95 Facts About Jacques Anquetil

1.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

2.

Jacques Anquetil learned metal-turning at the technical college at Sotteville-les-Rouen, a suburb of the city, where he played billiards with a friend named Maurice Dieulois.

3.

Jacques Anquetil's friend joined the AC Sottevillais club with the encouragement of his father and began racing.

4.

Jacques Anquetil was 17 and he took out his first racing licence on 2 December 1950.

5.

Jacques Anquetil stayed a member the rest of his life and his grave in the churchyard at Quincampoix has a permanent tribute from his clubmates.

6.

Jacques Anquetil passed his qualifications in light engineering and went to work for 50 old francs a day at a factory in Sotteville.

7.

Jacques Anquetil left after 26 days following a disagreement with his boss over time off for training.

Related searches
Yuri Gagarin
8.

Jacques Anquetil made fast progress and won 16 times as an amateur.

9.

Jacques Anquetil took the Prix de France in 1952 and the Tour de la Manche and the national road championship the same year.

10.

Pelissier called Jacques 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.

11.

Jacques Anquetil accepted and immediately ordered a new car, a Renault Fregate, which he crashed twice in the first 12 months.

12.

Jacques 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.

13.

At 19, Jacques Anquetil had become unofficial time-trial champion of the world.

14.

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

15.

On 22 September 1954, Jacques Anquetil started two years' compulsory service in the army, joining the Richepanse de Rouen barracks as a gunner of the 406th artillery regiment.

16.

Jacques Anquetil's 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.

17.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

18.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

19.

Wonderful Jacques Anquetil has broken the world hour record as he said he would.

20.

An Italian Dr Giuliano Marena asked for the urine sample, but Jacques Anquetil refused and asked him to come to his hotel.

21.

Jacques 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.

22.

Jacques Anquetil recognised the allusion and accepted the invitation to ride.

23.

Jacques Anquetil finished nearly 15 minutes ahead of the rest, winning four stages and the team stage.

24.

In 1959, Jacques 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.

25.

Jacques 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.

Related searches
Yuri Gagarin
26.

In 1960 Jacques Anquetil stayed away from the Tour, returning in 1961 and winning it thereafter until 1964.

27.

Jacques Anquetil won in 1962 at a speed not bettered until 1981.

28.

Jacques Anquetil was the first to win four successive times, breaking the record of three set by Philippe Thys and Louison Bobet.

29.

Jacques Anquetil was first to win five times in total, since emulated by Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

30.

In 1963 Tour, at the top of a mountain, Jacques Anquetil faked a mechanical problem so that his team director could give him a bicycle more suitable for the descent.

31.

The plan worked and Jacques Anquetil overtook Bahamontes and won the stage, taking the lead.

32.

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

33.

I've always been convinced that in these moments that supreme player of poker, the Norman [Jacques Anquetil], used his craftiness and his fearless bluffing to win his fifth Tour.

34.

Because, to me, it was clear that Jacques Anquetil was at the very limit of his strength and that had Poulidor attacked him repeatedly and suddenly then he would have cracked.

35.

Jacques Anquetil rode on the inside by the mountain wall while Poulidor took the outer edge by the precipice.

36.

I'll never forget what happened when Jacques Anquetil crossed the line.

37.

Poulidor gained time but Jacques Anquetil still had a 55-second lead in Paris and won his last Tour.

38.

Jacques Anquetil twice won the Giro d'Italia and won the Vuelta a Espana once.

39.

Jacques Anquetil unfailingly beat Raymond Poulidor in the Tour and yet Poulidor remained more popular.

40.

Those who recognised themselves in Jacques Anquetil liked his priority of style and elegance in the way he rode.

41.

Jacques Anquetil was upset, said Geminiani, that Poulidor was always more warmly regarded even though he had never won the Tour.

42.

Jacques Anquetil won the Dauphine, despite bad weather which he disliked, at 3pm.

43.

Jacques Anquetil could eat little during the night because of stomach cramp and was on the verge of retiring.

44.

Jacques Anquetil felt better as morning came and the riders dropped in behind the derny pacing motorcycles that were a feature of the race.

45.

Jacques Anquetil responded to an attack by Tom Simpson, followed by his own team-mate Jean Stablinski.

Related searches
Yuri Gagarin
46.

At the Parc des Princes, Jacques Anquetil received the biggest ovation of his career, certainly much bigger than after any of his wins in the Tour.

47.

The race record was broken, Jacques Anquetil was mobbed by reporters and photographers but he was tired and really had to get some rest.

48.

Suddenly, on a flat road, Jacques Anquetil lost contact and a gap of three lengths appeared between the two partners.

49.

When Jacques 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.

50.

Jacques Anquetil was helped away with staring eyes and with blood streaming from a cut to his head.

51.

Jacques Anquetil was not as successful in the classic single-day races but towards the end of his career he won:.

52.

Jacques 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.

53.

Jacques Anquetil only entered the Vuelta a Espana twice and won it in 1963, which gave him the Vuelta-Tour double when he won the Tour a few months later.

54.

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

55.

Between 1950, when he rode his first race, and nineteen years later, when he retired, Jacques Anquetil had countless frames underneath him, yet that indefinable poise was always there.

56.

Just a few years before, riders had prided their ankling motion, but Jacques Anquetil was the first of the big gear school.

57.

Jacques Anquetil had a very strong personality so he was not easily dominated but Geminiani had an even stronger one.

58.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

59.

The truth is that Jacques Anquetil was a monster of courage.

60.

Jacques Anquetil was named France's champion of champions by L'Equipe in 1963.

61.

Jacques Anquetil was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Merite in 1965 and Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur on 5 October 1966.

62.

Jacques Anquetil was fascinated by astronomy and was delighted to meet Yuri Gagarin.

63.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

64.

Jacques Anquetil's word was his all and was of great importance to him.

65.

Jacques Anquetil was a truly great man and champion who will be greatly missed and impossible to replace.

Related searches
Yuri Gagarin
66.

Jacques Anquetil was a real Norman with the nuances of speech that make the Normans famous, they almost say Yes to mean No, and vice versa.

67.

We sat in delight, Sid Saltmarsh, Bill Long and me, not 20 yards from that 'Exit' gate, and watched as Jacques Anquetil pulled up in his Ford Mustang, and proceeded to unload his bike from the back of the car.

68.

The seigniorial aspect came out oh so clearly, and Jacques Anquetil did not merely ignore him, it was palpably as if the German did not exist at all.

69.

Jacques Anquetil left the car there, walked over to the riders' quarters pushing the gate open and the German with it.

70.

That Jacques 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.

71.

Jacques Anquetil went to see her, disguised as a plumber, and took her to Paris to buy clothes in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore.

72.

Janine had two failed pregnancies and Jacques Anquetil grew upset in 1970 that he was not a father.

73.

Jacques Anquetil began an affair with Dominique, to make Annie jealous.

74.

Two days later the Belgian cycling federation disqualified Jacques Anquetil and fined him.

75.

Jacques Anquetil responded by calling urine tests "a threat to individual liberty" and engaged a lawyer.

76.

Jacques Anquetil argued that professional riders were workers and had the same right to treat their pains, as say, a geography teacher.

77.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

78.

The unrecognised time that Jacques Anquetil set that day was nevertheless broken by the Belgian rider Ferdinand Bracke.

79.

Jacques Anquetil was hurt that the French government had never sent him a telegram of congratulations but sent one to Bracke, who was not French.

80.

Jacques Anquetil appeared with Tom Simpson from a studio in Paris.

81.

Jacques Anquetil was interested, though, to see Beryl Burton, and his old acquaintance Reg Harris pulling at his pipe in the invited audience.

82.

Jacques 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.

83.

Alan Gayfer, the editor of Cycling at the time of Jacques Anquetil's death, wrote in appreciation:.

84.

Jacques Anquetil died shortly afterwards and the ride never happened.

85.

Jacques 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.

Related searches
Yuri Gagarin
86.

Jacques 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.

87.

Jacques Anquetil rode his bike only three times in retirement, saying he had already ridden enough.

88.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

89.

On 18 November 1987, Jacques Anquetil died of stomach cancer in his sleep at 6am at the St-Hilaire Clinic in Rouen.

90.

Jacques Anquetil 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.

91.

Jacques Anquetil said that Jacques was one of the most gifted riders of all time but this was hardly reflected by his record.

92.

Jacques Anquetil had won eight major Tours without once crossing the top of a mountain in the lead.

93.

Jacques Anquetil reduced a race to a few simple calculations, a few danger men and a few places where it was necessary to make an effort.

94.

Jacques Anquetil spent most of the time at the back of the bunch and did not even know the name of most of the riders.

95.

Jacques Anquetil made an appearance in cartoon form in the animated movie The Triplets of Belleville.