Cyrille Guimard
Encyclopedia
Cyrille Guimard is a French
former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and then a television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault
, Laurent Fignon
, and Lucien Van Impe
, won the Tour de France.
in 1976. The riders ahead of him in the 1970 and 1971 professional road championships were disqualified and the titles not given. He said: "After those in front of me were disqualified for failing the drugs test, the federation never had the idea of giving me the titles.". Guimard was then president of the riders' union (see below) and the resentment that that created was why he was not named champion, he said, while others in the same position had been.
Guimard was a sprinter who won nearly 100 races in eight seasons. He won stages of the Tour de France in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 - four of them in 1972 - although he finished the race only twice. He came 62nd in 1970 and seventh in 1971, the only year in which he didn't win a stage. He wore the green jersey of leader of the points competition in 1972 and won the combativity award
in the 1972. He also won the points competition of the Vuelta a España
and the Six-Days of Grenoble
in 1972.
Guimard's most striking Tour de France was in 1972, when he wore the maillot jaune of leadership and matched Eddy Merckx
in the mountains. Fighting to keep the lead on long climbs created pain in his knees, one of which he injured in 1969 in an accident with a car while he was training. Merckx won two stages in the Alps and Guimard the next. Merckx tried to dispose of him on a 28 km stage to Mont Revard but Guimard, instead of cracking, won by 10 cm as the Belgian raised his hands thinking he had won.
Guimard was in second place and leading the points competition two days from the finish in Paris when he was forced to withdraw. Merckx gave his green points jersey to Guimard on the podium in Paris.
There were concerns about Guimard's treatment during the race, and reports that he had to be carried to his bike each morning because he could no longer walk. The team official caring for him was Bernard Sainz
, sentenced to three years in 2008 for doping athletes and practising as an unqualified doctor. Sainz was sentenced to be jailed for the first half of the sentence and to be released on probation for the rest. He produced no evidence of medical training at his trial. He wrote in his autobiography:
The two men met when Sainz was assistant manager of Gan, the team for which Guimard rode with Raymond Poulidor
. Sainz was at Guimard's side throughout the 1972 Tour. In 1973, Guimard was caught in a drugs test at the end of the stage from Avignon to Montpellier.
Knee pain ended Guimard's racing and he moved into team management.
and Lucien Van Impe
. It was run by the former national champion, Jean Stablinski
. Guimard had just won the French cyclo-cross championship. He took over as main directeur sportif in 1976. Hinault was considering leaving the team but Guimard, who had ridden in the peloton with Hinault, convinced him to stay. Hinault said: "Stablinski was a manager of the old school: 'Race and we'll talk about later.' He gave me no advice at all, though he was decent enough. I would have been more impressed if he'd stuck to his word and not had me racing every race on the calendar. I wasn't a machine and he expected too much of me. But for Guimard, I might have joined up with Raymond Poulidor of the Mercier team and we'd never have got on. There'd have been wars between us and I'd have been off again, trying all the teams one by one, and wasting a lot of time. If you want to devote yourself to racing, you must find the right conditions and be able to get on with your colleagues. With Guimard I knew that things would improve and that we could agree on a programme. Guimard and I had a perfect understanding and realised most of our ambitions, even if we were to fall out later."
It was as directeur sportif that Guimard forged his reputation. He ran Gitane-Campagnolo
, Renault-Elf-Gitane
, Système U-Gitane, Super U
, Castorama
, and Cofidis
; riders under his direction included Van Impe, Hinault, Laurent Fignon
, Greg LeMond
, Charly Mottet
, Marc Madiot
. His riders won seven Tours de France. Van Impe said:
In the Saint Lary Soulan stage of the 1976 Tour de France Guimard shouted at Van Impe that he'd run him off the road with his car if he didn't attack Joop Zoetemelk
. Van Impe was calculating that the Dutchman would exhaust himself. He ignored the urgings of team assistants and said that if Guimard wanted him to ride differently then he was to say so himself. It was then that Guimard drove up alongside him and made his threat. Van Impe attacked, caught the riders ahead, beat Zoetemelk by three minutes, put almost half the field outside the time limit and won the Tour. Hinault said: "With Guimard, you do not argue."
Hinault said Guimard insisted he plan his season and his career. "He had no intention of taking on too much too early. Just as you plan your tactics before each race, so you should have a career strategy, too, at least for the first three or four years." Guimard told Hinault not to ride the Tour in 1977, even though he had won the Dauphiné Libéré and beaten the favourites for the Tour, