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EspañolJACQUES ANQUETIL
'Jacques Anquetil' (January 8, 1934 - November 18, 1987), was a French cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964. He stated before the 1961 Tour de France that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through the tour, a tall order with 2 previous winners in the field - Gaul and Bahamontes - but he did just that.
Early career
Born the son of a peasant farmer in Mont-Saint-Aignan, near Rouen in Normandy, north-west France, Anquetil took the French amateur road title in 1952, one year after he began racing. In 1953, his first year as an independent or semi-professional rider, he won the 19th Grand Prix des Nations individual time trial, then considered the equal of a world championship. He won the ''Grand Prix des Nations'' a record nine times (1953-58, 1961, 1965/66). On the Vigorelli track in Milan, on 29 June 1956, he broke the 14-year-old hour world record of the legendary Fausto Coppi (46.159 kilometres). In 1967, eleven years later, Anquetil again broke the hour record with 47.493 kilometers, but the record was disallowed because he refused to take the newly-introduced post-race doping test. He objected to what he saw as the indignity of having to urinate in a tent in front of a crowded velodrome and said he would take the test later at his hotel. The international judge ruled against the idea and a scuffle ensued that involved Anquetil's manager, Raphaël Géminiani.
In 1957 Anquetil, won the Grand Prix des Nations' and - at his first attempt - the Tour de France with nearly 15 minutes' lead and wins in four stages. The stone of his success was his performance in time trial stages, where his ability to pedal with clockwork smoothness and at constant speed brought him the nickname Monsieur Chrono. His supremacy in time-trials went with his ability to stay with if not attack the best climbers in the mountains. Anquetil, it was said, was a rider who could drop nobody but whom nobody could drop.
Later Tour de France victories
After three moderate years without tour stage success, Anquetil began a second victory streak in 1961, winning the Tour de France thereafter until 1964. He was the first rider to win four successive times, breaking the record of three set by Philippe Thys and Louison Bobet. He was also the first to win five times in total, a feat since emulated by Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Only Lance Armstrong has won more Tours.
His last Tour victory (in 1964) was also his most famous, featuring, as it did, a legendary elbow-to-elbow duel against public favourite Raymond Poulidor on the roads up the Puy de Dôme mountain. Suffering badly from indigestion after his excesses on a rest day, Anquetil is reputed to have received treatment from his team manager in the form of a swallow of champagne - a story that Anquetil's wife says is untrue. Poulidor gained precious time on that stage but when they reached Paris, Anquetil had a 55-second lead over the ''eternal second'' Poulidor.
Anquetil won all three of the Grand Tours - the first cyclist to do so. Anquetil twice won the Giro d'Italia (1960, 1964) and won the Vuelta a España once (1963). He also won the season-long ''Super Prestige Pernod International'' competition four times, in 1961, 1963, 1965 and 1966 - a record only surpassed by Eddy Merckx.
Other races
More constantly popular in Britain than in his native France (he used to tell fans that he was only "in it for the money"), Anquetil was invited to the RTTC's awards ceremony at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1961 to present trophies to champions Brian Kirby and Beryl Burton.
Anquetil was not as successful with the classical single stage races but toward the end of his career he won once in each of three of the Classics:
★ Gent-Wevelgem (1964)
★ the 600km Bordeaux-Paris (1965)
★ Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1966)
He was famous for preparing for races by staying up all night before drinking and playing cards.
Anquetil finished in the top 10 in the World Championship on six occasions, but second place in 1966 was the nearest he ever came to winning the Rainbow Jersey.
Dauphiné and Bordeaux-Paris double
In 1965, Anquetil won the eight-day, Alpine Dauphiné Libéré stage race at 3pm, sat through two hours of interviews and receptions, took a 6:30pm chartered flight to Bordeaux and won the world's longest single-day classic, the Bordeaux-Paris the following day. There are strong and undenied rumours that the jet laid on to get Anquetil to Bordeaux was provided through state funds on the orders of President Charles de Gaulle.
Personal life
Despite his tremendous successes, which made him one of the best French cyclists of all time, the always cool, calculating and dissociated ''Maître Jacques'' was never as popular with the French public as his rival Poulidor. He retired to Normandy in 1969 to be a gentleman farmer.
