Jacques Anquetil

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Jacques Anquetil (1962)
Jacques Anquetil (1963)

Jacques Anquetil (* 8. January 1934 in Mont-Saint-Aignan , Seine-Maritime , † 18th November 1987 in Rouen ) was a French professional - cyclist . He was the first professional cyclist to win the Tour de France five times (1957 and 1961–1964).

Life

Stele in memory of Jacques Anquetil in Châteaufort

In his first year as a professional in 1953, the 19-year-old from Normandy won the individual time trial Grand Prix des Nations ahead of the legendary Fausto Coppi . In his career, Anquetil was able to win the most important race against the clock a total of nine times (1953-1958, 1961, 1965, 1966). In 1956, Anquetil exceeded the 14-year-old world hour record set by Fausto Coppi with over 46 kilometers . He was also able to win three times at the Grand Prix Forlì .

In 1957 Anquetil, now 23 years old, took part in the Tour de France for the first time and immediately won the most important stage race in the world with an almost 15-minute lead. He decided four stages for himself. Here, too, the cornerstone of his success were his qualities in the time trial, which should earn him the nickname "Monsieur Chrono". At the same time, however, Anquetil was able to keep up with the specialists on the mountain stages. In 1958 and 1959 he won the Dunkirk Four Days .

After three years without Tour stage success, Anquetil reported back with his second overall victory in 1961, then won the Tour de France four times in a row up to 1964 and was thus also the first to achieve a total of five successes. In his winning streak, Anquetil was able to win all time trials with one exception. In 1963 he was voted France's Sportsman of the Year (“ Champion des champions ”) by the sports newspaper L'Équipe .

In 1962 Jacques Anquetil and Rudi Altig drove together in the Saint-Raphael-Helyett-Hutchinson racing team. Both had conflicts with each other throughout the season, so in autumn the team management wanted to bring about a reconciliation and sent them to the start of the Trofeo Baracchi , a pair time trial . Together they won the race thanks to an outstanding performance, especially by Rudi Altig, who pushed Jacques Anquetil to his performance limits. Jacques Anquetil later described this as a great victory for the team, but also "the greatest and most humble defeat of my life".

His last tour win in 1964 was also his tightest and most famous. His elbow duel with the crowd favorite Raymond Poulidor at the Puy de Dôme went down in French sporting history . Since he cleverly hid his exhaustion on the mountain from his competitor, the latter attacked too late. In Paris, Jacques Anquetil ultimately had 55 seconds ahead of the "eternal runner-up" Poulidor.

Anquetil was the first of only six drivers to win all three major national tours: In addition to his five tour victories, which put him in a row with Eddy Merckx , Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain , he won the Giro d'Italia twice (1960, 1964) and once the Vuelta a España (1963).

Anquetil was not so successful in the classic one-day races . Towards the end of his career he won the classics Liège – Bastogne – Liège (1966), Bordeaux – Paris (1965) and Gent – ​​Wevelgem (1964). At the Road World Cup in 1966 , he finished second behind Rudi Altig , but - as was rumored - out of hurt vanity, he did not appear at the award ceremony and was therefore fined. He drove eleven times in the road world championship and was able to place seven times among the ten best drivers.

According to his own admission, he tried in 1966 and 1967 to improve his performance with amphetamines, caffeine and cortisone. As a result, a world hour record set by Anquetil in 1967 was not recognized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

At the age of 36, he ended his cycling career in January 1970 when he took part in some track races in the Algerian capital of Algiers . Despite his great successes, which made him one of the greatest racing cyclists in France, the always cool, distant “Maître Jacques” was never as popular with the French public as his rival Poulidor.

Anquetil died of stomach cancer. It is believed that the disease is due to years of drug use.

family

In her book Pour l'amour de Jacques ("For Love for Jacques"), his daughter Sophie revealed a previously well-kept family secret in 2004: Anquetil actually lived in bigamy with his wife Jeanine and stepdaughter Annie. Sophie comes from the liaison with Annie. He also fathered a child with his daughter-in-law.

