José Meiffret

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

José Meiffret (born April 27, 1913 in Bolouris-sur-Mer , † April 16, 1983 in Montier-en-Der ) was a French cyclist who set a total of 13 hour and speed records.

youth

José Meiffret was born in the small town of Boulouris on the French Riviera . His parents died when he was young and he had to provide for himself and his grandmother's. A motorcyclist who had injured him while cycling gave him a new bike to make up for, and he was constantly on the move from then on.

Cycling career

Meiffret was extremely ambitious and got himself an appointment with Henri Desgrange , the founder of the Tour de France , who advised him to turn to the standing sport . He soon celebrated his first successes, but the outbreak of the Second World War ended his cycling career for the time being.

After the war Meiffret switched to setting records on the bike. On June 28, 1950, on the Grenzlandring near Mönchengladbach - behind pacemaker Walter Winter on a BMW 750 motorcycle - he set a new hour record . The event was organized by the cycling journalist and official Wolfgang Gronen , who was born in Erkelenz and who also had the racing machine built; 15,000 enthusiastic spectators lined the approximately nine-kilometer route, which Meiffret traveled almost twelve times. He set a new record of 104.875 kilometers, compared to the old mark of 96.480 kilometers by Frenchman Georges Paillard from the previous year.

The ambitious Meiffret then looked for new challenges and decided to set a new speed record behind a car and beat the record of the French Alfred Letourneur . In one of his record rides on the cycling track of Montlhéry he crashed so hard that doctors struggled for weeks for his life. In addition, he had to complain for a long time about the sum insured because the insurance company initially refused to pay the agreed premium. After his recovery, José Meiffret retired to a Trappist monastery , where he wrote his first book “Bréviaire du champion cycliste”, read philosophical books and wrote hundreds of letters to his friends, including Jean Cocteau .

In July 1962 the 49-year-old Meiffret, who never weighed more than 60 kg in his life, set another highly regarded speed record on the motorway near Freiburg when he reached the top speed of 204 km / h behind a Mercedes 300 SL . In his pocket, Meiffret, who suffered from financial worries all his life despite his sensational record drives, carried a note with the following text: “In the event of a fatal accident, I ask the audience not to feel sorry for me. I am a poor man, an orphan since I was eleven, and have been through a lot. I am not afraid of death. This record attempt is my way of realizing myself. If the doctor can't do anything for me, please bury me next to the track where I fell. "

His achievements inspired the newspapers to repeatedly use nicknames for Meiffret such as “Le Gagarine du vélo” or “Trompe la mort”.

Private

In addition to his cycling activities, José Meiffret worked as a carnation breeder near Nice and as a journalist. In 1953 he bred his own variety called " Marcel Cerdan " from the carnation and named it "Meiffret". He died of natural causes at the age of 70.

List of records

Behind motorcycle

  • September 30, 1937 Nice - Cannes - Nice: 63 km - 1:06, 02 hours
  • September 7, 1949 Toulouse : 1 hour - 87.918 kilometers
  • June 28, 1950 Grenzlandring: 1 hour - 104.880 kilometers
  • October 5, 1950 Duisburg : 1 km - 25.806 seconds (139.50 km / h)
  • October 21, 1973 Miramas : 1 km - 24.9 seconds (144.578 km / h)
  • October 27, 1973 Miramas: 1 km - 24.6 seconds (146.341 km / h)
  • October 27, 1973 Miramas: 1 hour - 109.113 kilometers

Behind cars

  • October 13, 1951 St. Élix - Noé : 1 km - 20.5 seconds (175.609 km / h)
  • September 29, 1961 Lahr : 1 km - 20.396 seconds (176.500 km / h)
  • November 2, 1961 Lahr: 1 km - 20.390 seconds (178.557 km / h)
  • November 12, 1961 Lahr: 1 km - 20.120 seconds (178.926 km / h)
  • November 12, 1961 Lahr: 1 km - 19.290 seconds (186.625 km / h)
  • July 19, 1962 Freiburg : 1 km - 17.580 seconds (204.788 km / h)

Awards

For his autobiography Mes rendez-vous avec la mort , Meiffret was awarded the “Grand Prize for Sports Writing” and the “Prix Sobrier-Arould” of the Académie française in 1965.

Works

  • Bréviaire du champion cycliste. Subervie, Rodez 1957.
  • Mes rendez-vous avec la mort. Flammarion, Paris 1965.

literature

  • Michael Mertins: The José Meiffret Case. In: The bone shaker. No. 45, 1, 2009, ISSN  1430-2543 , pp. 21-24.
  • René Jacobs, Hector Mahau, Harry van Den Bremt, René Pirotte: Velo Gotha. Presses de Belgique, Brussels 1984, p. 314.
  • Dietmar Schmitz, Folkmar Pietsch; Historical Association Wegberg (ed.): The Grenzlandring - "the Avus" of the West 1948–1952 . ROKA-Verlag, Wegberg 2005, Vol. 4, ISBN 978-3-926525-52-9 , pp. 108-112.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cycling , July 4, 1950
  2. ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 51/1969 . Berlin, S. 11 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meiffret, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Bolouris-sur-Mer
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1983
Place of death Montier-en-Der