Daily Cycling Facts 19.11.11

Richard Virenque
Morocco-born French rider Richard Virenque, winner of a record seven King of the Mountains classifications in the Tour de France - an achievement that would be as impressive as it first sounds had at least some of these wins not been attributable to his EPO use - was born today in 1969 in Casablanca.

Virenque claims to have had no interest in cycling during childhood but was bitten by the bug when his brother persuaded him to accompany him to a race. Their grandfather was a cyclist and encouraged the young Richard to join a local club, where he began winning races as soon as he had his racing licence. His skill as a climber - spectacular even without EPO - was immediately evident and, when he joined the Army to complete his National Service, he was attached to a battalion that served as a home for talented sportsmen. With his Service over, he would soon become a professional with RMO in 1991 and then, the next year, rode his first Tour as a substitute for Jean-Philippe Dojwa and says that he immediately began dreaming of becoming King of the Mountains. He would wear the yellow jersey for the first time that same year.

In 1998, as all cycling fans know, Willy Voet was apprehended by customs officials and found to be in possession of a vast haul of doping product, kick-starting the furore that had been waiting to happen for many years and which, due to the team for which Voet worked, became known as the Festina Affair. The team's directeur sportif, Bruno Roussel, claimed during the shameful "it's not my fault, they made me do it" rows that followed that when Virenque heard that Voet had been busted, his first reaction was to say: "My stuff! What am I going to do now?"

A number of Festina riders admitted to having used drugs, but Virenque continued to plead not guilty and escaped without the six-month ban that they received. He rode in the 1999 Giro d'Italia, but Tour organiser Jean-Marie Leblanc tried to prevent him from taking part in the Tour that year after his name began showing up in the investigation into Bernard Sainz, the shady Dr. Mabuse who would eventually be jailed for working as a doctor despite having no medial training. However, the rider had not yet been found guilty of anything and under the far less strict rules of the time, the UCI decreed that he would ride. He came 8th overall. That same year, he wrote a book and gave it the name Ma Vérité, "My Truth," and included within it a number of directions in which he said the Tour, UCI and other organisations should be taking in their efforts to stamp out doping. It is, quite frankly, virtually unreadable, valuable only in that now we know what we know about Virenque, it provides an insight into his rather disagreeable and dislikable character (meanwhile, some readers might find it useful to read before Voet's Breaking The Chain as, in comparison, Voet writes like a Classical poet).

In 2000, when the investigation led to trial, Virenque at first continued to protest his innocence and performed a cringe-making wounded angel routine before finally breaking down and confessing, but attempted to claim that he had been doped by others without his knowledge. Voet, meanwhile, who by this time had decided that the best course of action was to admit everything, said that the rider had not only doped through his own free will but had been involved in drugs trafficking. He was handed a nine month suspension, which was widely regarded as too lenient and resulted in many calls for an increase to a year (the maximum for a first offence, but it was eventually reduced at an independent tribunal to six and a half months. He returned to cycling once the ban was spent, but found himself persona non grata and experienced difficulty in finding a new contract - Cofidis apparently told him they might be interested, but would not take him for at least a year until the flack had died down. He was eventually taken on by Domo-Farm Frites, who had been supplied with extra financial assistance by Eddy Merckx after their sponsors refused to provide the money needed to take him on. He immediately proved himself by winning Paris-Tours; however, as Paris-Tours is a race for sprinters rather than climbers, this led many to wonder if his climbing abilities had always come from a syringe. Then.  2003, he moved on to Quick Step and won his sixth King of the Mountains. He won his seventh, a record, the next year.

The saddest thing about Virenque is the large amount of evidence, obvious from his early and post-Festina success, that he was a great rider even without doping and had he relied on honest hard work rather than drugs, he still would have enjoyed a remarkable career, yet his greed meant that being a great was not enough; only domination would do - the doping culture in cycling during the 1990s provided him with an easy route. However, he has found a sort of immortality that may leave his name remembered long after his deeds have been forgotten - "dining with Virenque" has, like "having a magic suitcase," become cycling slang for doping.

Marijn de Vries
(image: Pelfort.eu)

Marijn de Vries was a professional journalist of some note who, at the age of 30, decided to test herself by seeing how far she could get in the world of professional cycling. The answer, it turned out, was "to the top." Having revealed herself as an exceptionally strong rider right from the start, she won her first professional race in 2010 and has continued adding respectable results. She was born on this day in 1978 in Sleen, Netherlands.

Happy birthday to Jessica Varnish, the English track cyclist and winner of a gold medal at the European Track Championships in Appeldoorn this year. She was born in 1990 in Bromsgrove.

Happy birthday also to Daniel Kreutzfeldt, the Danish track cyclist who was born today in 1987 in Roskilde.

James Lewis Perry, the South African rider who found fame with the defunct British team Barloworld for the 2003/4 season, then left and rejoined them for their final 2006/7 season, was born on this day in Cape Town, 1979.

