to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Tourmalet on stage 17. This prize was won by Pello Ruiz Cabestany. The 1985 Tour was the last to feature what was called "flying stages", introduced in 1977: on stages 4 and 11, there was a finish line at the midway point of the course, which was treated as a stage finish but the race continued uninterrupted afterwards. Kim Andersen was the first to cross the line on stage 4, while Eric Vanderaerden took the honours on stage 11. They received the same prizes as regular stage winners, including prize money, time bonuses and points for the points classification, but the times were not taken for the general classification. Officially, they were also supposed to be counted as stage victories, but the public did not accept the concept and both are today not included in stage winner statistics. The idea was scrapped the following year. In total, the Tour organisers paid out 3,003,050 French francs in prize money, with 40,000 and an apartment valued at 120,000 francs given to the winner of the general classification. Race overview Opening stages Hinault laid down a claim towards his fifth Tour victory immediately by winning the prologue time trial. LeMond suffered mechanical issues, as a jammed chain slowed him in the final section of the course. He nevertheless finished fifth, 21 seconds behind Hinault. Eric Vanderaerden was second, four seconds slower than Hinault, ahead of Roche in third place. Alfons De Wolf () arrived five minutes late for his start and then lost another two minutes to Hinault, eliminating him from the race before reaching the first stage proper due to having missed the time limit. Rudy Matthijs () won the first stage from a bunch sprint, ahead of Vanderaerden, who with the help of time bonuses took over the race leader's yellow jersey. Maarten Ducrot () had gone on a solo breakaway and held a maximum lead of 16 minutes, but was caught with to go. Ángel Arroyo, who won second place in 1983, abandoned the race after just into the first stage. Matthijs made it two stage wins in a row on the second stage, this time coming out on top in a sprint ahead of Sean Kelly. won the stage 3 team time trial by over a minute ahead of the next-best team. Their team coach, Paul Köchli,