Background
Schönbacher was born in Graz, Austria, on 25 January 1954.
Schönbacher was born in Graz, Austria, on 25 January 1954.
Tesnière had already finished last in the 1978 Tour de France, so he was aware of the publicity associated with being the lanterne rouge.
Schönbacher was a professional cyclist for nine seasons, and rode the UCI World Championships seven times, but is mainly known for finishing last in the Tour de France in two consecutive years. In 1977, he became a professional cyclist. 1979 Tour de France
In the 1979 Tour de France, Schönbacher rode for the DAF team
Schönbacher lost a lot of time in the mountains, and after the 20th stage, he only had Philippe Tesnière behind him in the general classification.
In the 21st stage, Tesnière therefore rode extra slow. Tesnière"s time was more than 20% slower than Hinault"s, which meant that he had missed the time cut, and was taken out of the race.
A large group, including Schönbacher could not keep up with the pace, and finished seven minutes behind Hinault. When Schönbacher was near the finish, he stopped and kissed the road, before he crossed the finishline.
1980 Tour de France
The Tour de France organisation did not like the attention that last-placed finishers got, so for the 1980 Tour de France they added the rule that after some stages the last-placed cyclist in the general classification would be removed.
Still, Schönbacher managed to finish last. Before the Tour, Schönbacher was promised by his sponsor that he would receive extra money if finished in last place. After the last stage of the Tour, his team leader Patrick Lefevre told Schönbacher that he would not get the money, and after a heated discussion Schönbacher was fired.
Later career
Schönbacher found a new team, Puch, and rode the 1981 Tour de France, finishing 112 out of 121 cyclists.
In 1985, Schönbacher was hit by a car in Australia, and had to end his professional career. He had a brief comeback in 1987, when he rode the 1987 UCI Road World Championships for a private sponsor.
Schönbacher was a team leader of the Varta team from 1990 to 1994. In the second half of 1991, Schönbacher had a licence to ride as a professional, but he did not compete any races.
Later, Schönbacher became a race organizer, and organizes the mountainbike stage race Crocodile Trophy in Australia.
After Schönbacher went 220 km/h, standing on skis on top of a car, this record was included in the Guinness Book of Records.