Arnold Grandjean

Arnold Grandjean

Arnold Grandjean (left) and his brother Ali (1916)
To person
Full name	Arnold Grandjean-Perrenoud-Contesse
Date of birth	November 19, 1890
date of death	April 6, 1961
nation	Switzerland
discipline	Road cycling
Most important successes
National road championships 1915, 1916 : - Cyclo-cross races 1916 : - Mountain Championship

Arnold Grandjean-Perrenoud-Contesse (born November 19, 1890 in Les Ponts-de-Martel , † April 6, 1961 in Neuchâtel ) was a Swiss cyclist . He was the founder of the Swiss bicycle company Allegro .

Athletic career

Arnold Grandjean was the eldest son of watchmaker Charles Alfred Grandjean-Perrenou-Contesse, descendant of a long-established family. He had 13 siblings. At the age of 16, he began an apprenticeship as a watchmaker in La Sagne, eight kilometers away, and covered the distance between work and home at an altitude of 1,000 meters four times a day. As a result, he became enthusiastic about cycling and infected his six younger brothers Ali, Jules, Paul, Charles, Tell and Ulysse with this enthusiasm. Another source reports that he worked with his brothers Ali and Jules in a furniture factory in Travers .

Grandjean contested his first bike race in 1909, which he won. In the same year he became Swiss champion in the street race for amateurs ; According to contemporary reports, he started the Tour de France in 1911 , but fell during the first stage and had to give up, but he is not listed in the tour annals. In 1915 and 1916 he won the national title in the cyclo-cross race , in 1916 he also won the mountain championship, and he was runner-up in the professional road race . In the same year he finished 22nd in the Tour of Lombardy . He also won numerous regional races, and at Bern-Geneva he was on the podium several times. Arnold Grandjean's last race is documented in 1919.

Career as an entrepreneur

Allegro motorcycle from 1926

In 1911 Arnold Grandjean moved to Travers and opened a bicycle shop there , later in Fleurier . In 1914, together with his brothers Ali, Jules Ulysse and Tell and another partner in Neuchâtel, he founded the Etablissements des Cycles Allegro Arnold Grandjean SA Neuchâtel , which built bicycles and motorcycles under the name Allegro and is considered the first manufacturer of racing bikes in Switzerland . The name Allegro alluded to the cheers from Grandjean fans who shouted Allez, Gros . Brother Tell Grandjean competed in races on Allegro motorcycles himself, also in a team together with his wife. Jules Grandjean started his own business in 1923.

The company existed independently until the 1980s, when it was sold to the bicycle manufacturer Mondia .

Web links

• Arnold Grandjean in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• Pedigree of Arnold Grandjean. Retrieved January 30, 2014 . 

References and comments

1. ↑ L'Impartial. Quotidien Neuchatelois et Jurasienne paraissant à la Chaux-De-Fonds. December 14, 1964, accessed January 30, 2014 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Sport-Album der Rad-Welt, 15th year, 1916 . Berlin 1917, p. 43 f .
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Family tree of Arnold Grandjean. Retrieved January 30, 2014 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Allegro History pre-1940. swissbicycles.com, accessed January 29, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Klausen Race 1922–1934. Special exhibition April 14 to October 20, 2013. Pantheon Basel - forum for classic cars. P. 70 f , accessed on January 30, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Martin Platter: The (Swiss) steel donkey has had its day. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 18, 2001, accessed January 30, 2014 .