Anquetil's marriage produced no children. However, his wife, Jeanine, had two children from a previous marriage. In 2004, Sophie Anquetil, the daughter of Anquetil's step-daughter, published the book Pour l'amour de Jacques in which she affirmed what had been widely-rumored to be true: that she was Anquetil's daughter. Anquetil also had a son with his daughter-in-law.
Doping allegations
Anquetil will be remembered not simply for the five Tour wins and his unique success in the Grand Prix des Nations. He will be remembered for his stand on the drugs issue that was beginning to concern professional cycling and which came to public attention with the death of the British rider, Tom Simpson, in the Tour de France of 1967. Anquetil never hid that he took drugs - a common practice at the time - and in a debate with a government minister on French television said that only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux-Paris on just water. Anquetil argued that professional riders were workers and had the same right to treat their pains as, say, a geography teacher. It was an argument many found increasingly hard to support as more riders were reported to have died or suffered health problems through drug-related incidents.
There was great support in the cyclist community, however, for the way Anquetil argued that, if there were to be rules and tests, the tests should be carried out consistently and with dignity. It was professional dignity, the right of a champion not to be ridiculed in front of his public, that he said led to his refusal to take a test in the centre of the Vigorelli track.
The unrecognised time that Anquetil set that day was in any case quickly broken by the Belgian rider, Ferdi Bracke. Anquetil was hurt that the French government had never sent him a telegram of congratulations but sent one to Bracke, who wasn't French. It was a measure of the unacceptability of his arguments, as was the way he was quietly dropped from future French teams.
Retirement and death
He retired to become a farmer, an occasional race director, and a radio commentator. His radio analyses were considered especially sharp and he gained a notoriety in Belgium for telling Luis Ocaña, the Spanish rider living in France, how to beat the Belgian star Eddy Merckx.
In 1987, after battling stomach cancer, Jacques Anquetil died in his sleep at the St. Hilaire Clinic in Rouen. Anquetil is buried beside the church in the village of Quincampoix, north of Rouen, where a large black monument by the traffic lights lists all his achievements. There is a further monument at the Piste Municipale track in Paris, where the centre is named after him.
Quotes
★ ''When I was small, he was for me the champion cyclist. But above all he was a gentleman for his personal qualities as much as his sporting achievements. I have always been irritated by the game of comparing champions from different times but to be compared to him was an honour.'' — Bernard Hinault
★ ''Jacques simply tries harder than anyone I have met. In a time trial you can hear him catching you, you don't have to look round, there is this hoarse sound of breath being drawn in gulps, and then he's past you. Then it's like being in a thunderstorm, with the sweat simply pouring off him as he goes by.'' — Tom Simpson
References in Popular Culture
★ Jacques made an appearance in the animated movie The Triplets of Belleville (Bellville Rendez-vous was the title of the British release).
Major Achievements
; Tour de France
: 1957 -
: 1959 - 3rd overall
: 1961 -
: 1962 -
: 1963 -
: 1964 -
; Giro d'Italia
: 1959 - 2nd overall; Stage 2 ITT win; Stage 19 ITT win; 7 days in ''maglia rosa''
: 1960 -
: 1961 - 2nd overall; Stage 9 ITT win; 4 days in ''maglia rosa''
: 1964 -
; Vuelta a España
: 1963 -
; Other one-day classics and stage races
: Super Prestige Pernod International (1961, 1963, 1965, 1966)
: Grand Prix des Nations (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1965, 1966)
: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1966)
: Gent-Wevelgem (1964)
: Bordeaux-Paris (1965)
: Dauphiné Libéré (1963 - 1st overall; 1 stage win; 1965 - 1st overall, 3 stage wins)
: Paris-Nice
:: 1961 - 1st overall; 1 stage win
:: 1963 - 1st overall; 1 stage win
:: 1965 - 1st overall; 1 stage win
:: 1966 - 1st overall; 1 stage win
: Vuelta al País Vasco (1969)
: Four Days of Dunkirk (1958, 1959)
External links
★ Complete Palmarès
★ Gitane USA
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