27 Facts About Sylvain Chavanel

Sylvain Chavanel was noted as a strong all-rounder who won both sprints and time-trials, and was a good northern classics rider, taking 45 wins during his professional career.

Sylvain Chavanel's great-grandparents were from Huesca, in the Aragon region.

Sylvain Chavanel's grandfather was born in Barcelona and moved to Chatellerault during the Spanish Civil War.

Sylvain Chavanel began cycling at Chatellerault school when he was eight.

Sylvain Chavanel gave up to try football, then went back.

Sylvain Chavanel won 29 races on the road as a schoolboy and a junior.

Sylvain Chavanel won the national junior individual pursuit championship in 1997.

Bernardeau and Sylvain Chavanel agreed that Sylvain Chavanel would spend another year with his club, AC Chatellerault, which had spent time and money on his training.

Sylvain Chavanel rode the Tour de l'Avenir in 1999 and then in 2000, aged 21, he turned professional for Bernardeau's Bonjour team, sponsored by a chain of local newspapers.

Sylvain Chavanel won the first stage of the Circuit Franco-Belge and lost his leader's jersey only on the last day.

Sylvain Chavanel rode his first Tour de France at 22, finishing 65th, later coming third in the Tour de l'Avenir behind Denis Menchov and Florent Brard.

Sylvain Chavanel later won both of those races in 2005.

On 25 July 2008 Sylvain Chavanel won the 19th stage of the Tour de France by outsprinting Jeremy Roy at Montlucon.

Sylvain Chavanel's ride brought him to second place overall, two seconds slower than the American, Levi Leipheimer.

Sylvain Chavanel's team worked for him next day from Ciudad Real to Toledo to make sure he won time bonuses offered along the route.

Sylvain Chavanel said in 2007 that he had had offers from foreign teams but was discouraged from joining them because he was unsure of his pension payments outside France.

Sylvain Chavanel said he made his decision to move after riding well in classic races in Belgium at the start of the year.

Sylvain Chavanel won Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Brabantse Pijl.

Sylvain Chavanel capitalized on that, opening up enough of a gap to win the stage and capture the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara.

However, on the next stage Sylvain Chavanel finished just 57 seconds behind the stage winner while Lastras lost over 18 minutes, thereby making Sylvain Chavanel the overall leader of the Vuelta.

Sylvain Chavanel held this jersey until stage 8 where it was taken by Joaquim Rodriguez.

In 2012, Sylvain Chavanel won the Three Days of De Panne and won the French National Time Trial Championships for the fourth time.

Sylvain Chavanel won the overall classification at the Three Days of De Panne for the second year in a row, winning the final time trial stage.

In September 2015 Direct Energie announced that Sylvain Chavanel would join them for the 2016 season.

In 2018, Sylvain Chavanel participated in the Tour de France for the 18th time to take the record outright from Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt for the most Tour de France participations and was given the most combative rider award for the second stage.

Sylvain Chavanel extended his career to the following week's Chrono des Nations before retiring.

Sylvain Chavanel was known as Chava, Mimosa or Mimo, after a French film character he imitated.