He won the Tour de France a couple times and is best known by usAmericans for losing to Greg LeMond by eight seconds in the '89 Tour when LeMond made up a massive deficit in the final stage (yes in Paris) which was a time trial (and not the traditional end).
The whole aero bar, helmet, etc. set up that you see in the time trials was born on that stage in Paris in 1989. Prior to that, it was seen as a gimmick used by a few triathletes.