Roger Walkowiak

Roger Walkowiak

Roger Walkowiak (2008)
To person
Nickname	Walko
Date of birth	March 2, 1927
date of death	February 6, 2017
nation	France
discipline	Street
Most important successes
Overall ranking Tour de France 1956
Last updated: February 7, 2017

Roger Walkowiak (born March 2, 1927 in Montluçon ; † February 6, 2017 in Vichy ) was a French cyclist and winner of the Tour de France 1956 .

life and career

Roger Walkowiak was the son of a Polish miner who had moved to France to find a better livelihood there. The son learned the trade of metalworker. In 1944 he started cycling . Both as an amateur and in his first two years as a professional, his cycling career was not particularly noticeable, he was the typical water carrier .

At the beginning of the 1953 season, Walkowiak finished second overall in the Paris – Côte d'Azur stage race , and in 1955 he was also second at the Critérium du Dauphiné , but ten minutes behind the winner Louison Bobet .

1956 started Walkowiak for the fourth time in the Tour de France , albeit "without great ambitions". On the seventh stage from Lorient to Angers he belonged to a breakaway group that crossed the finish line 19 minutes before the big favorites and won the yellow jersey . He initially wore it for three days, regained it in the 18th stage and defended the lead as far as Paris without having won a single stage. In the same year he won a stage of the Vuelta a España in 1956 , and another one the following year . Walkowiak was unable to confirm these successes in other races, which prompted the French specialist press to make “snappy comments”.

In fact, it turned out that Walkowiak had been suffering from a mysterious fungal infection since 1954, which he had contracted during the Marocko tour and which manifested itself in constant diarrhea. In 1960 he ended his professional career, but tried a comeback two years later. He fell badly and fractured his skull, so that he finally withdrew from cycling. After the end of his active career as a racing driver, he ran a café and a gas station, later he worked as a chauffeur and returned to his old job as a metal worker.

After the death of the Swiss Ferdy Kübler on December 29, 2016 at the age of 97, Walkowiak was the oldest living ( doyen ) Tour de France winner until his death .

literature

• Udo Witte: Campionissimo, Monsieur Chrono, Kannibale & Col. The professional road bike races after 1945 . tape 1 . BoD, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7357-7495-8 .

Web links

• Roger Walkowiak in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Roger Walkowiak on Memoire du Cyclisme
• Roger Walkowiak in the Tour de France database(French / English )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Witte, Campionissimo , p. 323.
2. ^ ASO (ed.): Official program Tour de France 2003 . Paris 2003, p. 75 .
3. ^ Witte, Campionissimo , p. 324.
4. ^ Roger Walkowiak nouveau doyen des vainqueurs du Tour de France, suite au décès de Ferdi Kübler. L'Équipe , December 30, 2016, accessed February 1, 2017 (French).