Afterlife

After his death at the age of 53 (1987), the Vélodrome de Vincennes was renamed Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil . Since 2012, several new books have appeared on Anquetil, particularly in France, signs of a resurgent interest in his athletic achievements and personality.

Honors

In 1965 he was awarded the French National Order of Merit. In October 1966 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

Movie

  • Olivier Hennegrave: Cycling Anquetil / Poulidor - The great sport duels , Arte, France 2001, 50 min.

literature

in order of appearance

  • Pierre Joly: Jacques Anquetil. En brûlant les étapes . De Steenbok, Gent 1966.
  • Jean-Paul Ollivier: Anquetil, l'homme des défis . Flammarion, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-08-064915-9 .
  • Jean-Paul Ollivier: Jacques Anquetil . Glénat, Grenoble 1994, ISBN 2-7234-1757-3 .
  • Pierre Pellissier: La legend de Jacques Anquetil . Rageot, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-7002-2488-4 .
  • Jacques Marchand: Jacques Anquetil, le rebelle . Ed. Prolongations. Issy-les-Moulineaux 2007, ISBN 978-2-916400-14-3 .
  • Jacques Augendre: Anquetil - Poulidor, un divorce français . Pascuito, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-35085-052-8 .
  • Paul Fournel: Anquetil Tout Seul . Éditions du Seuil, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-02-103672-5 .
  • Yves Jean: Anquetil le mal-aimé . Arthaud / Flammarion, Paris 2015, ISBN 978-2-08-133638-4 .
  • François Pédron, Pascal Meynadier: Jacques Anquetil. Histoire d'un géant . Editions du Chêne et Paris Match. Vanves 2017. ISBN 978-2-81231-676-0 .
  • Frederik Backelandt: Jacques Anquetil ( Les héros series ! ). Kannibaal, Veurne 2017, ISBN 978-94-9267720-4 (Dutch).
  • Didier Béoutis: Le duel. Anquetil – Poulidor. Dix ans de confrontation (1960-1969) . Mareuil Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-37254-084-1 .

Web links

Commons : Jacques Anquetil  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cups, championships and records . Lingen-Verlag, Cologne 1967, p. 176 .
  2. ↑ Didier Béoutis: Le duel. Anquetil – Poulidor. Dix ans de confrontation (1960-1969) . Mareuil Éditions, Paris 2018, pp. 129–191.
  3. ^ Helmer Boelsen : The history of the cycling world championship. The world championship road races of the professionals from 1927 until today. Covadonga, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-936973-33-4 , p. 98.
  4. ↑ a b Association of German Cyclists (ed.): Cycling . No. 2/1970 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1970, p. 15 .
  5. ↑ Ralf Meutgens (ed.): Doping in cycling. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-5245-6 , p. 254.
  6. ^ Yves Jean: Anquetil le mal-aimé . Arthaud / Flammarion, Paris 2015, therein Chapter 13: Face au poulidorisme .
  7. ↑ a b November 18, 2007 - 20 years ago: The death of cycling legend Jacques Anquetil. In: Monsieur Chrono. Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne, November 18, 2007, accessed on July 2, 2012 : “At the age of only 53, Anquetil fell ill with stomach cancer, which he succumbed to on November 18, 1987 in Rouen after a brief, serious illness. To this day it is suspected that the careless use of doping agents such as strychnine caused the cancer. "
  8. ↑ According to his own statement, he - and all other great drivers of his time - regularly used "stimulants". Cf. John Milton Hoberman : The Dead Live Longer: Does the Olympic Movement Have a Future? In: Wolfgang Buss , Sven Güdenpfennig, Arnd Krüger (eds.): To re-establish the Olympic idea. Food for thought . (= Contributions and sources on sport and society). Roswitha Stumm, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-9808392-2-2 , pp. 13-22.
  9. ↑ Connaissez-vous l'histoire de la Cipale? on velovelo.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.velovelo.com  
personal data
SURNAME Anquetil, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Mont-Saint-Aignan
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1987
Place of death Rouen