Gustave Ganay

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Gustave Ganay (1922)

Gustave Valentin Ganay (born March 28, 1892 in Marseille , † August 23, 1926 in Paris ) was a French cyclist .

Gustave Ganay was one of France's most popular racing cyclists in the 1920s. The trained electrician - he worked as such in the Alcazar for a few years - began his cycling career around 1910, which was interrupted by the First World War. In 1919 he finished second in the overall standings of the Tour du Sud-Est behind Francis Pélissier and won other races, including Marseille-Lyon and Marseille-Toulon-Marseille . In 1920 he was also successful in several French one-day races and started in the Tour de France , but gave up after the third stage.

In the following years Ganay shifted his focus to the more lucrative standing races . In 1922 he became French runner-up in this discipline and took third place at the World Railroad Championships , led by Ernest Pasquier . In between he spent some time in the United States , but without achieving major success. However, he attracted attention when he set a new speed record in Daytona Beach in 1924 by setting the pace behind a racing car at 133 km / h and with 43.551 seconds for the mile the record from 1899 by Charles Murphy (57.80 seconds) who drove behind a locomotive undercut. In the same year Ganay was again French vice-champion of the stayers, in 1926 he won the national title, led by Pasquier, and took second place at the world championship behind his compatriot Victor Linart .

Three weeks after the World Cup, Gustave Ganay started the “Prix George Leander ” in the Parisian Prinzenparkstadion in memory of this driver who had a fatal accident at the same place in 1904. Ganay fell due to a puncture and died a little later in hospital.

Ganay honored his hometown of Marseille by naming a street “Boulevard Gustave Ganay” and a grandstand on the velodrome after him. In addition, a memorial was erected for him in the bicycle stadium in 1939.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ marseillais-du-monde.org ( Memento of the original from July 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.marseillais-du-monde.org
  2. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 40/1962 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 14 .

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Ganay, Gustave
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ganay, Gustave Valentin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Marseille
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1926
Place of death Paris