Cyrille Guimard

Cyrille Guimard

Cyrille Guimard (born January 20, 1947 in Bouguenais , France ) is a former French cyclist and later sports director .

Cyclist

At the UCI Road World Championships in 1966 at the Nürburgring , he finished 12th in the amateur road race .

After Guimard became French amateur road champion in 1967 , he switched to professional camp in 1968. In addition to other French championship titles in the 1970 sprint and 1976 cyclocross , he was particularly successful in road cycling . He was considered a sprinter and won a total of seven stages of the Tour de France . At the Tour de France 1972 he wore the yellow jersey of the overall leader for four days and was dangerous for the eventual winner Eddy Merckx before he had to give up the tour two stages before the end in the green jersey due to tendon sheath problems in his knee. He ended his career at the beginning of 1976.

Sports director

After the end of his career as a racing cyclist, Guimard became the sporting director of his last cycling team, Gitane-Campagnolo . a. Renault-Elf , Système U or Castorama and Cofidis .

He developed into one of the most successful team managers in road cycling and won the Tour de France a total of seven times with his riders : 1976 with Lucien Van Impe , 1978 , 1979 , 1981 and 1982 with Bernard Hinault and 1983 and 1984 with Laurent Fignon . His professional and motivational skills were valued by many drivers. Laurent Fignon described Guimard as a very great sports director, but also questioned his human abilities.

Cycling official

At the age of 23, Guimard was president of the French association of professional cyclists, the Union Nationale des Coureurs Professionels . Later as a team manager, he founded the team owner association AIGCP together with Roger Legeay . His candidacy as president of the French cycling federation FFC in 2009 clearly failed. From 2017 to 2019 he was the coach of the French national road team; his successor was Thomas Voeckler .

Greatest successes

1967

• French Masters - Street (Amateurs)

1970

• French champion - sprint
• a stage Tour de France

1971

• two stages, points and combination classification Vuelta a España

1972

• Paris – Bourges
• Overall ranking and two stages of the Midi Libre
• four stages and Prix ​​de la combativité Tour de France

1973

• a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
• a stage Tour de France

1974

• a stage Paris – Nice
• a stage Tour de France

1975

• Grand Prix Ouest France

1976

• French champion - cross

Teams

Racing driver

• 1968-1969 Mercier-BP-Hutchinson
• 1970–1971 Fagor-Mercier
• 1972-1973 Gan-Mercier
• 1974 Merlin Plage-Flandria
• 1975 Flandria-Carpenter
• 1976 Gitane-Campagnolo (until February 15)

Sports director

• 1976-1977 Gitane-Campagnolo
• 1978–1985 Renault-Gitane / Renault-Elf
• 1986–1988 Système U
• 1989–1995 Super U-Raleigh-Fiat / Castorama
• 1997 Equipe Cofidis
• since 2007 Roubaix Lille Métropole

Individual evidence

1. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 35/1966 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1966, p. 10 .
2. ↑ Cyrille Guimard The Rider: 1972 Tour de France. classiquesklassieker.blogspot.de, January 20, 2012, accessed on December 22, 2014 (English). 
3. ↑ Laurent Fignon, Jean-Emmanuel Ducoin: We were young and carefree . Covadonga Verlag, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-936973-52-5
4. ↑ Interview de Cyrille Guimard, candidat à la présidence de la FFC. velo101.com, February 26, 2009, accessed December 21, 2014 (French). 
5. ^ Elections FFC - Sept voix pour Guimard, Lappartient élu. tourcoing.maville.com, February 28, 2009, accessed December 21, 2014 (French). 
6. ^ Thomas Voeckler devient manager de l'équipe de France, Cyrille Guimard se retire. In: lequipe.fr. June 30, 2019, accessed October 27, 2019 (French). 

Web links

• Cyrille Guimard in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Cyrille Guimard in the Tour de France database(French / English )