16 Facts About Jean Stablinski

Jean Stablewski, known as Jean Stablinski, was a French professional cyclist from a family of Polish immigrants.

Jean Stablinski rode from 1952 to 1968, winning 105 races as a professional.

Jean Stablinski won the national road championship four times - 1960,1962,1963 and 1964.

Jean Stablinski was world road champion in 1962, and won the Vuelta a Espana in 1958.

Jean Stablinski was born in Thun-Saint-Amand in the mining area of the Nord department of France, the son of Polish immigrants.

Jean Stablinski's father died in a work accident in 1946 and Jean, at 14, started working in the mine to provide income for his family.

Jean Stablinski won the national road championship four times and came second twice, all within six years, an achievement no rider has matched.

Jean Stablinski stayed with Anquetil until his team-mate wrote a series of newspaper articles, one of which Jean Stablinski believed criticised him even though he had devoted his career to Anquetil.

Jean Stablinski was recognised as a rider who made up for physical limitations by his tactical sense and his chance to profit from the moment.

Jean Stablinski retired from racing and was for six years manager of the Sonolor-Lejeune, signing Lucien Van Impe and Bernard Hinault as young unknowns.

Jean Stablinski's son, Jacques Stablinski, born 1956, became a professional cyclist and rode for Gitane-Campagnolo.

Jean Stablinski became known as "Petit Stab" but never had his father's talent.

Jean Stablinski never stopped riding a bike until the illness that led to his death.

Jean Stablinski said he never put a drinks bottle on his bike when he rode for pleasure.

Jean Stablinski had spent too many years racing as a professional with no chance to stop and look around or to meet people, he told the historian Jean-Paul Ollivier on French television.

Jean Stablinski's qualifications were impeccable: as a miner he had worked beneath the road and as a cyclist he had ridden along it.