panne
    10th Amstel Gold Race

#### 1991

    1st Overall Kellogg's Tour
       1st Mountains classification
       1st Stages 1 & 3
    1st Overall Tour Méditerranéen
       1st Stages 5 & 6
    1st Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
       1st Stage 6
    1st Stage 10 Tour de France
    1st Stage 8 Tour de Suisse
    1st Stage 4 Tour DuPont
    2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
    3rd US Pro Championship
    7th Milan–San Remo
    7th Züri-Metzgete
    10th UCI Road World Cup

#### 1992

    1st Overall Nissan Classic
       1st Stage 4
    1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
    3rd Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
    3rd Paris–Brussels
    5th Overall Tour DuPont
       1st Stages 5, 8 & 9
    6th Paris–Tours
    10th Overall Kellogg's Tour

#### 1993

    1st Overall Kellogg's Tour
       1st Stage 1
    1st Overall Tour of Sweden
       1st Stage 4
    1st Grand Prix Impanis
    7th Overall Tour de Luxembourg

#### 1994

    1st Team time trial, Commonwealth Games
    3rd Trofeo Luis Puig
    3rd Monte Carlo–Alassio
    9th Overall Tour de Luxembourg

#### General classification results timeline

Grand Tour general classification results :
| Race | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 |
| Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | 13 | 33 | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de France | 10 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 39 | 27 | — | 38 | 71 | 45 | 81 | 84 | 69 |
| Major stage race general classification results |||||||||||||||
| Race | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 |
| Paris–Nice | — | 16 | — | 5 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | 11 | 19 | — | — |
| Tirreno–Adriatico | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour of the Basque Country | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 45 | 60 | 54 |
| Tour de Romandie | — | — | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 13 | — | — | — | — |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | 20 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de Suisse | — | — | — | 5 | 1 | 26 | — | 27 | — | — | 31 | 20 | — | 30 |
| Volta a Catalunya | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |