Raymond Poulidor

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Raymond Poulidor at the Étoile de Bessèges (2012)
Raymond Poulidor 1966
Raymond Poulidor (1993)

Raymond "Poupou" Poulidor (born April 15, 1936 in Masbaraud-Mérignat , Département Creuse , † November 13, 2019 in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat ) was one of the most popular French racing cyclists . He was considered the "eternal runner-up" because he never won the Tour de France , but took second place three times.

Life

Raymond Poulidor began his sporting career in 1953 at the age of 17. After not being nominated for the amateur races at the 1958 road world championships in Reims , Poulidor became a professional driver for the Mercier-BP racing team at the end of 1959 and, thanks to good placements and five national victories, made the leap to the national team in 1960, which took place at the Sachsenring in the GDR Road World Championship was used and with which the 24-year-old from the south of France took 5th place. In 1961 he won the classic one-day race Milan – Sanremo over 288 kilometers and the French professional road championship. Then he won the bronze medal with 3rd place at the Road World Championships.

In 1962 he started the Tour de France for the first time . Poulidor, known only as “Poupou” in France, made it onto the podium of the Tour de France eight times between 1962 and 1976 (three 2nd places, five 3rd places) without winning the most important stage race in the world or even winning the yellow To wear leotard . In France, his name is still used today as a synonym for "unlucky fellow". Despite or precisely because of this image as an "eternal runner-up", Poulidor was the most popular athlete in France during his playing days, ahead of his great athletic rival, the five-time tour winner Jacques Anquetil .

In 1964, Poulidor came closest to winning a Tour. His elbow duel with the favorite Anquetil at Puy de Dôme went down in French sports history. In contrast to Poulidor, Anquetil was at the end of his tether, but cleverly hid his exhaustion on the mountain from his rival. Poulidor waited far too long to attack. In Paris, only 55 seconds separated him from the yellow jersey.

In addition to many other victories in smaller stage races such as Paris – Nice , Poulidor won the Vuelta a España in 1964, one of the three major national tours . At road world championships Poulidor was always particularly motivated and achieved 5th place in 1963, 3rd in 1964 and 1966 and 7th in 1968. He achieved the greatest success at a professional world championship in 1974 in Montreal , Canada , when he was runner-up behind Eddy Merckx .

In the 18 years of his career as a professional driver, Poulidor achieved 195 victories, including 7 stage victories in the Tour de France. He won a total of 34 stages in various tours and 116 criteria . In 1974 sports newspaper L'Équipe voted him France's Sportsman of the Year (“ Champion des champions ”).

In 1977 Poulidor ended his career after finishing third in the Tour de France a year earlier at the age of 40.

In 2008 the artist Jean-Joseph Sanfourche made a lithograph Merci Mr. Poulidor as a tribute to his athletic achievements and presented it at a meeting. Sanfourche and Poulidor were two of the most famous residents of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat .

In early October 2019, Raymond Poulidor was hospitalized with heart problems. He died in his home town on November 13, 2019 at the age of 83.

family

Poulidor married Gisèle Bardet in 1961. The couple have two daughters, Isabelle and Corinne. Corinne is married to the Dutch cyclist Adrie van der Poel , whose son is the equally successful racing driver Mathieu van der Poel .

Palmarès (selection)

Poulidor on the 1976 tour
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975

Grand Tours

Grand Tour 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977
Orange jersey Vuelta a España - - - - 1 2 - 8th - - - 9 - - - - - -
Maglia Rosa Giro d'Italia - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Yellow jersey Tour de France - - 3 8th 2 2 3 9 DNF 3 7th - 3 DNF 2 19th 3 -
Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

Monuments of cycling

Monument to cycling 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977
Milan – Sanremo - 1 - 57 2 41 7th 33 5 53 62 - - 46 - 48 -
Tour of Flanders - - - 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Paris – Roubaix 19th 36 5 6th - - - 7th 6th - 13 11 10 10 24 - 13 12
Liège – Bastogne – Liège - - - 5 - - - - 3 - 8th - - 4th - - 8th -
Lombardy tour 96 12 - 1 - 6th 3 3 16 5 - - 15th - - - 5 -

Movie

  • Olivier Hennegrave: Cycling: Anquetil / Poulidor (documentary in the series The great sport duels ), Arte, France 2001, 50 min.

literature

  • Georges Dirand, Pierre Joly: Poulidor . Calmann-Lévy, Paris 1974.
  • Jean-Paul Ollivier: Raymond Poulidor . Glénat, Grenoble 1994, ISBN 2-7234-1784-0 .
  • Jacques Augendre: Anquetil - Poulidor, un divorce français . Pascuito, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-35085-052-8 .
  • Didier Béoutis: Le duel. Anquetil - Poulidor. Dix ans de confrontation (1960-1969) . Mareuil Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-37254-084-1 .
  • Georges Dirand, Pierre Joly: Poulidor . Mon Age d'Or , Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 1972.

Web links

Commons : Raymond Poulidor  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c cvh: French cycling legend Raymond Poulidor is dead. In: Focus Online . November 13, 2019, accessed November 13, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Raymond "Poupou" Poulidor (83) is stuff. In: sporza.be. November 13, 2019, accessed November 13, 2019 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ Didier Béoutis: Le duel. Anquetil – Poulidor. Dix ans de confrontation (1960-1969). Mareuil Éditions, Paris 2018, pp. 129–191.
  4. ↑ Rene Jacobs et al. a .: Velo 1978 . Dendermonde, S. 236 .
personal data
SURNAME Poulidor, Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Poupou (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Masbaraud-Mérignat , Creuse department
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 2019
Place of death Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat