1. Jacques Anquetil won eight Grand Tours in his career, which was a record when he retired and was surpassed only by Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.
134 Facts About Jacques Anquetil
1. 2.
Jacques Anquetil received his first bike from his father at the age of 4.
3.
When Jacques Anquetil was seven, his father Ernest returned from his service in World War II and, unable to find building work except for the German occupying forces, moved with the family to Le Bourguet close to Quincampoix to become a strawberry farmer.
4.
Ernest Anquetil often became violent after excess alcohol consumption, and Jacques' mother eventually moved into an apartment in Paris, leaving her sons with their father.
5.
Jacques Anquetil then pretended by untie his toe-straps, falling back in the group, causing his opponents to assume he would retire.
6.
Jacques Anquetil then attacked from the back of the group, left the competition behind, bridged a five-minute gap to the leading group and won.
7.
Jacques Anquetil was victorious in the Grand Prix de France time trial, winning the event by a significant 12-minute margin.
8.
Jacques Anquetil fared better in the team race, taking the bronze medal alongside Alfred Tonello and Claude Rouer.
9.
Jacques Anquetil has then helped by another independent rider, Maurice Pele, who disapproved of the others' tactics and assisted Jacques Anquetil in getting back into the group.
10.
Jacques Anquetil went on to finish safely in the peloton and won the race overall.
11.
Jacques Anquetil finished in the leading group but during the final sprint was held by the jersey by another, unknown rider, preventing him from victory, which went to Bobet.
12.
Jacques Anquetil prepared meticulously, sending himself postcards from different places along the route describing the course.
13.
Jacques Anquetil eventually won the time trial by a margin of almost seven minutes ahead of Roger Creton.
14.
Jacques Anquetil followed up his victory three weeks later with another in the Grand Prix de Lugano in Switzerland.
15.
Jacques Anquetil was then invited to ride the prestigious Trofeo Baracchi, a two-man time trial in Italy.
16.
On his way there, Jacques Anquetil visited his idol Fausto Coppi, still considered the best cyclist of the era at the time.
17.
Nevertheless, Jacques Anquetil assassinated me and for the last 30 kilometres I could not go through; I was clinging on by the skin of my teeth.
18.
When Pelissier decided to follow Hugo Koblet during this year's running of the Grand Prix des Nations, Jacques Anquetil was enraged by this perceived loss of trust.
19.
At the finish, Jacques Anquetil ignored Pelissier and then drove to Pelissier's cafe outside of Paris and delivered the winner's bouquet to his director's wife.
20.
Jacques Anquetil was transferred to the sportsman's battalion at Joinville and was given great leeway to train and continue his cycling career in the following years.
21.
Jacques Anquetil gathered more experience when he placed 15th at the Criterium du Dauphine Libere.
22.
Towards the end of the season, Jacques Anquetil won the national championship in the individual pursuit on the track, finished sixth in the world championship road race, before adding a third straight victory at the Grand Prix des Nations.
23.
Momentum had been building in the press, urging Jacques Anquetil, known for his strength in time trials, to attempt to beat Coppi's hour record for the longest distance covered in an hour, set in November 1942.
24.
Jacques Anquetil therefore decided to make another attempt at the hour record before.
25.
Jacques Anquetil was then posted to Algeria and ended his season.
26.
Jacques Anquetil was discharged from the army on 1 March 1957.
27.
At the Tour, Jacques Anquetil was the only debutant in the French team.
28.
On stage 5 into Charleroi, Jacques Anquetil escaped with another rider and gained the yellow jersey of leader in the general classification for the first time in his career.
29.
Jacques Anquetil held the lead for two days and then attacked on stage 9 and won the into Thonon-les-Bains to reclaim the yellow jersey, gaining 11 minutes on his principal rivals.
30.
Jacques Anquetil lost small amounts of time on stage 18, but bounced back to win the stage 20 time trial to seal his first victory in the Tour de France.
31.
Jacques Anquetil's eventual winning margin over Janssens was almost 15 minutes.
32.
Jacques Anquetil then won the Grand Prix des Nations again, beating Ercole Baldini.
33.
Jacques Anquetil bounced back from the disappointment by taking victory at the Four Days of Dunkirk.
34.
In preparation for the Tour de France, Jacques Anquetil then finished eighth at the national championships.
35.
Jacques Anquetil agreed to this, but insisted that Bobet's close ally Geminiani be left off the squad.
36.
Two days later, during the first time trial of the Tour, Jacques Anquetil was dealt another blow when Charly Gaul, usually considered more of a climber than a time trialist, managed to beat Jacques Anquetil in his favourite discipline, albeit by just seven seconds.
37.
On stage 18, a mountain time trial up Mont Ventoux, Jacques Anquetil lost more than four minutes on Gaul.
38.
Jacques Anquetil followed and was only two minutes behind Gaul at the foot of the next climb, the Col de Porte.
39.
The weather then got to Jacques Anquetil, who had opted to wear a light silk jersey instead of one made of wool.
40.
Jacques Anquetil lost 22 minutes by the end of the stage and developed a chest infection.
41.
Jacques Anquetil recovered to win three end-of-the-season time trials, the Grands Prix in Geneva and Lugano, and the Grand Prix des Nations for the sixth time in a row.
42.
For 1959, Jacques Anquetil had set himself the target to equal his idol Fausto Coppi by winning the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year.
43.
Jacques Anquetil started the race strongly, taking the race leader's pink jersey after a short time trial on stage 2.
44.
Jacques Anquetil lost his lead to Gaul the following day, at a hilltop finish.
45.
Jacques Anquetil was able to gain back 22 seconds on Gaul the next day, in another time trial.
46.
On stage 15, Jacques Anquetil escaped with several other riders on a downhill and gained another two-and-a-half minutes on Gaul, taking back the pink jersey.
47.
Jacques Anquetil finished the Giro in second place, 6:12 minutes behind Gaul.
48.
Jacques Anquetil now laid sixth in the standings, more than five minutes behind second-placed Bahamontes.
49.
Jacques Anquetil eventually finished the Tour third overall, 17 seconds ahead of fourth-placed Riviere.
50.
At the World Championships in Zandvoort, Jacques Anquetil finished ninth as his friend Darrigade won the title.
51.
Jacques Anquetil ended his season with victories at the Grand Prix Martini and Grand Prix de Lugano time trials, but for the first time since his first victory in 1953, he did not compete in the Grand Prix des Nations, won by Aldo Moser ahead of Riviere.
52.
At the Trofeo Baracchi, Jacques Anquetil, paired with Darrigade, finished only third, after they missed the start time by over a minute, but where outridden by the pairing of Moser and Baldini.
53.
Not wanting to share leadership of the French team with Riviere, Jacques Anquetil therefore chose to focus solely on the Giro d'Italia this year.
54.
On stage 4, a large breakaway got clear and Jacques Anquetil's team decided not to organize a chase.
55.
Jacques Anquetil then finished third at the Criterium National, before coming in fourteenth at the Tour of Flanders.
56.
Jacques Anquetil then led the lead move to Jos Hoevenaers, who had been part of a breakaway on stage 6.
57.
Jacques Anquetil's speed had been so fast that had the organizers applied the usual rules, 70 riders would have missed the time cut.
58.
Ahead of the final mountain stages, Jacques Anquetil now led Nencini by 3:40 minutes, with Gaul in fifth, 7:32 minutes behind.
59.
Jacques Anquetil teamed up with Agostino Coletto, whom he offered money to help him in the chase effort, to limit his losses.
60.
At the finish in Bormio, Gaul won ahead of Nencini, with Jacques Anquetil losing only 2:34 minutes and retaining the pink jersey by 28 seconds.
61.
Paul Howard later wrote that with Riviere's accident "by late 1960 Jacques Anquetil was temporarily free from a serious adversary, at least within French cycling circles".
62.
At the World Championships in East Germany, Jacques Anquetil arrived with little preparation, but still managed to finish ninth.
63.
Jacques Anquetil followed this up with another victory at the Criterium des As, breaking the record speed in the process.
64.
Jacques Anquetil then competed in the Tour de Romandie, winning the time trial and finishing tenth overall, in preparation for the Giro d'Italia.
65.
At the Giro, Jacques Anquetil won the time trial on stage 9 and gained the pink jersey the following day, when he was part of a breakaway that reached the finish ahead of previous leader Guillaume van Tongerloo.
66.
At the finish, they had a 1:42 minute advantage on the peloton containing Jacques Anquetil, putting Pambianco into the lead.
67.
Jacques Anquetil then lost another twenty seconds on stage 17, before the race reached the high mountains.
68.
Jacques Anquetil already got in the winning breakaway on the first stage, won by Darrigade, and then in the afternoon, he won the time trial by more than three minutes from the rider in second place to move into the overall lead.
69.
Jacques Anquetil won the time trial on stage 19 to effectively seal his second Tour de France victory, finishing the course almost three minutes faster than second-placed Gaul.
70.
Jacques Anquetil then rode the Grand Prix des Nations for the first time since 1958, taking victory in record time and beating second-placed Desmet by more than nine minutes.
71.
Jacques Anquetil had set himself the goal to become the first rider to have won all three of cycling's Grand Tours, which meant that for 1962, he targeted the Vuelta a Espana.
72.
Jacques Anquetil then dropped out of the race following the stage, only to be diagnosed with viral hepatitis once back in France.
73.
Jacques Anquetil suffered during the fifth stage, where he lost 17 minutes, but managed to finish the race in 12th place overall.
74.
Jacques Anquetil won the stage 8b time trial and moved into 12th place in the general classification, behind a number of riders who had been in an earlier breakaway, but were not considered threats for overall victory.
75.
Jacques Anquetil finished the day third, behind stage winner Bahamontes and Jef Planckaert, the surprise of the Tour, who moved into the race lead, with Jacques Anquetil in fourth, 1:08 minutes behind.
76.
On stage 19, Poulidor escaped and went on to win the stage, while Jacques Anquetil finished with Planckaert, which left their time difference intact.
77.
However, Jacques Anquetil had moved up to second and Poulidor up to third.
78.
Not having prepared well for the event, Jacques Anquetil suffered from the beginning and was unable to take turns at the front, forced to stay in Altig's slipstream and at some points suffering the humiliation of Altig having to push him in order to keep up.
79.
Jacques Anquetil lined up at the 1963 Vuelta a Espana in good shape.
80.
Jacques Anquetil won the stage 1b time trial on the first afternoon by 2:51 minutes on the second placed rider, including the time bonus, he already held more than three minutes advantage on his rivals.
81.
Jacques Anquetil's team managed to neutralize all the attacks during the difficult first week.
82.
Jacques Anquetil had therefore moved into the race lead, extending his advantage in the final time trial.
83.
Jacques Anquetil's eventual winning margin over Bahamontes was 3:35 minutes as he became the first rider to win the Tour four times.
84.
For 1964, Jacques Anquetil had again set himself the target to emulate Coppi by winning the Giro and the Tour in the same year.
85.
The latter lost 14 seconds after a crash on the first stage, but took some time back when he escaped in a group on stage 7, with Jacques Anquetil reaching the finish 34 seconds behind.
86.
The next day, Jacques Anquetil lost another 47 seconds, as Poulidor finished second and Jacques Anquetil suffered a puncture.
87.
The second time around, it was Jacques Anquetil who won the stage and with it a one-minute time bonus.
88.
The next day, Jacques Anquetil won the time trial, taking another 46 seconds advantage on Poulidor.
89.
The next day, stage 14, Jacques Anquetil started badly, falling behind on the first climb and even contemplating retiring from the race.
90.
Jacques Anquetil became the first rider since Coppi to win both the Giro and the Tour in the same year.
91.
Jacques Anquetil raced little after the Tour, finishing seventh at the World Championships in Sallanches and skipping all of the end-of-season time trials.
92.
Since Jacques Anquetil had found that winning more Tours would not increase his value in terms of start money, he opted not to race any of the three Grand Tours in 1965.
93.
At the Criterium du Dauphine, Jacques Anquetil won narrowly, mostly through time bonuses at stage finishes and a slender victory in the time trial.
94.
Just 15 minutes after standing on the podium at 5 pm, Jacques Anquetil was already in a car, being driven to the hotel for a bath and dinner, before heading to Nimes airport, boarding a private jet which flew him to Bordeaux.
95.
The race to Paris started in the middle of the night, and Jacques Anquetil, not having slept, suffered at the beginning.
96.
Jacques Anquetil won the Grand Prix des Nations ahead of Altig and then beat Gianni Motta at the Gran Premio di Lugano.
97.
Jacques Anquetil then won his second ever Trofeo Baracchi, partnered with Stablinski.
98.
Jacques Anquetil started the 1966 strongly with victory at the Giro di Sardegna.
99.
Jacques Anquetil then struck an alliance with the Italian riders around Gianni Motta and their joint attacks put Poulidor under pressure, allowing Jacques Anquetil to win the stage and the race overall.
100.
Jacques Anquetil felt he had a chance of victory at escaped alone from a group containing Motta, Felice Gimondi, and a young Eddy Merckx.
101.
Unlike the previous year, Jacques Anquetil lined up for the 1966 Giro d'Italia.
102.
On stage 9, Jacques Anquetil led a strike by the riders against the newly established anti-doping controls.
103.
Jacques Anquetil finished second, ahead of Poulidor, the highest position he would ever achieve in the World Championships.
104.
Jacques Anquetil then started and won the Grand Prix des Nations for the ninth time in his career, the final time he would ride the race.
105.
Jacques Anquetil finished fourth, earning him enough points to win the season-long competition for the fourth and last time in his career.
106.
Jacques Anquetil lost the lead the next day to Silvano Schiavon, who had shared a successful breakaway with Franco Balmamion.
107.
Jacques Anquetil instead decided that he would make an attempt at breaking Riviere's now eleven-year old hour record.
108.
The final two seasons of Jacques Anquetil's career were relatively quiet.
109.
Jacques Anquetil did not race much in 1968, with his only victory coming at the Trofeo Baracchi, riding together with Gimondi.
110.
Jacques Anquetil participated in a number of autumn criteriums and raced for the last time in Paris at the La Cipale velodrome at a track event, the venue would later be named after him.
111.
Jacques Anquetil owned several properties in Cannes as well as a gravel pit in Normandy.
112.
Jacques Anquetil wrote columns for the L'Equipe sports newspaper and worked as commentator during races, first on the radio for Europe 1 and then on television for Antenne 2.
113.
Jacques Anquetil did not really fulfill any practical function in his position, but helped bring Marillier, who was relatively unknown in the cycling world, a greater sense of authority.
114.
Jacques Anquetil continued in this position until the 1987 UCI Road World Championships, shortly before his death.
115.
Jacques Anquetil unfailingly beat Raymond Poulidor in the Tour and yet Poulidor remained more popular.
116.
Those who recognised themselves in Jacques Anquetil liked his priority of style and elegance in the way he rode.
117.
Jacques Anquetil was a smooth rider, a beautiful pedalling machine according to the American journalist Owen Mulholland:.
118.
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.
119.
Just a few years before, riders had prided their ankling motion, but Jacques Anquetil was the first of the big gear school.
120.
In March 1957, Jacques Anquetil began an affair with Jeanine Boeda, the wife of his doctor and seven years his senior.
121.
Jacques Anquetil had just been discharged from the army, where, in Algeria, he had begun an affair with Paule Voland, a ballet dancer at the Opera d'Algers.
122.
Jacques Anquetil eventually had Jeanine deliver the news to Voland that he did not intend to do so.
123.
Jacques Anquetil then abandoned a training camp in the Mediterranean to travel to Normandy and showed up on the Boedas' doorstep.
124.
In late 1967, Jacques Anquetil bought the chateau next to the farm he owned close to Rouen.
125.
Jacques Anquetil therefore suggested using a surrogate mother, someone they would pay to have their child.
126.
Annie eventually met another man and ended her relationship with Jacques Anquetil, moving out in 1983, while Sophie initially remained with him and her grandmother.
127.
Several months later, in an apparent attempt to win back Annie by making her jealous, Jacques Anquetil seduced Dominique, wife of his stepson Alain, who both lived with the family.
128.
Dominique and Jacques Anquetil had a son together, Christopher, born on 2 April 1986.
129.
Jacques Anquetil was diagnosed with an advanced form of stomach cancer on 25 May 1987.
130.
Jacques Anquetil died on 18 November 1987, surrounded by Sophie and Dominique, at the Saint Hilaire Clinic in Rouen.
131.
Jacques Anquetil argued that professional riders were workers and had the same right to treat their pains, as say, a geography teacher.
132.
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.
133.
The unrecognised time that Jacques Anquetil set that day was nevertheless broken by the Belgian rider Ferdinand Bracke.
134.
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.