Raymond Poulidor The Anquetil years
What happened during the Anquetil years?
What happened with Raymond Poulidor during the Anquetil years?
Poulidor's rivalry with Anquetil is a legend in cycling. While a good climber, Poulidor had a hard time matching Anquetil in the individual time trial, often having victory snatched from him by losing time in time-trial stages of the Tour de France. Poulidor's riding style was aggressive and attacking, whereas Anquetil preferred to control the race in the mountains and win time in the time-trials. Poulidor became the darling of the French public, to the ire of Anquetil. Poulidor's mid-France upbringing and his slow Limousin speech also contrasted with Anquetil's northern background and sharper accent. Poulidor's face was deeply tanned and furrowed; Anquetil had high cheekbones, a smoother face and brushed-up blond hair. Poulidor's best chance of defeating Anquetil came in the 1964 Tour de France, in the finish on the Puy de Dome. Anquetil rode beside Poulidor but both were so exhausted that only in the last few hundred metres could Poulidor take nearly enough time to threaten Anquetil's first place in the general classification. The Tour organiser, Jacques Goddet, was behind the pair as they turned off the main road and climbed through what police estimated as half a million spectators. Anquetil rode on the inside by the mountain wall while Poulidor took the outer edge by the precipice. They could sometimes feel the other's hot gasps on their bare arms. At the end, Anquetil cracked, after a battle of wills and legs so intense that at times they banged elbows. Poulidor says he was so tired that he has no memory of the two touching, although a photograph shows that they did. Of Anquetil, the veteran French reporter Pierre Chany wrote: "His face, until then purple, lost all its colour; the sweat ran down in drops through the creases of his cheeks." Anquetil was only semiconscious, he said. Poulidor gained time but when they reached Paris, Anquetil still had a 55-second lead and won his last Tour de France thanks to the time-trial on the final day. CANNOTANSWER
Poulidor gained time but when they reached Paris, Anquetil still had a 55-second lead and won his last Tour de France thanks to the time-trial on the final day.
Raymond Poulidor (; 15 April 1936 – 13 November 2019), nicknamed "Pou-Pou" (), was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for  his entire career.

His career was distinguished, despite coinciding with two great riders - Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx. This underdog position may have been the reason Poulidor was a favourite of the public. He was known as "The Eternal Second", because he never won the Tour de France despite finishing in second place three times, and in third place five times (including his final Tour at the age of 40). Despite his consistency, he never once wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification in 14 Tours, of which he completed 12. He did win one Grand Tour, the 1964 Vuelta a España. Of the eighteen Grand Tours that he entered in his career, he finished in the top 10 fifteen times.

Early life and amateur career
Raymond Poulidor was the son of Martial and Maria Poulidor, small farmers outside the hamlet of Masbaraud-Mérignat, where the Creuse region east of Limoges meets the département of Haute-Vienne. Poulidor began working on the farm where, he remembered, "the soil was poor and we had to work hard; farming incomes were poor." The need for working hands on the farm meant he left school at 14 even though he wanted to continue his studies. Local entertainment went little further than village fairs, with coconut shies, sack-races, competitions for bottles of home-made jam... and inter-village cycle races. Poulidor continued to help out on his parents' farm even after he turned professional.

Poulidor was given his first bike by a local shop owner at the age of 14. He started racing bicycles at the age of 16, picking up the interest from the magazine Miroir-Sprint given to him by one of his school teachers. He initially hid his passion from his mother, who was afraid of the dangers the sport entailed.

It was only when Poulidor was taken into the army for compulsory national service in 1955 that he first travelled in a train. Pierre Chany, a French reporter who followed 49 Tours de France, drew the comparison with Poulidor's eventual rival, Jacques Anquetil: by the time Poulidor first stepped into a train, Anquetil had already been to Helsinki, ridden the Olympic Games, won a medal for France, turned professional and won the Grand Prix des Nations. Yet there was less than two years between them.

The army sent Poulidor to the war then going on in Algeria, where he worked as a driver and put on 12 kg through lack of exercise. In 1960 he dedicated himself to cycling again and lost the weight in a month. He won his first race after army service by six minutes. When he then came second in the GP de Peyrat-le-Château and won 80,000 old francs, he calculated that he had won more in one race than he would have earned in six years on the farm.

Professional career
Poulidor turned professional in 1960 with the Mercier team, directed by former Tour winner Antonin Magne. Magne offered Poulidor 25,000 old francs a month. Poulidor asked for 30,000. Magne countered that that was more than he paid Gauthier and Louis Privat and refused. Later, aware that he had a rival for Anquetil, he conceded.

In just his second season, Poulidor won Milan–San Remo, one of cycling's "monument classics".  from the finish, he was about to abandon after he suffered a puncture and was two minutes behind the leading riders. Magne convinced him to continue and Poulidor bridged the gap. On the climb of the Capo Berta, he attacked, joined by Albertus Geldermans and teammate Jean-Claude Annaert, who set the tempo until they reached the foot of the final climb, the Poggio. Here, Poulidor attacked again and opened a gap. Despite being guided in the wrong direction by a police man in the final corner, he was able to hold off the chasing field by three seconds to take the victory. Also in 1961, he became French road race champion.

The Anquetil years

Poulidor's rivalry with Anquetil is a legend in cycling. While a good climber, Poulidor had a hard time matching Anquetil in the individual time trial, often having victory snatched from him by losing time in time-trial stages of the Tour de France.

Poulidor's riding style was aggressive and attacking, whereas Anquetil preferred to control the race in the mountains and win time in the time-trials. Poulidor became the darling of the French public, to the ire of Anquetil. Poulidor's mid-France upbringing and his slow Limousin speech also contrasted with Anquetil's northern background and sharper accent. Poulidor's face was deeply tanned and furrowed; Anquetil had high cheekbones, a smoother face and brushed-up blond hair.

Poulidor's best chance of defeating Anquetil came in the 1964 Tour de France, in the finish on the Puy de Dôme. Anquetil rode beside Poulidor but both were so exhausted that only in the last few hundred metres could Poulidor take nearly enough time to threaten Anquetil's first place in the general classification. The Tour organiser, Jacques Goddet, was behind the pair as they turned off the main road and climbed through what police estimated as half a million spectators.

Anquetil rode on the inside by the mountain wall while Poulidor took the outer edge by the precipice. They could sometimes feel the other's hot gasps on their bare arms. At the end, Anquetil cracked, after a battle of wills and legs so intense that at times they banged elbows. Poulidor says he was so tired that he has no memory of the two touching, although a photograph shows that they did. Of Anquetil, the veteran French reporter Pierre Chany wrote: "His face, until then purple, lost all its colour; the sweat ran down in drops through the creases of his cheeks." Anquetil was only semiconscious, he said. Poulidor gained time but when they reached Paris, Anquetil still had a 55-second lead and won his last Tour de France thanks to the time-trial on the final day.

Anquetil-Poulidor: the social significance
Anquetil unfailingly beat Poulidor in the Tour de France and yet Poulidor remained the more popular. "The more unlucky I was, the more the public liked me and the more money I earned", he said. Divisions between fans became marked, which two sociologists studying the impact of the Tour on French society say became emblematic of France old and new. Research showed that more than 4,000 newspaper articles appeared about him in France in just 1974 and that no other rider "had ever incited so many sociological investigations, so many university theses, seeking to find the cause of his prodigious popularity."

Poupou, the nickname
Poulidor's original nickname was Pouli. It was Émile Besson of the daily newspaper L'Humanité who first wrote of Poupou. The name was taken up throughout France, leading to headlines such as "Poupoularité" in L'Équipe. A poupée is a doll and the nickname hints at that and follows the French tradition of repeating the first syllable of a word in childspeak. Poulidor never liked the name but accepted it.

The Merckx years

The end of the Anquetil era presented opportunities for Poulidor to finally win the Tour de France. This was not to be due to injuries in 1967 and 1968, and the arrival of Eddy Merckx in 1969. Poulidor was no match for Merckx, although he offered much resistance.

In the 1973 Tour Poulidor almost lost his life on the descent from the Col de Portet d'Aspet when he plunged into a ravine, taking a serious blow to the head and crawling out with the help of the race director, Jacques Goddet.

Poulidor and Dr Mabuse
Antonin Magne remained manager of Poulidor's Mercier team until 1970, when he was replaced by another former rider, Louis Caput. Caput brought with him as deputy directeur sportif a man who described himself as a homeopath, Bernard Sainz.
Sainz is known in cycling as Dr Mabuse, after a pulp-fiction character created by Norbert Jacques. Mabuse is a criminal mastermind who becomes rich through hypnotic powers. He plots to take over the world but is foiled by the police. From his cell he masterminds criminal plots by writing endless gibberish. Sainz recognises the nickname and used it in the name of his autobiography.