Whittingham's 2003 Hour Record
On this day in 2003, Sam Whittingham set a new IHPVA/WHPVA (recumbent and faired bikes) Hour Record at 83.71km in Uvalde, Texas. At the time of writing, he has broken his own record three times (and the current record - held by Francesco Russo - stands at 91.562km).

Happy birthday Jess Varnish, 21 today
(image credit: Nicola CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Other births: Philipp Wasleben (Netherlands, 1987); Alice Maria Arzuffi (1994); Maris Bogdanovics (1991); Jarlinson Pantano Gomez (1988); Lijun Bai (1988); Eric Bennett (1986); Stuart Shaw (1977); Mosquera Miguez (36); Jorge Contreras Vargas (1983); Francesco Reda (1982); Nikolay Kazakbaev (1982); Gianni Vermeersch (1992); Vincenzo Ianniello (1986); Itmar Esteban Herriaz (1983); James Lewis Perry (1979); Marijn De Vries (1978); Genki Yamamoto (1991); Prajak Mahawong (1981); Svitlana Galyuk (1987); Davide Mucelli (1986); Cinthya Coto (37); Andrzej Kaiser (38); Gerda Fokker (50).

Daily Cycling Facts 18.11.11

Jacques Anquetil, 1934-1987

Jacques Anquetil
Black arm bands on for today, folks - it's the anniversary of the death of Mr. Chrono, the great Jacques Anquetil. Anquetil was the first cyclist to achieve five overall victories in the Tour de France, including his incredible win in 1961 when he wore the maillot jaune in every stage of the race. He also won the Giro d'Italia twice, the Vuelta a Espana once, the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré twice, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Bordeaux–Paris once, Paris-Nice five times and the Grand Prix des Nations nine times, among many other victories. Bernard Hinault, who detests being compared to the cycling giants that came before him, says that being compared to Anquetil "is an honour." He was 53 when he died of stomach cancer in 1987.

Henri Pépin

Born today in 1864, Henri Pépin was an independent with the means to ride the Tour de France simply for the experience of doing so - in the days when other independents (and sometimes, professionals) scraped by on little and lodged wherever they could find and afford, Pépin hired a pair of riders named Henri Gauban and Jean Dargassies to support him (and who, as a result, are the first riders to have ridden a Tour purely to support another rider rather than to attempt a win for themselves - the first domestiques) as he rode at his own pace, staying at the finest hotels each night and dining at the best restaurants in three Tours. In 1907, he was given the race number 59 (in a field of 112) but didn't race by any definition of the word - in those days, the winner was decided by the amount of points gathered rather than by shortest elapsed time and so Pépin was able to treat each day as nothing more than a leisurely jaunt about the countryide with no fear of being kicked out due to time limits. In fact, they finished Stage 2 a whole twelve hours and twenty minutes after winner Emile Georget, the more serious riders having set off at 5.30am while Pépin was busying himself in what is delicately referred to as "conversation with a lady."

A little surprisingly, the crowd didn't assume Pépin was nothing but a useless, spoiled playboy and he soon earned the affectionate nickname Count or Baron Henri. Their good nature, however, was deserved: one day, Pépin and his proto-domestiques came across another rider named Jean-Marie Teychenne who had fallen into a ditch and was too hungry to pull himself out and continue. Teychenne insisted that for him the race was over; he was content to be left there until the broom wagon came for him.

"Nonsense!" Pépin told him, instructing Gauban and Dargassies to pull the man out of the ditch. "We are but three but we live well and we shall finish this race. We may not win, but we shall see France!" The three were now four, with Pépin merrily taking Teychenne along for the ride and paying for him also to enjoy the highlife.

In Stage 5, Pépin decided he'd had enough of the game and paid his assistants a sum equal to the prize awarded to the race winner, then caught a train home. Dargassies - who, it appears, knew Pépin from the 1905 Tour which they had both ridden - went with him while Gauban elected to continue with the race and did rather well for a while, narrowing the enormous gap that had opened up between himself when he was with Pépin and the race leader to just 36 minutes. He was then beset by misfortune and abandoned during Stage 11. He had entered every Tour since it began, but this was his last. Dargassies also never entered again, but Pépin returned in 1914, the year that he died of what was then termed "athleticism" - believed by doctors today to have been a coronary caused by the enlarged heart frequently found in cyclists.

Bobby Julich

Bobby Julich, born on this day 1971 in the Texan town of Corpus Christi, was one of those riders who probably could have achieved Tour greatness - as is suggested by his 3rd place finish in 1998, the year he also won the Critérium International - but was instead content to ride as a domestique supporting others; perhaps due to an unwillingness to push himself as hard as he otherwise might due to a heart condition diagnosed shortly after his professional career got under way with Motorola where he rode alongside fellow  young Americans George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong.When Motorola pulled out of cycling at the end of the 1996 season, he went with Armstrong to Cofidis, remaining with them through 1998 (the year of the Festina Affair) when Armstrong was out of contention due to cancer. He never quite achieved the same results as that year, but enjoyed results that by anyone's standards were successful and won a time trial bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics. Tyler Hamilton, who won the race, confessed in 2011 to having doped at the event, making his victory void; which means that Julich should now be listed as having taken second place. At the time of writing, this change has not yet been made.

On this day in 1912, Ernest Alfred Johnson was born in Putney, London. Johnson won bronze medals for the team pursuit events at the Olympics in 1932 and 1936. He died in 1997, nine days after his 85th birthday.

On this day in 1933 Marcel Berthet of France set a new hour record at 49.99km - the current Official (bikes deemed not significantly different to that ridden by Eddy Merckx when he set his own record many years later), Best Human Effort and IHPVA/WHPVA categories had not yet been established; Berthet's record was, therefore, the official world record at the time though it's now classed as an IHPVA/WHPVA record. It was not his first - he'd also set an hour record in 1907 and two in 1913.

On this day in 1941, The Pedal Club was formed. Originally a cyclist's luncheon club (a group of people who meet weekly or monthly to have lunch and discuss shared interests, something that seems to be dying out), it grew to become a powerful organisation frequently attended by the most important and illustrious names in the sport. It still meets monthly to this day, with membership and guest lists described as a "Who's Who" of British cycling.

Other cyclists born on this day: Sajjad Zangi Abadi (Iran, 1992); Michael Kurth (Germany, 1986); Eiichi Hirai (Japan, 1990); Petra Bernhard (Austria, 1980); Annet Eendhuizen (Netherlands, 1974); Joachim Parbo (Denmark, 1974); Adam Semple (Australia, 1889); Bob Martens (Netherlands, 1988); Twin brothers Anton and Dmitri Samokhvalov (Russia, 1986); Niklas Arndt (Germany, 1991); Marielle Kerste (Netherlands, 1986)

He's not a GC contender, he's a very naughty boy!

Is Andy Schleck turning into a badass hooligan with the kind of attitude his dad Johny always thought he'd need if he was ever going to win a Tour de France?

It's possible - it turns out that he's not only quick when riding his bike up a mountain, he's also a mean boy racer: he was clocked doing 101kph (nearly 63mph) recently in his home nation Luxembourg, and since the speed limit on the open road is 90kph that's very naughty. As a result Andy, who has had us all convinced that he's one of the nicest boys in cycling for the last few years, is being fined 350 euros and may have his driving licence suspended for a month.

The yobbo!

Meanwhile, local resident Lottie Faber says this isn't the first time the crazed tearaway cyclist has got himself in trouble.

"Not two weeks ago he was parked outside McDonalds with his mates," she told us after we'd promised there was a bottle of whisky for her if she talked to us. "They were blaring out Perry Como and talking about ponies and butterflies. I ignored it that time, but they kept it up until nearly 19:30 in the evening. Next day they were back again, so this time when it got round to 18:00 I rang his mum. I don't know what she said to him, but he hasn't been back since."

Daily Cycling Facts 17.11.11

John Wilson was born on this day in 1876. The Scottish cyclist shared fourth place in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics Team Time Trial (the Scottish team competed separately from the English team) and came 16th in the Individual Team Trial the same year - the first time that cycling time trials had featured in the Games. He died  on November the 24th, 1957.

The "grudge matches" against
Hansen (see text) were not the
only double act in Michard's
career - due to his tiny stature,
he was frequently pit against
"Big" Piet Moeskops in
crowd-pleasing special races

Lucien Michard was born today in Épinay-sur-Seine in 1903. His early success included being crowned National Sprint Champion when he was 19 and a gold at the 1924 Olympics; his fame spreading as he won more races, competing in many events at the Vélodrome d'Hiver which belonged to Jacques Goddet, the man who would take over the directorship of the Tour de France when Henri Desgrange became too ill to continue. Michard won the World Sprint Championship five times but only held the title four times - in 1931, he beat Danish rider Willy Falk Hansen by half a metre but the judge was apparently unable to see finish clearly and declared Hansen the winner as he'd been leading as they approached the line, even though the pair had set off on a victory lap together and Hansen had raised Michard's hand. The judge quickly realised he'd been mistaken, but the rules were designed to discourage riders from launching appeals and, as a result, the decision was final and there was no means by which it could be reversed. It seems, however, that Michard felt no enmity towards Hansen and the pair actually benefited from the mistake: Hansen kept the World Champion rainbow jersey while Michard adopted an unofficial jersey with the globe depicted on it and they raced one another in numerous "grudge matches" around Europe, doubtless pulling in a considerable amount of money for doing so. In later life, Michard became a thorn in the side of organisers when he began a campaign demanding higher wages for riders. Sports newspapers, some of which were owned or edited by race promoters, began a campaign against him and forced him into retirement, but not before he'd won more National Championships in 1933, 1934 and 1935. He then began selling bikes branded under his name and, by 1939, had joined forces with Hutchinson tyre manufacturer to sponsor a team that included the rider Eloi Tassin, winner of Stage 2b in that year's Tour de France. He died on the 1st of November, 1985.

Claudia Haussler, 26 today
(image credit: Fanny Schertzer CC BY-SA 3.0)

Happy birthday to Diadora-Pasta Zara rider Claudia Häusler, winner of the 2009 Tour de l'Aude and the 2010 Emakumeen Bira. This year, Claudia achieved numerous top 10 placings including second place overall in the Giro della Toscana International Femminile. She was born in 1985.

Today is also the birthday of the French cycling twins, Jean-Jacques and Jean-Marc Rebière, born in 1952 at Bègles, Gironde. Jean-Jacques represented his country in the 4000m Individual and Team Pursuit events at  the 1976 Olympics, Jean-Marc in the 4000m Team Pursuit at 1980 Olympics with neither brother taling home any medals.

Kieron McQuaid, who rode for Ireland in the Individual Road Race and 100km Team Time Trial at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, was born on this day in 1950. He's the younger brother of UCI boss Pat.

Other births: Daniel Yuste (Spain, 1944); Marcel Delattre (France,1939); Tomás Margalef (Uruguay, 1977); Ludovic Dubau (France, 1973); Gervais Rioux (Canada, 1960); Kurt vid Stein (Denmark, 1935); Jaime Huélamo (Spain, 1948)

SunGard to leave cycling

As we approach the end of a year in which numerous companies have withdrawn their support from cycling, in some cases forcing the closure of successful teams, US-based software and IT firm SunGard is the latest to announce that it will be ending its support for the sport.

Bjarne Riis
(image credit: VeloSteve CC BY-SA 2.0)

SunGard became co-sponsor of Bjarne Riis' Danish team Saxo Bank-SunGard at the beginning of 2011. While spokesperson George Thomas refers to the deal as a "successful partnership" and says that it is a business decision, insiders and fans will naturally wonder if the company may be concerned about bad publicity stemming from team member and three-time Tour winner Alberto Contador's ongoing doping investigation - the Spanish rider, who says that his positive test result for Clenbuterol is due to having consumed tainted meat (the drug is commonly used - illegally, in Europe - to promote muscle growth in cattle), but the case has now been dragging on for many months with no court decision expected until early next year.

If Contador is the reason SunGard are withdrawing, even though he has not been proved guilty of anything and even though cycling has done more than any other sport to prevent doping over the last decade, it seems that it's still saddled with a druggy image, leaving sponsors likely to abandon ship as soon as there's a whiff of trouble rather than risk being linked to cheats.

Meanwhile, Danish investment bank Saxo Bank will remain and become sole sponsor of the squad, which will be renamed Team Saxo Bank.

Daily Cycling Facts 16.11.11

Dave Rayner, 1967-1994

Today is the anniversary of the death of professional cyclist Dave Rayner, three time winner of the Under-22 Category at the Milk Race (Tour of Britain), who died a day after becoming involved in an incident outside a Bradford nightclub when he was just 27 years old. One year later, a memorial fund was created in his name to provide financial assistance to promising British riders, allowing them to compete in European races - the first rider to benefit was David Millar.

It's also the anniversary of the death of "Big" Piet Moeskops, aged 71 in 1964 - three days after his birthday.

It's 119 years since the birth of French cyclist Jules Banino. Some sources state that Banino was born in 1872 and was the oldest ever rider to ride in Tour de France when he did so for the second time in 1924 aged 51. However, if the birthdate listed by Cycling Archives (16.11.1892) and some other sources is correct, he would have been 32 - in which case, the oldest Tourist honour remains in the possession of Henri Paret who was 50 when he competed in 1904, as is indeed stated by other sources. Either way (and perhaps the root of the confusion), Paret is the oldest rider to have completed a Tour, finishing in 1904 with a total time of 128h 24' 34" (32h 18' 39" behind Henri Cornet who, coincidentally, is the youngest ever winner), as Banino did not finish either of his Tours in 1921 or 1924. Sources in support of Banino include Les Woodland, and that's good enough for us.

More birthdays: Stefan Kueng (18), Alessandro Mazzi (24), Ginji Kurokawa (22), Raul Granjel (24), Anibal Andres Borrajo (29), Carlos Mario Oquendo Zabala (24), Rasim Reis (19), Kevin Neirynck (29), Aksana Papko (23), Bas Van Der Kooij (16), Pavel Korolev (23), Ramiro Marino (23), Hannes Genze (30), Esther Olthuis (33)

Daily Cycling Facts 15.11.11

Brett Lancaster
(Image credit: Thomas Ducroquet
 CC BY-SA 3.0)

Happy birthday to Australian cyclist Brett Lancaster, born in Shepparton, Victoria on this day in 1979. Brett won the prologue of the 2005 Giro d'Italia, a team pursuit gold medal in the 2004 Olympics as well as numerous track titles throughout his career.

On this day in 1942, the British League of Racing Cyclists was formed in response to the long-standing National Cyclists' Union ban on bicycle racing on public roads (time trials, in which individual riders compete not against one another but against the clock, were not banned; this being part of the reason that they were the most popular form of competitive cycling in Britain for a great many years even after the ban). Instrumental in the formation was Percy Stallard, a racing cyclist who had become a thorn in the side of the NCU due to his campaign aimed at getting them to reintroduce the sport which, following an incident during a race in 1894 when cyclists frighted horses pulling a carriage and caused an accident, had been halted for fear that road racing would lead to a ban on all forms of cycling. Stallard's answer was to simply organise his own race from Llangollen to Wolverhampton (a race which would, eventually, grow to become the Tour of Britain) which, it turned out, was enthusiastically supported by the police who were happy to provide assistance. The NCU suspended Stallard's membership so, in no doubt after the success of his race that there was a vast amount of support for road racing in Britain, he set up his own organisation. The two finally merged in 1959 to create the British Cycling Federation which remains the governing body of the sport in Britain to this day.

Percy Stallard, 1909-2001

José Escolano Sanchez was born on this day in 1926 in Zaragoza, Spain. He was professional for 16 years from 1946 and died on the 15th of January 2007 when he was 80.

Leopold König's was born on this day in 1987. Czech Leopold had his best season to date in 2011 riding for Team NetApp, coming second in the Tour of Austra (firstst in the Youth category), third in the Tour de l'Ain and ninth in the Tour of Britain.

On this day in 2010 Clara Hughes - the only Canadian athlete to have won medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics and one of the most successful Canadian cyclists of all time - was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

It's also Imanol Erviti's birthday. Born in 1983, the Movistar rider has won stages at the Tour Méditerranéen and the Vuelta a Espana. In 2011, he won the Vuelta a La Rioja and in 2012 he formed part of his team's squad at the Tour de France until a crash involving numerous riders during Stage 6 left him with serious injuries requiring a 48-hour stay in hospital and surgery. At 1.93m tall, he is easily recognisable as one of the tallest men in the modern ProTour peloton.

Jonny Lee Miller, the English actor who played Scottish Hour Record cyclist Graeme Obree in the 2006 film The Flying Scotsman, was born today in 1972. The film is worth seeing if you love bikes and Obree's story is remarkable, but it's far from the best cycling movie ever made.

Jiang Xiao, Wang Jie, Wang Mingwei and Li Wei set a new Chinese Record of 4'09.832" in the 4000m Team Time Trial at the Asian Games on this day in 2010.


Other cyclists born on this day: Michiel Bekker (24), Jeong Seok Chung (30), Mario Jorge Faria Costa (26), Felipe Delai Da Silva (25), John Kronborg Ebsen (23), Yvonne Fiedler (25), Omar Hasanin (33), Kendelle Hodges (20), Kaspars Kupriss (24), Roxana Alvarado Lopez (28), Alexia Muffat (19), Imanol Erviti Ollo (28), Ruiggeri Pinedoe (20), Guillaume Pont (32), Andy Rose (31), Franz Schiewer (21), Fernanda Da Silva Souza (30), Wilder Miraballes Seijas (31), Job Vissers (27), Barry Wicks (30)

Daily Cycling Facts 14.11.11

Bernard Hinault
Today is a hallowed day in the history of cycling - it's Bernard Hinault's birthday. Born in the Breton town of Yffiniac, Hinault went on to win five Tours de France, three Giros d'Italia and two Vueltas a Espana - making him the only man to have won all three Grand Tours more than once and a contender, as far as many fans during the time that he was active and today are concerned, for the unofficial title of Greatest Cyclist Ever.

Hinault was born on his grandparents' farm, but his parents encouraged him to go into banking rather than farming or finding work on the railways like his father, but when he was 13 and he began performing well in cross country running it became obvious that their son was destined for life as a sportsman instead. Then on the 2nd of May in 1971, aged 16 and riding a bike borrowed from his older brother Gilbert, Hinault entered his first cycling race and literally crushed his more experienced opponents - most couldn't even stay with him during the event, then he obliterated those few that had managed to hang on when he launched his winning sprint with 700m to go to the finish line. Within a year, he was Junior National Champion; though French cyclists were playing second fiddle to the Belgians and their mighty champion Merckx, it looked as though his successor had been found.

Late in 1974, Hinault turned professional with Sonolor-Gitane after winning the Amateur National Pursuit Championship and coming second in the Under-23 Route de France earlier in the season. The team became Gitane-Campagnolo for 1975 and Hinault won the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe and the Elite National Pursuit Championship, then in 1976 he won 18 times - including the prestigious Tours du Limousin and de l'Aude. The year after that he won Gent-Wevelgem, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Limousin for a second time, the Critérium du Dauphiné and, proving himself as great a time trial rider as he was a stage racer, the GP des Nations.

Most riders do not complete their first Grand Tour, usually finding the level of competition, the distances and the difficulty of the parcours to be far greater than they'd expected. Hinault's first was the Vuelta a Espana in 1978 - he won the General Classification and was third in both the Points and King of the Mountains competitions. Afterwards, he won the Criterium International and the National Championships, then rode his first Tour de France and won that too, coming third on Points and second in the King of the Mountains. In 1979 he won it again, this time also winning the Points competition and again taking second in the King of the Mountains - by the final stage that year, his advantage was sufficiently large that only a crash could have prevented him winning and he could have coasted through the parcours, but that was not Hinault's way - instead, he got into a tooth-and-nails battle with Joop Zoetemelk to be first over the line and win on the Champs-Elysées. He beat the Dutchman, who days later would be disqualified from second place when it was revealed he'd failed an anti-doping test.

Hinault won Liège-Bastogne-Liège again in 1980, but the victory cost him dearly: refusing to give up in treacherous wintry conditions that forced other riders to abandon in droves, he became so cold that it took several weeks for him to regain full use of his arms. That race was probably also the beginning of the tendinitis that would plague him for the rest of the season: some fifty other riders competing at Hinault's level were also diagnosed with tendinitis at around the same time, an apparent statistical anomaly that has never been convincingly explained and which has led some researchers and fans to suspect the cause was an unknown doping agent; since no doping agent known to have been in use at that time has such an effect, it seems more likely that the high incidence of the disease was due to a combination of the cold weather at early season races and chance rather than skulduggery. Nevertheless, Zoetemelk was not affected and it allowed him to gain the upper hand at the Tour that year. Most historians are agreed that, had things have been otherwise, Hinault would have been the first man to win six Tours rather than the third to win five and, when he returned to the race in 1981, he stamped his authority on it by winning with an advantage of more than fourteen and a half minutes over second place Lucien van Impe and almost eighteen and a half over Zoetemelk.

In 1982, Hinault won the Giro d'Italia and the Tour, then the Vuelta in 1983. He was second at the Tour the following year and rumours suggesting that - as had been the case with Merckx - his best years had come to a relatively early end began circulating; but whereas Merckx failed to recognise the fact and kept trying long after the highpoint he said would mark the end of his career, Hinault still had another Tour in his legs - and what a Tour it was. American prodigy Greg Lemond had been invited to join Hinault's La Vie Claire that season, either because Hinault saw him as a great rider of the future and altruistically wished to give him a chance to learn and develop (say Hinault's fans) or to prevent him becoming a rival in what was likely to be Hinault's final realistic attempt to win the Tour (say those who believe Hinault incapable of altruism, many of whom are also fans). Hinault at his peak was all but unbeatable on a flat mass-start race or time trial and, once, had been able to rely on his sheer brute strength to muscle up the climbs; however, he was now 31 and sufficiently wise to realise that younger riders were going to beat him in the mountains - especially the Colombians, who were new to European racing but grew up training on mountains with foothills higher than Galibier, so he made an unwritten, unofficial agreement with them: he would sit back and let them win as much as they wanted without challenge on the mountain stages and in return they would not challenge him for the General Classification. He also made an agreement with Lemond: for the first part of the Tour they would see who stood the better chance of winning and the lesser man would then ride in support. It soon became apparent that Hinault, still able to do as he pleased on the flat stages and still good enough on the climbs to carry him through, was the better rider. Lemond graciously accepted, Hinault set about winning his fifth Tour. Then, in the last kilometre of Stage 14, Hinault and five others crashed. His nose was broken but, after being checked over by a doctor on the roadside for several minutes, he was able to continue. The photographs of him covered in blood taken immediately afterwards and with two black eyes over the following days have become some of the most iconic images in cycling, but the crash left Hinault in a precarious position: while his nose gave him breathing difficulties, he could still win so long as Lemond helped. The trouble was that if Lemond refused and pulled out all the stops, he was now in with a chance too. The American showed himself to be an honourable man by agreeing to support his leader and, thus, Hinault became the third man in history to win the Tour five times; in return, he agreed that in 1986 he would ride in support of Lemond.

Of course, being the man that he was, Hinault wasn't going to ride his final Tour as a humble domestique - to do such a thing was simply not in his nature and there are still those who believe that  he planned to go back on the agreement and win for himself until it became obvious to him that Lemond was going to beat him. Hinault, however, says that he did not and that his plan all along was to grind down the opposition; either way, his chances ended with a spectacular, suicidal attack on the Alpe d'Huez. The two men rode to the finish line hand-in-hand before Lemond let The Boss take the stage, knowing that the yellow jersey he'd won the day before would remain his and that he was going to be the first American to win the Tour. Shortly afterwards, Hinault announced his retirement from road racing; no other Frenchman has won the Tour since.

Hinault's nickname among fans - Le Blaireau ("The Badger") - is usually attributed to his aggression and fearlessness, though he argues that it was a common name used among local cyclists in his youth. The aggression that famously drove him to punch a striking docker (who, with a large number of others, had disrupted the race as a protest) at the 1984 Tour de France is still evident - when a protestor climbed onto the stage after Stage 3 in the 2008 Tour, Hinault had tackled him and thrown him off before security had even had time to react. In the peloton he was known as Le Patron, "The Boss," because he ruled cycling both on and off the bike; while many riders fade away and vanish from cycling once they reach retirement, Hinault has increased his control - as a special advisor to the Tour's organising committee the Société du Tour de France, he has a great deal of say in the route that the race takes each year, deciding whether it will favour climbers, sprinters, time trial specialists or rouleurs. He is also vehemently opposed to doping and supports lifetime bans for those proven guilty.

November the 14th also marks the anniversary of Hinault's final race, a cyclo cross event followed by a party in his honour. At the party, he hung his bike up on a specially-provided hook to symbolise that his career was over. He claims that he did not ride a bike again for many years afterwards.

Another very happy birthday to Mara Abbott.  Abbott, from Colorado and currently with Diadora-Pasta Zara, is one of the most successful cyclists in the world today - and among the strongest, her sheer power allowing her to win the brutal  Mt. Evans hill climb (More than 2000m of ascent in 44km) for two consecutive years, the first in 2005 when she was only 19 years old. In 2007 she became National Road Race Champion, won the King of the Mountains at the Giro Donne two years later, won the same event outright the following year and then came 2nd overall in the Tour of the Gila in 2011.

Vincenzo "The Shark" Nibali was born on this day in 1984. Nibali, who rides with Liquigas, came to prominence with an unexpected win at the 2006 GP Ouest France and went on to win the Giro di Toscana the following year. In 2008 he came 20th in the Tour de France and 11th in the Giro d'Italia, improving the next year to finish 7th in the Tour. In 2010, he won the Vuelta a Espana and came 3rd in the Giro, winning two stages, then achieved the same finish in the 2011 Giro. There is every reason to expect a Grand Tour overall win sometime soon.

It's also Petra Rossner's birthday. The German professional, World Road champion in 2002, Olympic gold medallist and winner of the Liberty Classic on seven occasions. She lives in the city of her birth, Leipzig, with partner Judith Arndt - also a highly successful professional rider.

Guy Ignolin was also born on this day, in Vernou-sur-Brenne in 1936. He won a series of races from the end of the 1950s through to the end of the 1960s as well as three stages of the Tour de France and two at the Vuelta a Espana.

Today marks the anniversary of the birth in 1927 of Renato Perona, the Italian professional who won a gold medal for the tandem event (with Ferdinando Terruzzi) at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. He died on the 9th of April 1984, aged 56. Terruzzi, born three years earlier, is still with us.

Other cyclists born on this day: Andi Bajc (23), Zachary Bell (29), Lien Beyen (26), David Boifava (65), Timothy Duggan (29), Ben Gastauer (24), Yoshinori Irie (41), Alo Jakin (25), Gianluca Leonardi (22), Adam McGrath (24), Guillaume Nelessen (28), Madeleine Olsson (29), Adam Pierzga (27), Joey Van Rhee (19), Amelie Rivat (22), Jose Alberto Benitez Roman (30), Matthias Russ (28), Pavel Shumanov (43), Marina Theodorou (23), Hege Linn Eie Vatland (32), Patricia Vazquez (21), Nikita Zharovem (19)

Daily Cycling Facts 13.11.11

Linda Jackson
(image: © James F. Perry CC BY-SA 3.0)

Happy birthday to Canadian ex-professional Linda Jackson, who in 1997 won the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin, came second second at the Giro d'Italia Femminile (in which she was awarded the maglia arancia)  and Women's Challenge ,and third in the Tour de France Feminin. Jackson was Canadian National Champion three times in Road Race and Time Trial, won a bronze in the Commonwealth Games and competed in both the Olympics and Pan American Games. She is now directeur sportif of Team TIBCO and was born in 1958 in Nepean, Ontario.

Moeskops earned his
"Big Piet" nickname due to
his height, unusually
tall for a sprinter.

On this day in 1893, Dutch professional "Big Piet" Piet Moeskops was born in Loosduinen. As a boy, Moeskops carried out deliveries for his parent's shop, riding a heavy utility bike that may have been the reason he had the strength to become Dutch National Champion aged 21. He was prevented from turning professional by the outbreak of the First World War, then returned to the sport afterwards and taking the UCI World Champion title from Australian Bob Spears in 1921 - beginning a four year reign. He was beaten during the 1925 semi-finals, then won again in 1926. In addition, he was National Champion eight times up untiil 1932. He died three days after his 71st birthday in 1964 and is buried in The Hague where several streets are named after him.

Laurens ten Dam, the Rabobank rider who won the Mountains classification at the 2009 Tour of Romandie, was born on this day in 1980 in Zooidwolde, Netherlands.

Today is also the anniversary of the birth of Bernhard Knubel (not to be confused with the rower born in 1938) in 1872. Knubel, who was born and died in Münster, was one of nine cyclists to enter the 100km race at the 1896 Olympics. He - along with seven others - did not finish.

Choppy Warburton

Choppy with some of his cyclists. The very short one in
the middle is Jimmy Michael, the others appear to be the
Linton brothers (Arthur in the fleur-de-lys jersey?)

James Edward "Choppy" Warburton, born on this day in 1845, was perhaps the first soigneur in cycling - and also the first to introduce the sort of nefarious activities that would culminate in the arrest of his spiritual descendant Willy Voet  who was born one century later.

Choppy was born in Coal Hey in Lancashire and inherited his nickname from his father, a sailor who when asked how the conditions on his latest voyage had been would always reply "choppy." He came to note as a runner, turning professional at the late age of 34 (sports at that time being the pursuit of wealthy gentlemen, which Choppy - raised single-handed by his mother after his father died - was not) and went to the USA in 1880 where he won 80 races.

In thise days, there were no scientific anti-dope tests and so the sport relied on athletes and trainers being caught red-handed. Choppy never was and neither were any of the cyclists he trained, but there is some apparent evidence against him. A writer named Rudiger Rabenstein stated that Choppy's star rider Arthur Linton was "massively doped" during the 1896 Bordeaux-Paris race, and biography of the cyclist written after his death by an anonymous author who claimed to have known him well agreed. Also, Choppy's cyclists seem to have had a tendency to die young - very young, in some cases. Linton was only 24, his death being recorded variously as typhoid or strychnine poisoning (strychnine in small doses acts as a stimulant) and, eventually, considered the first doping-related death in any sport. Arthur's younger brother, also a cyclist, was 39 when he died, the cause once again being recorded as typhoid. Jimmy Michael, the Welsh-born 1895 World Champion, was also in Choppy's care, was 28 when he died in mysterious circumstances. No link to any form of doping, administered by the soigneur or otherwise, was ever proved (nor has been since) and at least one modern researcher has concluded that the deaths were in fact down to typhoid; but suspicions were sufficiently high for him to be banned from working in any capacity within professional cycling.

Vélodrome Buffalo by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
On the bike - Jimmy Michael; with hat and greatcoat - sports
journalist Frantz Reichel; bending over to look in bag: the
notorious Choppy Warburton.

He died in Wood Green, Haringey, North London in 1897. Choppy appears in a sketch made by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in preparation for an advertising poster commissioned by Jimmy Michael's sponsor Simpson Chains and which also features the rider. The sketch, of which Toulouse-Lautrec made and sold many lithograph copies, is still popular and frequently reproduced to this day.

Happy birthday to Greg Minnaar, the South African three-time Downhill MTB World Champion. He was born in 1981 in Pietermaritzberg.

Lech Piasecki
Lech Piasecki, born in Poznań, Poland, on this day in 1961, became both the first Polish rider and the first from the Eastern Bloc to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France when he led the General Classification during the 1987 edition of the race (note that Jean Stablinski never wore the maillot jaune and, having been born in France to Polish immigrants, took French citizenship when he was 16).

Lech Piasecki
(image credit: Cycling Art)

Piasecki's first major success came with a Stage 7a win at the 1982 Tour of Britain (then called the Milk Race), then in 1984 he won a National Championship and was approached by Colnago, but the Polish cycling federation were reluctant to let their new star go. Then, the next year, he became World Amateur Champion and won the Peace Race (taking Stages 1, 7, 8 and 11), and once again the Italian bike manufacturer came knocking. This time, Piasecki's federation was persuaded to swap him for a consignment of Colnago bikes. He repaid the chance they'd given him in 1986 with the Tour de Romagna, Florence-Pistoia, the Trofeo Barrachi, a stage at the Tour de l'Aude (3) and another at the Giro d'Italia (12).

In the 1987 Tour he came second in the prologue, beating many favourites and earning sufficient time to be race leader after the team time trial in Stage 2 and kept it for two stages. Unfortunately, he picked up a bug soon afterwards that gave him diarrhoea and he abandoned in Stage 7. He would be one of eight riders to wear the yellow jersey that year, a Tour record.


It's also the 85th anniversary of the birth of long-forgotten Eugene Telotte, who rode as Number 89 with Ile-de-France in the 1955 Tour de France. He did not finish.

The little-known Tour de Bintan finishes today in Indonesia. Having attracted teams from Europe for the first time this year, starters were expected to number around 800 - 300 more than last year. The race is also showing the way ahead for many European races as it features a Women's Category using the same course as the men.

Other births: Javier Gonzalez Barrera (32), Jose Luis Roldan Carmona (26), Laurent Colombatto (33), Petra Dijkman (32), Hubert Dupont (31), Andrea Graus (32), Bart Van Haaren (27), Amber Halliday (32), Yoshimitsu Hiratsuka (23), Tim Kerkhof (18), Kalle Kriit (28), Teng Ma (22), Christian Moberg Joergensen (24), Bokang Moshesa (28), Jason Perryman (24), Patrik Stenberg (21), Emi Wachi (50), Winston Williams (41), Malgorzata Zieminska (20)