Sainz is a former velodrome rider of national level who stopped racing after a fall and became involved in horse racing, where he was twice convicted of maltreating horses. It was in horse-racing, where he turned unremarkable animals into champions, that he acquired his nickname. He has been repeatedly investigated by police and has been convicted of illegally practising medicine and incitement to doping. Sainz claims that he only engages in homeopathic treatment, though whatever methods he engages in are effective, casting doubt on this claim.

Louis Caput approached Edmond Mercier, the bicycle-maker behind Poulidor's team, and asked to bring Sainz into the team management. Mercier agreed, said Sainz, because he was already treating Mercier for his own health problems. Mercier had also brought in the insurance company, GAN, as main sponsor. GAN, said Sainz, demanded that Poulidor be in the team photo even if all he did was train with the team at the start of the season. In 1971 Poulidor had decided against riding any more. The tactic, Sainz said, was bluff, to increase his motivation. In Paris–Nice, the first important stage race of the season, Poulidor was 22 seconds behind Eddy Merckx on the morning of the last day. Poulidor attacked from the start, setting a speed record on the Col de la Turbie that stood for more than 10 years and won Paris–Nice by two seconds. Next year he won Paris–Nice again and also the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré.

Drug testing
Raymond Poulidor was the first rider to be tested for drugs in the Tour de France. Testers arrived at the Tour for the first time in 1966, in Bordeaux, although only after word had spread and many riders had left their hotels. The first competitor they found was Poulidor.

A few other riders were found, including Rik Van Looy, and some obliged and others refused. Next morning, the race left the city on the way to the Pyrenees and stopped in the suburb of Gradignan, in the university area of La House. The riders climbed off and began walking, shouting protests in general and in particular abuse at the race doctor, Pierre Dumas, whom some demanded should also take a test to see if he'd been drinking wine or taking aspirin to make his own job easier. Riders also criticised Poulidor for accepting to be tested. He dismissed their protests and stayed at the back of the strike. Other prominent riders, including Jacques Anquetil, were at the front. Poulidor said his indifference to the controls and the strike harmed his relations with fellow riders. "After that, they did me no favours in the peloton", he said.

Retirement and death

Poulidor has several times accepted that his career was handicapped by a lack of ambition and by the psychological domination of Jacques Anquetil. Poulidor said in an interview in 1992: I knew straight away that I was getting places everywhere. I got all the leaders' jerseys but I used to lose them. Tonin [Magne] said to me "Raymond, you're always in a daydream!" And was that true? Were you distracted? It was true. I thought what was happening to me was already marvellous enough. I never thought of winning. Never, ever, did I get up in the morning with the idea of winning!

On 25 January 1973 Poulidor was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. In 2003 the President, Jacques Chirac increased the award. Poulidor also has a rose named after him, reflecting his love of gardening in general and roses in particular.

He lived with his wife Gisèle in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, east of Limoges, where he made short trips on his mountain bike. Their daughter, Corinne, is married to the former world cyclo-cross champion and Tour of Flanders winner Adri van der Poel.  His grandsons David and Mathieu are also cyclists. Mathieu van der Poel became cyclo-cross world champion himself in the junior race in Koksijde in 2012 (Koksijde) and in 2013 in Louisville, and with the Elite in 2015 (Tábor), 2019 (Bogense), 2020 (Dübendorf) and 2021 (Ostend). Mathieu has also had great success on the road with his most highly regarded victories including the Amstel Gold Race in 2019, the Tour of Flanders in 2020, and stage 2 of the 2021 Tour de France where he dedicated his win and yellow jersey to his grandfather.

Poulidor worked in public relations for Crédit Lyonnais, sponsor of the yellow jersey, during the Tour. He had bicycles made under his name by the France-Loire company, and has appeared in television commercials aimed at older people.

When asked about his longevity compared to fellow cyclists, Poulidor said he took things in moderation and did not overstretch himself.

Poulidor has written several biographies, the first of which was Gloire sans le Maillot Jaune, written in 1964. Poulidor Intime was published in May 2007 by Éditions Jacob-Duvernet in France. In 2004 he helped write Poulidor par Raymond Poulidor with the radio reporter Jean-Paul Brouchon. The preface is by Eddy Merckx.

On 13 November 2019, Raymond Poulidor died in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat. He had been in a hospital for two months prior, having suffered from heart problems.

Career achievements

Major results
Source:

1959
 3rd Grand Prix d'Oradour-sur-Vayres
1960
 1st Bordeaux–Saintes
 1st Overall Prestige Pernod
 2nd Nice–Mont Agel
 3rd Grand Prix de Fourmies
 3rd Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 4th Grand Prix du Midi Libre
 5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 7th Paris–Tours
 10th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1961
 1st  Road race, National Road Championships
 1st Milan–San Remo
 1st Mont Faron hill climb
 1st Overall Challenge Yellow
 2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
 2nd Nice–Mont Agel
 2nd Monaco–Mont Agel
 2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 3rd Gênes–Nice
 3rd Grand Prix du Midi Libre
 3rd Grand Prix de Cannes
3rd  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 7th Bordeaux–Paris
 9th Overall Paris–Nice
 9th Paris–Bruxelles
 1962
 3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 19
 3rd Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
 3rd Grand Prix de Nice
 5th Paris–Roubaix
 7th Overall Paris–Nice
 7th Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 8th Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1963
 1st La Flèche Wallonne
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Gran Premio di Lugano
 1st Overall Challenge Yellow
 1st Critérium National
 2nd Grand Prix de Cannes
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Jacques Anquetil)
 2nd Gênes–Nice
 2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
 3rd Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 3rd Paris–Tours
 3rd Paris–Luxembourg
 5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 8th Overall Tour de France
 9th 1963 Tour of Flanders
1964
 1st Overall Critérium National
1st Stage 2b (ITT)
 1st Grand Prix de Cannes
 1st Grand Prix de Soissons
 1st Ronde de Seignelay
 1st  Overall Vuelta a España
1st Stage 15 (ITT)
 1st Stage 1 Circuit du Provençal
 1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 1st Overall Prestige Pernod
 1st Overall Challenge Yellow
 2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 15
 2nd Milan–San Remo
 2nd Grand Prix d'Antibes
 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stages 2 & 4a (ITT)
 2nd Overall Tour de Haute-Loire
 3rd  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 7th Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7
1965
 1st Overall Escalada a Montjuïc
 2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 5b (ITT) and 14
 2nd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Stages 4a (ITT) and 16 (ITT)
 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
 2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
 4th Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 3rd Grand Prix des Nations
 4th Overall Paris–Nice
 4th Trofeo Baracchi (with Georges Chappe)
 6th Giro di Lombardia
1966
 1st Overall Critérium National
1st Stage 2b (ITT)
 1st Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
 3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 14b (ITT)
 1st Stage 2 (ITT) Paris–Nice
 1st Subida a Arrate
 1st Overall Challenge Yellow
 1st Overall Prestige Pernod
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Georges Chappe)
 3rd  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 3rd Giro di Lombardia
 3rd Grand Prix d'Aix-en-Provence
 3rd Grand Prix de Monaco
 3rd Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 5th Grand Prix des Nations
 7th Milan–San Remo
1967
 1st Bol d'Or des Monédières Chaumeil
 1st Circuit de l'Aulne
 1st A Travers Lausanne
 1st Overall Escalada a Montjuïc
 2nd Overall Critérium National
 3rd Giro di Lombardia
 3rd Polymultipliée
 3rd Grand Prix du Midi Libre
 4th Overall Prestige Pernod
 8th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Stage 15b (ITT)
 9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 22b (ITT)
 7th Paris–Roubaix
1968
1st Overall Critérium National
1st Overall Escalada a Montjuïc
1st Subida a Arrate
2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
3rd A Travers Lausanne
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Paris–Roubaix
7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
8th Overall Tour de Suisse
1969
1st Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stages 1a & 5a
1st Overall Tour du Haut Var
1st Overall Challenge Yellow
1st Overall Prestige Pernod
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 1a (ITT)
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 4a (ITT) Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
2nd 
4th Grand Prix du Midi Libre
4th Overall Super Prestige Pernod
5th Giro di Lombardia
1970
2nd Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
2nd A Travers Lausanne
2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
4th Overall Paris–Nice
7th Overall Tour de France
8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
8th Grand Prix des Nations
10th La Flèche Wallonne
1971
1st Overall Critérium National
1st Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 5
2nd Overall Tour of the Basque Country
3rd Overall Prestige Pernod
4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
6th Grand Prix des Nations
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1972
1st Critérium des As
1st Overall Critérium National
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Challenge Yellow
1st Overall Prestige Pernod
2nd Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Stage 1 (ITT)
2nd La Flèche Wallonne
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod
3rd Overall Tour de France
4th Grand Prix des Nations
4th Grand Prix du Midi Libre
7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
10th Paris–Roubaix
1973
 1st GP de Soissons
 1st Grand Prix du Midi Libre
 1st Overall Paris–Nice
 1st Overall Challenge Yellow
 2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
 3rd A Travers Lausanne
 4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
 9th Grand Prix des Nations
 9th Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 10th Paris–Roubaix
1974
 2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 6b
 2nd  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
 4th Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 5th Overall Paris–Nice
 5th Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Prologue (ITT)
1975
 2nd Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stage 3
 2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
 3rd Paris–Bourges
 4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
 7th Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1976
 3rd Overall Tour de France
 2nd Overall Prestige Pernod
 4th Grand Prix du Midi Libre
 5th Giro di Lombardia
 7th Overall Super Prestige Pernod
 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1977
 6th Overall Paris–Nice

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

 

1936 births
2019 deaths
French male cyclists
French Tour de France stage winners
French Vuelta a España stage winners
Vuelta a España winners
Sportspeople from Creuse
Super Prestige Pernod winners
Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (7 December 173117 January 1805) was the first professional French Indologist. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession.  He inspired the founding of the École française d'Extrême-Orient a century after his death. The library of the Institut français de Pondichéry is named after him.

Early life 
Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil was born in Paris on 7 December 1731 as the fourth of seven children of Pierre Anquetil, a spice importer. As was the custom of the time, the name of one of his father's estates, 'Duperron', was added to his name to distinguish him from his brothers. Anquetil-Duperron initially distinguished himself in the study of theology at Paris and Utrecht with the intention of becoming a priest like his elder brother Louis-Pierre Anquetil. In the course of his studies, however, he acquired such an interest in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek that he chose to devote himself entirely to philology and classical studies and discontinued his clerical training. He travelled to Amersfoort near Utrecht to study oriental languages, especially Arabic, with the Jansenites who were exiled there. On returning to Paris, his attendance at the Royal Library (, now the National Library) attracted the attention of the keeper of the manuscripts, Abbé Sallier, who hired Anquetil-Duperron as an assistant on a small salary.

Early interest in Indian manuscripts
In 1754, Michelangelo-André Le Roux Deshauterayes who at the time was professor for Arabic at the Collège Royal, showed Anquetil a facsimile of four leaves of a Vendidad Sade that had been sent to Deshauterayes's uncle Michel Fourmont in the 1730s in the hope that someone might be able to decipher it. The original was at Oxford's Bodleian Library, but the script was not recognized, and so the manuscript was placed in a box chained to a wall near the library's entrance and shown to everyone who might be able to identify the curiosity. Also at the Bodelian was the manuscript collection of James Fraser (1713–1754), who had lived in Surat (present-day Gujarat, India) for over sixteen years, where he had been a Factor of the British East India Company and later Member of Council. Fraser had returned to Britain with some 200 Sanskrit and Avestan manuscripts, which he intended to translate, but he died prematurely on 21 January 1754.

In his later travelogue, Anquetil is sharply critical of the English, both of Fraser's "failure" to accomplish what he intended, and of the Bodelian's failure to realize that Thomas Hyde's manuscripts, which the Bodelian also had in its possession, included a transliteration table for Avestan script. Playing on the French antipathy towards the English, in his travelogue he later claimed that after seeing the facsimile pages of the Oxford manuscript, he resolved to "enrich [his] country with that singular work" and the translation of it.apud  There was a government interest in obtaining eastern manuscripts; Anquetil-Duperron obtained a mission from the government to do so but, unable to afford his own passage to India, he enlisted as a common soldier for the French East India Company on 2 or 7 November 1754. He marched with the company of recruits from the Parisian prisons to the Atlantic port of L'Orient, where an expedition was preparing to depart. His friends secured his discharge and, on 7 February 1755, the minister, touched by his romantic zeal for knowledge, granted him free passage, a seat at the captain's table, an allowance of 500 livres from the library, and a letter of introduction to the French governor in India which would entitle him to a small salary while there. Anquetil-Duperron left France as a free passenger on 24 February 1755.

First travels
After a passage of six months, Anquetil-Duperron landed on 10 August 1755 at the French colony at Pondicherry, on the coast in south-eastern India. From his private correspondence it appears that he intended to become "master of the religious institutions of all Asia", which in the 18th-century were still imagined to all derive from the Indian Vedas. For that, Anquetil-Duperron knew he would need to learn Sanskrit. He initially studied Persian (the lingua franca of Moghul India), which Europeans in the 18th century still presumed to have descended from Sanskrit. His plan was then to visit the Brahmins in Benares to learn Sanskrit "at some famous pagoda."apud  Half a year later, he was living on rice and vegetables and saving his money so that he might "find some Brahmin" to become the disciple of. As he also wanted to "study the Indian books", he decided to travel to the French colony at Chandannagar also known in French as Chandernagor in Bengal, where he arrived in April 1756. He promptly fell sick; by coincidence, he landed in the hospital of the Jesuit missionary Antoine Mozac, who some years earlier had copied the "Pondicherry Vedas". Anquetil-Duperron remained in the hospital until September or October 1756 and began to wonder whether he should not instead become a priest as he had intended years earlier. Meanwhile, the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in Europe had renewed hostilities between French and British forces in India, where the conflict is known as the Third Carnatic War. The British East India Company under Robert Clive and the British Navy under Charles Watson bombarded and captured Chandannagar on 23 March 1757 and Anquetil-Duperron resolved to leave the territory. Unable to gain access to the Vedas, Anquetil-Duperron planned to travel to Tibet and China to find the ancient Indian texts there. Discouraged by news that there were no texts to be found there, Anquetil-Duperron returned overland to Pondicherry over the course of a hundred-day trek. There, he found his brother Etienne Anquetil de Briancourt, who had been named consul at Surat.

As Etienne assured Abraham that the Zoroastrian priests of Surat would teach him their sacred texts as well as the languages in which they were written, he resolved to accompany his brother. Wanting to explore the country, however, he disembarked from his brother's ship at Mahé and travelled overland the rest of the way on foot and on horseback. He arrived in Surat on 1 March 1758, at a time when the Indian Zoroastrians (Parsis) were embroiled in a bitter dispute over intercalation, what is now called the "Kabiseh controversy". Each side cultivated ties with competing European traders. The one faction (the shahenshahis, led by a certain Muncherji Seth) had ties to the Dutch East India Company. The other (the kadmis, led by a certain Darab Kumana) maintained ties to the British and Armenians. In the travelogue, Darab's co-operation with Anquetil-Duperron is attributed to a need for assurance of French protection. It seems that Darab (and another priest, a certain Kaus) attempted to provide Anquetil-Duperron with an education similar to that given to priests. His essay  aligns itself with the texts and provides only glimpses of what the Parsis actually believed at the time. Anquetil complains of the priests' interest with law and ritual rather than philosophy or abstract ideas. Anquetil grew impatient with the methodical methods of the priests and with his inability to obtain manuscripts. According to his travelogue, the priests also had no desire to teach him Avestan and no expectations that he would master it well enough to translate their texts. Also according to Anquetil, the priests were committing a great sacrilege in acquainting him with the texts and lessons were conducted in Persian so that the priest's Zoroastrian servant would not be aware of what was transpiring. Kaus's anxiety increased when Anquetil demanded proper interpretation and not just translation. Via Persian, the two priests taught him what they knew of Avestan (which was not much) and of Zoroastrian theology (which was even less). In June 1759, 16 months after his arrival in Surat, he sent news to Paris that he had completed (in three months) a translation of the "Vendidad". The same June, the priest Darab arranged for Anquetil-Duperron to attend—in disguise but armed with a sword and pistol—a ceremony in a fire temple "in exchange for a small present and the hope of promenading the city in my palanquin".apud  Anquetil also suggests that Darab attempted to convert him, but that he "courageously refused to waver".apud  Two centuries later, J. J. Modi would explain Anquetil's invitation into a temple as only possible if the sacred fire had been temporarily removed because the temple was being renovated.cf.  On the other hand, Anquetil states that he was given a sudra and kusti and he may have been formally invested with them, which would have made him a Zoroastrian in the priest's view, and thus would have been acceptable in a functioning temple.

Duel and legal problems
In late 1759, Anquetil-Duperron killed a fellow countryman in a duel, was badly wounded himself, and was forced to take refuge with the British. Anquetil's own brother demanded that he be handed over, but the British refused. In April 1760, the French authorities dropped the charges and allowed him to return to the French sector. In the meantime, Anquetil had travelled all over Gujarat. At Surat and in his travels, he collected 180 manuscripts, which not only included almost all known Avestan language texts and many of the 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition, but also other texts in a multitude of Indian languages. Anquetil-Duperron finished his translation in September 1760, and decided to leave Surat. From Surat, he intended again to travel to Benares but the widow of the Frenchman he had killed was bringing charges against him, which Anquetil then used as an excuse to seek refuge again with the British and obtain passage on one of the English ships destined for Europe. He paid for his journey by calling in debts that others had made to his brother. Just before his departure, the priest Kaus lodged a complaint with the British that Anquetil had failed to pay for all the manuscripts that he had purchased. The British seized his goods, but released them when Anquetil's brother guaranteed payment. Anquetil-Duperron left Surat on 15 March 1761. He arrived at Portsmouth eight months later, where he was interned but allowed to continue working. After his release, he traveled to Oxford to check his copies of the Avestan language texts against those of the Bodelian. He then set out for France and arrived in Paris on 14 March 1762. He deposited his manuscripts in the Royal Library the next day.

Report and fame
In June 1762, his report was published in the Journal des sçavans, and Anquetil-Duperron became an instant celebrity. The title of his report indicated that he had gone to India to "discover and translate the works attributed to Zoroaster." It appears that this mischaracterization of his objective was in order to be seen as having achieved what he intended. The librarian Jean-Jacques Barthélemy procured a pension for him and appointed him interpreter of oriental languages at the Royal Library. In 1763, he was elected an associate of the Academy of Inscriptions and began to arrange for the publication of the materials he had collected during his travels. In 1771, he published his three-part Zend Avesta of works ascribed to Zoroaster, which included not only a re-translation of what the priests had translated into Persian for him but also a travelogue (), a summary of the manuscripts that he collected (), a biography of Zoroaster (), a translation of the Bundahishn, and two essays ( and ).

Controversy
A heated dispute broke out at once, in which Duperron was accused of perpetrating (or having been duped in) an elaborate fraud. At the fore in this dispute was William Jones, an Oxford graduate, at the time studying Law at the Middle Temple in London. The future founder of the Royal Asiatic Society and supposed discoverer of the Indo-European language group was deeply wounded by Duperron's scornful treatment of Jones's countrymen and, in a pamphlet written in French in 1771, Jones dismissed Duperron's manuscripts as the rhapsody of some mindless Hindu. For the contemporaries of Voltaire, the silly tales of gods and demons and outlandish laws and rules seemed impossible to relate to the idealized Enlightenment-era view of Zoroaster or to a religion which they associated with simplicity and wisdom. Other scholars attacked Duperron on philological grounds. Duperron was vindicated by Rasmus Rask in 1820, 15 years after Duperron's death. The debate would rage for another 30 years after that. Anquetil's "attempt at a translation was, of course, premature", and, as Eugène Burnouf demonstrated sixty years later, translating the Avesta via a previous translation was prone to errors. However, Anquetil was the first to bring an ancient oriental sacred text other than the Bible to the attention of European scholars.

Later years
Following his Zend-Avesta and until his death in 1805, Anquetil was occupied with studying the laws, history, and geography of India. He was greatly affected by the Revolution. "In his youth a kind of Don Juan, he now led the life of a poor, ascetic bachelor, combining Christian virtue with the wisdom of a Brahmin." During that period he abandoned society, and lived in voluntary poverty on a few pence a day. In 1778, he published at Amsterdam his , in which he endeavored to prove that the nature of oriental despotism had been greatly misrepresented by Montesquieu and others. His  appeared in 1786 and formed part of Thieffenthaler's Geography of India. In 1798, he published  (Hamburg, 2 vols.), a work considered notable by the British for its "remarkable" invectives against them and for its "numerous misrepresentations". His most valuable achievement was a two-volume Latin retranslation and commentary of a Persian translation of fifty Upanishads received from India in 1775, which Anquetil had translated by 1796. Called the " or " by Anquetil, these were subsequently published in Strasbourg in 1801-1802 and represent the first  European language translation of a Hindu text, albeit in an approximate rendering. Anquetil's commentaries make up half the work. A 108-page French paraphrase of Anquetil's s by Jean-Denis Lanjuinais appeared in Millin's  of 1805. Arthur Schopenhauer encountered Anquetil's s in the spring of 1814 and repeatedly called it not only his favorite book but the work of the entire world literature that is most worthy of being read. In India, Anquetil's Oupnek'hats precipitated a revival in the study of the Upanishads.

Political and institutional activity
When the Institut de France was reorganized, Anquetil was voted in as a member but soon resigned. In 1804, Anquetil refused to swear allegiance to Napoleon, stating that "his obeisance [was] to the laws of the government under which he lived and which protected him."apud

Death
Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron died in Paris on 17 January 1805.  His work became one of the most important references for nineteenth century spiritualists and occultists in France.

Notes

References

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External links

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1731 births
1805 deaths
French Indologists
French orientalists
Linguists from France
French Iranologists
Corresponding members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
French translators
Translators from Avestan
French male non-fiction writers
French expatriates in India
18th-century French translators Jacques Anquetil (; 8 January 1934 – 18 November 1987) was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the  Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964.

He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through the tour, a tall order with two previous winners in the field—Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes—but he did it. His victories in stage races such as the Tour were built on an exceptional ability to ride alone against the clock in individual time trial stages, which lent him the name "Monsieur Chrono".

He won eight Grand Tours in his career, which was a record when he retired and has only since been surpassed by Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.

Early life 
Anquetil was the son of a builder in Mont-Saint-Aignan, in the hills above Rouen in Normandy, north-west France. He lived there with his parents, Ernest and Marie, and his brother Philippe and then at Boisguillaume in a two-storey house, "one of those houses with exposed beams that tourists think are pretty but those who live there find uncomfortable."

In 1941, his father refused contracts to work on military installations for the German occupiers and his work dried up. Other members of the family worked in strawberry farming and Anquetil's father followed them, moving to the hamlet of Bourguet, near Quincampoix. Anquetil had his first bicycle – an Alcyon – at the age of four and twice a day rode the kilometre and a half to the village and back. There he was taught by a teacher wearing clogs in a classroom heated by a smoking stove.

Anquetil learned metal-turning at the technical college at Sotteville-lès-Rouen, a suburb of the city, where he played billiards with a friend named Maurice Dieulois. His friend joined the AC Sottevillais club with the encouragement of his father and began racing. Anquetil said: 
He was 17 and he took out his first racing licence on 2 December 1950. He stayed a member the rest of his life and his grave in the churchyard at Quincampoix has a permanent tribute from his clubmates.

Anquetil passed his qualifications in light engineering and went to work for 50 old francs a day at a factory in Sotteville. He left after 26 days following a disagreement with his boss over time off for training. The AC Sottevillais, founded in 1898, was run by a cycle-dealer, André Boucher, who had a shop in the Place du Trianon in Sotteville. The club had not just Anquetil but Claude LeBer, who became professional pursuit champion in 1955, Jean Jourden, world amateur champion in 1961, and Francis Bazire, who came second in the world amateur championship in 1963.

Boucher trained his group first from a bicycle and then by Derny. Anquetil made fast progress and won 16 times as an amateur. His first victory was the Prix Maurice Latour at Rouen on 3 May 1951. He also took the Prix de France in 1952 and the Tour de la Manche and the national road championship the same year.

The Grand Prix des Nations 
Anquetil rode in the French team in the 100 km time trial at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and won a bronze medal. Impressed by his protégé's progress, André Boucher sent an envelope of Anquetil's press cuttings to the local representative of the Perle bicycle company and asked him to send them to the firm's cycling team manager, the former Tour de France rider, Francis Pélissier.

Pélissier called Anquetil, who was surprised and flattered to hear from him, and offered him 30,000 old francs a month to ride for La Perle as an independent, or semi-professional. Anquetil accepted and immediately ordered a new car, a Renault Fregate, which he crashed twice in the first 12 months.

Pélissier wanted Anquetil for the 1953 Grand Prix des Nations, a race started by the newspaper Paris-Soir which since 1932 had risen to the status of an unofficial world time-trial championship. It was held on a 142 km loop of rolling roads through Versailles, Rambouillet, Maulette, St-Rémy-les-Chevreuse and then back to Versailles before, originally, finishing on the Buffalo track in Paris.

Anquetil was aware that one of his rivals was an Englishman named Ken Joy, who had broken records in Britain but was unknown in France. He would ride with another Englishman, Bob Maitland. The historian Richard Yates says:

Many of the 'against-the-clock' fraternity in the United Kingdom sincerely believed that the British time triallists were as good as, if not better than, their Continental counterparts and here was the chance to prove it. When the final result was known the British fans were disappointed and saw the race as a total failure for Britain as both Englishman had finished nearly 20 minutes down. To rub salt in the wounds, the event had been won by an unknown, curly-haired teenager from Normandy.

Anquetil caught Joy — the moment he realised he was going to win the race — even though Joy had started 16 minutes earlier. At 19, Anquetil had become unofficial time-trial champion of the world.

The win pleased Pélissier but did not convince him. Next year he drove his team car not behind Anquetil but his Swiss star, Hugo Koblet. Anquetil was not amused. When he beat Koblet, he sent his winner's bouquet to Pélissier's wife "in deepest sympathy".

Anquetil rode the Grand Prix des Nations nine times without being beaten.

Hour record 

On 22 September 1954, Anquetil started two years' compulsory service in the army, joining the Richepanse de Rouen barracks as a gunner of the 406th artillery regiment. The army accorded him few great favours but there was an exception:

Should he break the record, he and the army agreed, he would give half the rewards to the army and the rest to the mother of a soldier, André Dufour, who had been killed while fighting at Palestro, in Algeria. The chances of breaking it were far from guaranteed, not only because Coppi's record had already defied Gerrit Schulte and Louison Bobet but also Anquetil himself, on 23 November 1955, when he had started too fast, faded and finished 696 m short of Coppi. His second attempt also flopped. He again started too fast. After 54:36 his helpers called him to a stop after 41.326 km. His legs failed him when he got off his bike and he had to be carried to a chair in a corner of the Velodromo Vigorelli, the velodrome in Milan, Italy. The Italian crowd chanted: "Coppi! Coppi! Coppi!"

Next day he received a telegram: "Congratulations on a good performance. Sure of your success. Take your time. Captain Gueguen will arrive tomorrow with instructions. Signed: Commander Dieudonné".

At 7:30pm on 29 June 1956, riding a lighter bike made in three days to the same design as Coppi's, and using a 7m40 gear (52x15), Anquetil tried again and finally broke his hero's record, riding 46.159 km. Coppi was the first professional to give Anquetil his autograph. When the two next met, Anquetil was also a professional. He went to Italy to meet Coppi and, for reasons never explained, dressed as a simple country boy rather than in the smart clothes that he normally wore.

In 1967, 11 years later, Anquetil again broke the hour record, with 47.493 km, but the record was disallowed because he refused to take the newly introduced post-race doping test. He objected to what he saw as the indignity of having to urinate in a tent in a crowded velodrome and said he would take the test at his hotel. The international judge ruled against the idea and a scuffle ensued that involved Anquetil's manager, Raphaël Géminiani. Cycling reported:

Wonderful Jacques Anquetil has broken the world hour record as he said he would... and then ran into official trouble when he refused to take a trackside dope test demanded by the Italian authorities. An Italian Dr Giuliano Marena asked for the urine sample, but Anquetil refused and asked him to come to his hotel. Dr Marena refused and, after waiting a couple of hours at the track, left town to go home to Florence. Anquetil said at his hotel: 'I didn't and don't intend to escape the test, but it must take place under circumstances far different from those at the velodrome. I'm still here and ready to undergo the test.' While Italian officials talked of taking the matter to the UCI, Dr Tanguy of the FFC [French cycling federation] took a sample from Anquetil on his return to Rouen, pointing out afterwards that it would be valid up to 48 hours after the record attempt. But Raphaël Géminiani, his manager, had all but lost his temper with the Italian medical man and had tried to throw him out of the cabin, though Jacques had remonstrated mildly. Later he said that he understood the tests would be valid for up to 48 hours and said he was trying to locate another doctor for the test.

Tour de France 

In 1957 Anquetil rode – and won – his first Tour de France. His inclusion in the national team – the Tour was still ridden by national rather than commercial teams – was what the French broadcaster Jean-Paul Ollivier called "a forceps operation".

Louison Bobet and Raphaël Géminiani wished to rule the Tour de France and had no desire to have Anquetil. But Louison, worn out from his battle of nerves that he suffered in the Tour of Italy, where he used all his energy in defending the maglia rosa [leader's jersey] against Italian hatred [déferlante], declared, on the banks of the Adriatic; "I am not prepared, mentally, to take part in the Tour de France. I am 32 in a world of youth."

Anquetil recognised the allusion and accepted the invitation to ride. He finished nearly 15 minutes ahead of the rest, winning four stages and the team stage.

In 1959, Anquetil was whistled as he finished the Tour on the Parc des Princes because spectators calculated that he and others had contrived to let Federico Bahamontes win rather than the Frenchman Henry Anglade. The French team was unbalanced by internal rivalries. Anglade, whose bossy nature earned him the nickname Napoleon, was unusual in that he was represented by the agent Roger Piel while the others had Daniel Dousset. The two men controlled French racing. Dousset worked out that his riders had to beat Bahamontes or make sure that Anglade didn't win. Since they couldn't beat Anglade, they let Bahamontes win because Bahamontes, a poor rider on the flat and on small circuits, would be no threat to the post-Tour criterium fees that made up the bulk of riders' — and agents' — earnings.

Anquetil was jeered and showed his coldness to public reaction by buying a boat that he named "The Whistles of 59" and by pointing out that he was a professional and that his first interest was money. It was an attitude that other riders understood but made him hard for fans to love .

In 1960 Anquetil stayed away from the Tour, returning in 1961 and winning it thereafter until 1964. He won in 1962 at a speed not bettered until 1981. He was the first to win four successive times, breaking the record of three set by Philippe Thys and Louison Bobet. He was first to win five times in total, since emulated by Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

In 1963 Tour, at the top of a mountain, Anquetil faked a mechanical problem so that his team director could give him a bicycle more suitable for the descent. The plan worked and Anquetil overtook Bahamontes and won the stage, taking the lead.

His last Tour victory (in 1964) was his most famous, featuring an elbow-to-elbow duel with public favourite Raymond Poulidor on the road up the Puy de Dôme mountain on 12 July. Suffering indigestion after excesses on a rest day, Anquetil was said to have received a swallow of champagne from his team manager — a story Anquetil's wife says is untrue.

The Tour organiser, Jacques Goddet, was behind the pair as they turned off the main road and climbed through what the police estimated as half a million spectators. He recalled:

The two, at the extreme of their rivalry, climbing the road wrapped like a ribbon round the majestic volcano, terribly steep, in parallel action... I've always been convinced that in these moments that supreme player of poker, the Norman [Anquetil], used his craftiness and his fearless bluffing to win his fifth Tour. Because, to me, it was clear that Anquetil was at the very limit of his strength and that had Poulidor attacked him repeatedly and suddenly then he would have cracked... Although his advisers claim that his error in maintaining steady pressure rather than attacking was the result of using slightly too big a gear, which stopped his jumping away, I still think that it was in his head that Pou-Pou should have changed gears.

Anquetil rode on the inside by the mountain wall while Poulidor took the outer edge by the precipice. They could sometimes feel the other's gasps on their bare arms. At the end, Anquetil cracked, after a battle of wills and legs so intense that at times they banged elbows. Of Anquetil, Pierre Chany wrote: "His face, until then purple, lost all its colour; the sweat ran down in drops through the creases of his cheeks." Anquetil was only semi-conscious, he said. Anquetil's manager, Raphaël Géminiani, said:

Anquetil's head was a computer. It started working: in 500 metres, Poulidor wouldn't get his 56 seconds. I'll never forget what happened when Jacques crossed the line. Close to fainting, he collapsed on the front of my car. With barely any breath left, exhausted, but 200 per cent lucid, he asked me: 'How much?' I told him 14 seconds. 'That's one more than I need. I've got 13 in hand'.

In my opinion Poulidor was demoralised by Anquetil's resistance, his mental strength. There were three times when he could have dropped Anquetil. First, at the bottom of the climb. Then when Julio Jimenez attacked [and left the two Frenchmen, accompanied by the rival climber Federico Bahamontes]. Finally in the last kilometre. The nearer the summit came, the more Jacques was suffering. In the last few hundred metres, he was losing time. At the top of the Puy it's 13 per cent. Poulidor should have attacked: he didn't. Poulidor didn't attack in the last 500 metres – it was Jacques who got dropped, and that's not the same thing.

Poulidor gained time but Anquetil still had a 55-second lead in Paris and won his last Tour. The writer Chris Sidwells said:

The race also ended the Anquetil era in Tour history. He could not face riding it the following year, and in 1966 he retired from the Tour with bad health – once he'd made sure that Poulidor could not win either. Poulidor may not have managed to slay his dragon, in fact so bloodied was he by his battle that he never did win the Tour, but he did manage to wound his rival, and in so doing brought down the curtain on the rule of the first five-times winner – the first great super-champion of the Tour de France.

Anquetil was first to win all three Grand Tours. He twice won the Giro d'Italia (1960, 1964) and won the Vuelta a España once (1963). He also won the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International four times, in 1961, 1963, 1965 and 1966 — a record surpassed only by Eddy Merckx.

Anquetil–Poulidor: the social significance 

Anquetil unfailingly beat Raymond Poulidor in the Tour and yet Poulidor remained more popular. Divisions between their fans became marked, which two sociologists studying the impact of the Tour on French society say became emblematic of France old and new. The extent of those divisions is shown in a story, perhaps apocryphal, told by Pierre Chany, who was close to Anquetil:

The Tour de France has the major fault of dividing the country, right down to the smallest hamlet, even families, into two rival camps. I know a man who grabbed his wife and held her on the grill of a heated stove, seated and with her skirts held up, for favouring Jacques Anquetil when he preferred Raymond Poulidor. The following year, the woman became a Poulidor-iste. But it was too late. The husband had switched his allegiance to Gimondi. The last I heard they were digging in their heels and the neighbours were complaining.

Jean-Luc Boeuf and Yves Léonard, in their study, wrote:

Those who recognised themselves in Jacques Anquetil liked his priority of style and elegance in the way he rode. Behind this fluidity and the appearance of ease was the image of France winning and those who took risks identified with him. Humble people saw themselves in Raymond Poulidor, whose face – lined with effort – represented the life they led on land they worked without rest or respite. His declarations, full of good sense, delighted the crowds: a race, even a difficult one, lasts less time than a day bringing in the harvest. A big part of the public therefore finished by identifying with the one who symbolised bad luck and the eternal position of runner-up, an image that was far from true for Poulidor, whose record was particularly rich. Even today, the expression of the eternal second and of a Poulidor Complex is associated with a hard life, as an article by Jacques Marseille showed in Le Figaro when it was headlined "This country is suffering from a Poulidor Complex".Boeuf, Jean Luc and Léonard Yves (2003), La République du Tour de France, Seuil, France.

Dauphiné and Bordeaux–Paris double 
In 1965, Anquetil won the eight-day Alpine Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré stage race at 3pm, sat through two hours of interviews and receptions, took a chartered flight in a French Mirage fighter plane (allegedly organised by President Charles de Gaulle, a big admirer of his) to Bordeaux at 6.30pm and won the world's longest single-day classic, Bordeaux–Paris, the following day. The race started at night and continued from after dawn behind derny motorcycle pacers.

Anquetil was upset, said Géminiani, that Poulidor was always more warmly regarded even though he had never won the Tour. In 1965, when Poulidor was perceived to have received more credit for dropping Anquetil the previous year on the Puy-de-Dôme than Anquetil had for winning the whole Tour, Géminiani persuaded him to ride the Dauphiné Libéré and, next day, Bordeaux–Paris. That, he said, would end any argument over who was the greater.

Anquetil won the Dauphiné, despite bad weather which he disliked, at 3pm. After two hours of interviews and receptions he flew from Nîmes to Bordeaux. At midnight, he ate his pre-race meal and went to the start in the city's northern suburbs.

He could eat little during the night because of stomach cramp and was on the verge of retiring. Géminiani swore and called him "a great poof" to offend his pride and keep him riding. Anquetil felt better as morning came and the riders dropped in behind the derny pacing motorcycles that were a feature of the race. He responded to an attack by Tom Simpson, followed by his own team-mate Jean Stablinski. Anquetil and Stablinski attacked Simpson alternately, forcing Simpson to exhaust himself, and Anquetil won at the Parc des Princes. Stablinski finished 57 seconds later just ahead of Simpson.

The historian Dick Yates said:
It had been one of the hardest and closest derny-paced races in history but much more than that this double of Anquetil was one of the greatest exploits ever seen in cycling. At the Parc des Princes, Anquetil received the biggest ovation of his career, certainly much bigger than after any of his wins in the Tour. The race record was broken, Jacques was mobbed by reporters and photographers but he was tired and really had to get some rest. Few people realised it at the time but he had to make the long journey to Maubeuge in north-eastern France where the following day he was riding a criterium!

There are undenied rumours that the jet laid on to get Anquetil to Bordeaux was provided through state funds on the orders of President Charles de Gaulle. Géminiani mentions the belief in his biography, without denying it, saying the truth will come out when state records are opened.

Trofeo Baracchi 
Anquetil's most humiliating race was the Trofeo Baracchi in Italy in 1962, when he had to be pushed by his partner, Rudi Altig, and was so exhausted that he hit a pillar before reaching the track on which the race finished.

The Trofeo Baracchi was a 111 km race for two-man teams. Anquetil, the world's best time-triallist, and Altig, a powerful rider with a strong sprint, were favourites. But things soon went wrong. The writer René de Latour wrote:

I got my stopwatch going again to check the length of each man's turn at the front. Generally in a race of the Baracchi type, the changes are very rapid, with stints of no more than 300 yards. Altig was at the front when I started the check — and he was still there a minute later. Something must be wrong. Altig wasn't even swinging aside to invite Anquetil through... Suddenly, on a flat road, Anquetil lost contact and a gap of three lengths appeared between the two partners. There followed one of the most sensational things I have ever seen in any form of cycle racing during my 35 years' association with the sport — something which I consider as great a physical performance as a world hour record or a classic road race win. Altig was riding at 30mph at the front — and had been doing so for 15 minutes. When Anquetil lost contact, he had to ease the pace, wait for his partner to go by, push him powerfully in the back, sprint to the front again after losing 10 yards in the process, and again settle down to a 30mph stint at the front. Altig did this not just once but dozens of times.

The pair reached the track on which the race finished. The timekeeper was at the entrance to the stadium, so Anquetil finished. But instead of turning on to the velodrome, he rode straight on and hit a pole. He was helped away with staring eyes and with blood streaming from a cut to his head. The pairing nevertheless won by nine seconds.

Other races 
Anquetil was not as successful in the classic single-day races but towards the end of his career he won:
 Gent–Wevelgem (1964)
 Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1966)

Anquetil finished in the top 10 in the world championship on six occasions, but second place in 1966 was the nearest he came to the rainbow jersey.

In the other grand tours he also had remarkable success. He only entered the Vuelta a España twice and won it in 1963, which gave him the Vuelta-Tour double when he won the Tour a few months later. Then he placed on the podium six times in the Giro d'Italia, including victories in 1960 and 1964 and in 1964 he became only the second rider, after Fausto Coppi, to achieve the Giro-Tour double.

Riding style 
Anquetil was a smooth rider, a beautiful pedalling machine according to the American journalist Owen Mulholland:

The sight of Jacques Anquetil on a bicycle gives credence to an idea we Americans find unpalatable, that of a natural aristocracy. From the first day he seriously straddled a top tube, "Anq" had a sense or perfection most riders spend a lifetime searching for. Between 1950, when he rode his first race, and nineteen years later, when he retired, Anquetil had countless frames underneath him, yet that indefinable poise was always there.

The look was that of a greyhound. His arms and legs were extended more than was customary in his era of pounded post World War II roads. And the toes pointed down. Just a few years before, riders had prided their ankling motion, but Jacques was the first of the big gear school. His smooth power dictated his entire approach to the sport. Hands resting serenely on his thin Mafac brake levers, the sensation from Quincampoix, Normandy, appeared to cruise while others wriggled in desperate attempts to keep up.

Physical attributes

Raphaël Géminiani 
Raphaël Géminiani had been Anquetil's rival as a rider; he became his strongest asset as his manager. Dick Yates wrote:

Raphaël embarked on a policy of trying to convince Jacques of the need to win more races as he certainly had the ability to do so... Anquetil had a very strong personality so he was not easily dominated but Géminiani had an even stronger one. He never gave up the task of trying to convince Jacques of the need for more panache, how a man of his talent should have an even bigger list of important wins.

As a partnership they won four Tours de France, two Giro d'Italia, the Dauphiné-Libéré and then next day, Bordeaux–Paris. Géminiani said of him:
Today, everybody pays him homage. I nearly blow my top. I can still hear the way he was whistled when he rode. I think of the organisers of the Tour, who shortened the time trial to make him lose. His home town of Rouen organises commemorations but, me, I haven't forgotten that it was in Antwerp that he made his farewell appearance. More than once, I saw him crying in his hotel room after suffering the spitting and insults of spectators. People said he was cold, a calculator, a dilettante. The truth is that Jacques was a monster of courage. In the mountains, he suffered as though he was damned. He wasn't a climber. But with bluffing, with guts, he tore them to shreds (il les a tous couillonnés).

Honours 
Anquetil was named France's champion of champions by L'Équipe in 1963. He was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite in 1965 (cross of merit) and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur on 5 October 1966.

Personal life 
Anquetil was fascinated by astronomy and was delighted to meet Yuri Gagarin. The rational side of his character contrasted with his superstition. In the 1964 Tour de France, a fortune-teller called Belline predicted in France-Soir that Anquetil would die on or around the 13th day of the race. His wife Janine, knowing Anquetil's superstition, hid the paper but Anquetil found out, not least because he was sent clippings with unsigned letters.

Jean-Paul Brouchon, leading cycling commentator at the news radio station France-Info, said of the day the forecast was supposed to come true:

During those dark hours, Anquetil refused to leave his room [the race was having a rest day]. Finally he agreed to go for a short car ride with Raphaël Géminiani [his team manager] and Janine, to join a party organised by Radio Andorra.

A mixture of Anquetil's fear for the future and his enjoyment of living in the present led to newspaper pictures of the large meal and the wine that he drank that day. Next morning, still worried about the prediction and laden down by partying, he was dropped on the first hairpins of the Port d'Envalira.

He was famous for preparing for races by staying up all night drinking and playing cards, although the story seems to have increased with the telling. Nevertheless, his teammate, the British rider Vin Denson, has written in Cycling of exuberant parties during races. Denson has written, too, of Anquetil's scrupulous business arrangements with riders and others:

I always considered Jacques to be the very best professional", he said. "I admired him for the gentlemanly manner and charm with riders, the public and media. A more honest and sincere businessman and friend you would not find in any walk of life. His word was his all and was of great importance to him. He was a truly great man and champion who will be greatly missed and impossible to replace.

The British journalist Alan Gayfer, former editor of Cycling said:

Jacques was a real Norman with the nuances of speech that make the Normans famous, they almost say Yes to mean No, and vice versa. I asked him when he was in London if Poulidor, who was often second to Jacques, could ever win the Tour de France: "Yes", he said, "but only if I am riding, and I would always finish ahead of him.

But perhaps my finest memory of this lordly Frenchman came in 1966 at the Nürburgring, where a German official had been particularly rude to myself and other English journalists about going through one gate (the exit) to the press room instead of another 100 yards away (the entrance). We sat in delight, Sid Saltmarsh, Bill Long and me, not 20 yards from that 'Exit' gate, and watched as Jacques pulled up in his Ford Mustang, and proceeded to unload his bike from the back of the car. Yes, he did, not leaving it to mechanics. German official railed and cried, but all in vain. The seigniorial aspect came out oh so clearly, and Jacques did not merely ignore him, it was palpably as if the German did not exist at all. He left the car there, walked over to the riders' quarters pushing the gate open and the German with it. It has probably the finest comeuppance I shall ever see, and for that I shall remember Jacques for a long time.

Dick Yates said:
"He had a deep love of the land and was at his happiest when driving a tractor. They [his wife and he] both acquired a taste for bridge parties which often continued late into the night. That Anquetil was a highly intelligent man there can be no doubt and he was the nearest thing to a true intellectual that cycling has ever produced."

Anquetil married Janine Boeda on 22 December 1958. She had been married to Anquetil's doctor. The doctor, seeing a rival, sent his wife to live with friends. Anquetil went to see her, disguised as a plumber, and took her to Paris to buy clothes in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

Their marriage produced no children. Janine had two children, Alain and Annie, from her previous marriage. Janine had two failed pregnancies and Anquetil grew upset in 1970 that he was not a father. The couple considered a surrogate mother before Janine thought of her daughter, Annie. Janine said: "We didn't use the parental authority that we could have had over her. It was a request that I addressed to her. Gently. Annie always had the choice of refusing." Annie confirmed her mother's recollection. She said:

Anquetil, his wife and his wife's daughter began a ménage à trois Annie said:

Annie said she should have left the house after her daughter, Sophie, was born (in 2004, Sophie Anquetil published the book Pour l'amour de Jacques in which she confirmed what had been rumoured but what Anquetil had always tried to hide: that she was Anquetil's daughter). Instead, she grew jealous of her own mother and demanded she leave instead. When Janine refused, Annie left. To fill the gap, Janine invited her son, Alain, and his wife, Dominique, to return to live there. Anquetil began an affair with Dominique, to make Annie jealous. Dominique had Anquetil's child but Annie still refused to return. Dominique still lives in the house, Les Elfes, where she organises conferences. Janine and Anquetil divorced. Sophie moved in with Janine, although she lives now in Calenzana, near Calvi. Both Janine and Dominique wrote their life story: neither mentioned the link between Sophie and Anquetil.

Doping 
Anquetil never hid that he took drugs and in a debate with a government minister on French television said only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux–Paris on just water. He and other cyclists had to ride through "the cold, through heatwaves, in the rain and in the mountains", and they had the right to treat themselves as they wished, he said, before adding: "Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope." There was implied acceptance of doping right to the top of the state: Charles de Gaulle said: "Doping? What doping? Did he or did he not make them play the Marseillaise [the national anthem] abroad?"

Anquetil won Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1966.  An official named Collard told him there would be a drugs test once he had got changed. "Too late", Anquetil said. "If you can collect it from the soapy water there, go ahead. I'm a human being, not a fountain." Collard said he would return half an hour later; Anquetil said he would have left for a dinner appointment 140 km away. Two days later the Belgian cycling federation disqualified Anquetil and fined him. Anquetil responded by calling urine tests "a threat to individual liberty" and engaged a lawyer. The case was never heard, the Belgians backed down and Anquetil became the winner.

Anquetil argued that professional riders were workers and had the same right to treat their pains, as say, a geography teacher. But the argument found less support as more riders were reported to have died or suffered health problems through drug-related incidents, including the death of Tom Simpson, in the 1967 Tour de France.

However, there was great support in the cyclist community for Anquetil's argument that, if there were to be rules and tests, the tests should be carried out consistently and with dignity. He said it was professional dignity, the right of a champion not to be ridiculed in front of his public, that led to his refusal to take a test in the centre of the Vigorelli track after breaking the world hour record.

The unrecognised time that Anquetil set that day was nevertheless broken by the Belgian rider Ferdinand Bracke. Anquetil was hurt that the French government had never sent him a telegram of congratulations but sent one to Bracke, who was not French. It was a measure of the unacceptability of Anquetil's arguments, as was the way he was quietly dropped from future French teams.

Anquetil and Britain 
British fans voted Anquetil the BBC's international personality of 1964. He appeared with Tom Simpson from a studio in Paris. The Franco-American journalist René de Latour wrote:

In the studio we watched the proceedings in London, and while I cannot say Anquetil was keenly interested in the cricketing part, he was impressed with the general presentation which, however (like the stages of the 1964 Tour) he found a bit long. He was interested, though, to see Beryl Burton, and his old acquaintance Reg Harris pulling at his pipe in the invited audience.

A few days later, Anquetil was named French sportsman of the year.

Anquetil was fascinated by British enthusiasm for time-trialling and in 1961 presented prizes at the Road Time Trials Council evening at the Royal Albert Hall to honour Beryl Burton and Brian Kirby. The pair had won the women's and men's British Best All-Rounder competitions (BBAR) for, respectively, the highest average speed in a season over 25, 50 and 100 miles (women) and 50 and  and 12 hours (men).

Alan Gayfer, the editor of Cycling at the time of Anquetil's death, wrote in appreciation:
It is strange to look back and see how this frail-looking young man burst on the scene in 1953. We had sent Ken Joy, the former BBAR, to challenge for the Grand Prix des Nations, then 140 kilometres long, and dragging through the hills of the Chevreuse valley. All over Paris they talked about this burly Englishman who had ridden 160 km in 4 hours and 6 minutes: and when it came to it, he was hammered by a 19-year-old, but a teenager with a will of iron that was to prove inflexible for the next 19 years.

In 1964 Anquetil discussed riding a British 25 mile (40 km) race. Gayfer and Tom Simpson explained that the course would be flat and asked Anquetil how long the distance would take him. Anquetil, who could predict his time-trial times accurately, said 46 minutes. That was eight minutes faster than the British record standing to Bas Breedon at 54:23. It took until 1993 for the record to fall below Anquetil's estimation.

Anquetil asked £1,000 to compete and a London timber merchant called Vic Jenner said he would put up the money. Jenner had often put money into the sport. He died shortly afterwards, however, and the ride never happened.

Anquetil took part, with Simpson, in an afternoon of exhibition racing at the Herne Hill track in South London, on 13 June 1964 – three weeks before starting in the 1964 Tour de France.

Anquetil rode on the Isle of Man in 1959, 1962 and in 1965, when he won the Manx Premier by beating Eddy Merckx into second place.

Retirement and death 

Anquetil rode his last race not in France, of which he still despaired for its preferring Poulidor, but on 27 December 1969 on the track at Antwerp. It happened, wrote L'Équipe "to the great indifference of the media." He retired to a farm at Le Domaine des Elfes, La Neuville-Chant-d'Oisel, 17 km from Rouen. The château, formerly owned by Guy de Maupassant, was surrounded by 170 hectares.

Anquetil was a correspondent for L'Équipe, consultant for Europe 1 and then on Antenne 2, a race director for Paris–Nice and the Tour Méditerranéen and in Canada, directeur sportif of French teams at world championships, and a member of the managing committee of the Fédération Française de Cyclisme. His radio analyses were sharp and he gained notoriety in Belgium for telling Luis Ocaña, the Spanish rider living in France, how to beat Eddy Merckx.

He rode his bike only three times in retirement, saying he had already ridden enough. He rode the Grand Prix des Gentlemen in Nice, a race in which old riders were paired with current competitors; he went out for an afternoon with friends in Normandy; and he joined his daughter for a bike ride on her birthday. Other than that, he did not ride his bike after 1969.

On 18 November 1987, Jacques Anquetil died of stomach cancer in his sleep at 6am at the St-Hilaire Clinic in Rouen. He had been there since 10 October. The clinic said: "His state of health had visibly deteriorated over the last hours and he died in his sleep after showing great courage throughout his illness." Anquetil is buried beside the church in Quincampoix, north of Rouen, where a large black monument by the traffic lights lists his achievements. There is a further monument at the Piste Municipale in Paris, where the centre is named after him.

The Jacques Anquetil sports stadium at Quincampoix was dedicated in 1983. There are moves to open a museum in his memory.

The historian Richard Yates wrote:

He finally came to be respected as one of the most intelligent cyclists ever, but when he died in 1987 he was still to a large extent one of cycling's greatest enigmas. Raphaël Géminiani knew him better than anyone and he was such a perceptive man that his comments are particularly interesting. He said that Jacques was one of the most gifted riders of all time but this was hardly reflected by his record. He had won eight major Tours without once crossing the top of a mountain in the lead. His lack of offensive spirit made Géminiani mad with rage on countless occasions but he was always so incredibly stylish, absolute perfection.

His inherent shyness can never fully explain his apparent cold indifference. His roots in the Normandy countryside may explain his love of the land but could not excuse his inability to even make a generous gesture. The hard life that his father had experienced could never pardon the economy of effort with which Jacques was obsessed. In the second half of his career he never made an effort which did not pay off 100 per cent. He reduced a race to a few simple calculations, a few danger men and a few places where it was necessary to make an effort. He spent most of the time at the back of the bunch and did not even know the name of most of the riders.

The Tour visited Rouen on the 10th anniversary of Anquetil's death. There to remember his first victory in the race were his team-mates, Gilbert Bauvin, Louis Bergard, Albert Bouvet, André Darrigade, Jean Forestier, André Mahé, René Privat and Jean Stablinski. There, too, was the team car from Anquetil's first Tour, driven by the man behind the wheel that year, William Odin.

Popular culture 
Anquetil made an appearance in cartoon form in the animated movie The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville) (Belleville Rendez-vous in the British release).

The French film Amélie may contain an indirect reference to Anquetil.  A long-lost box of souvenirs found by Amélie reminds an ageing estranged father of the time he cheered Federico Bahamontes' win of the 1959 Tour (Anquetil, a long-time rival of Bahamontes, came third). Amélie is later romantically pursued by Nino Quincampoix, who shares a rare surname with the village where Anquetil is buried.

Career achievements

Major results

Source:

1952
 3rd  Team road race, Olympic Games
 8th Amateur road race, UCI Road World Championships
1953
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Antonin Rolland)
1954
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 2nd Critérium des As
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Louison Bobet)
 5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 7th Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 5
 9th Overall Critérium National de la Route
 10th Overall Tour de l'Ouest
1955
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with André Darrigade)
 6th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 9th Overall Tour du Sud-Est
1st Stage 6
1956
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 2nd  Individual pursuit, UCI Track World Championships
 8th Overall Critérium National de la Route
 9th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1957
 1st  Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 3a (TTT), 3b, 9, 15b (ITT) & 20 (ITT)
 1st  Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 5a (ITT)
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Six Days of Paris (with André Darrigade and Ferdinando Terruzzi)
 4th Trofeo Baracchi (with André Darrigade)
 6th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 7th Overall Critérium National de la Route
1958
 1st  Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with André Darrigade)
 10th Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 5a
 10th Milan–San Remo
1959
 1st  Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
 1st Critérium des As
 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stages 2 (ITT) & 19 (ITT)
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 3rd Overall Tour de France
 3rd Gent–Wevelgem
 3rd Trofeo Baracchi (with André Darrigade)
 5th Overall Critérium National de la Route
 9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1960
 1st  Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stage 9b (ITT) & 14 (ITT)
 1st Critérium des As
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 3rd Overall Critérium National de la Route
 8th Paris–Roubaix
 8th Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
 9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1961
 1st  Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 1b (ITT) & 19 (ITT)
 1st  Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6a (ITT)
 1st  Overall Critérium National de la Route
 1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stage 9 (ITT)
 3rd Mont Faron hill climb
 4th Critérium des As
 6th La Flèche Wallonne
 10th Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 2b (ITT)
1962
 1st  Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 8b (ITT) & 20 (ITT)
 1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Rudi Altig)
 9th Critérium des As
1963
 1st  Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 6b (ITT), 10, 17 & 19 (ITT)
 1st  Overall Vuelta a España
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
 1st  Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6a (ITT)
 1st  Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 6a (ITT)
 1st  Overall Critérium National de la Route
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
 1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
 1st Critérium des As
 1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Raymond Poulidor)
1964
 1st  Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 9, 10b (ITT), 17 (ITT) & 22b (ITT)
 1st  Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stage 5 (ITT)
 1st Gent–Wevelgem
 1st Stage 1 Critérium National de la Route
 3rd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
 3rd Critérium des As
 6th Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
 7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1965
 1st  Overall Paris–Nice
 1st Bordeaux–Paris
 1st  Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stages 3, 5 & 7b (ITT)
 1st  Overall Critérium National de la Route
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
 1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
 1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Jean Stablinski)
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 1st Grand Prix de Lugano
 1st Critérium des As
 1st Mont Faron hill climb
 4th Overall Giro di Sardegna
 7th Trofeo Laigueglia
 8th Giro di Lombardia
1966
 1st  Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 8
 1st  Overall Giro di Sardegna
 1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 1st Grand Prix des Nations
 2nd  Road race, UCI Road World Championships
 2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 6b
 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia
 3rd Grand Prix de Lugano
 4th Giro di Lombardia
1967
 1st  Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
 1st  Overall Critérium National de la Route
 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Bernard Guyot)
 2nd Critérium des As
 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia
 7th Overall Giro di Sardegna
1968
 1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Felice Gimondi)
 4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 5th Critérium des As
 10th Overall Paris–Nice
1969
 1st  Overall Tour of the Basque Country
 3rd Overall Paris–Nice
 4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

Grand Tour results timeline

World records

Awards 
 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year: 1963

See also 
 List of doping cases in cycling

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links 

 
 

1934 births
1987 deaths
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Cyclists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Deaths from cancer in France
Deaths from stomach cancer
Doping cases in cycling
French Giro d'Italia stage winners
French male cyclists
French Tour de France stage winners
French Vuelta a España stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Olympic bronze medalists for France
Olympic cyclists of France
Olympic medalists in cycling
People from Mont-Saint-Aignan
People from Normandy
Tour de France winners
Vuelta a España winners
Sportspeople from Seine-Maritime
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners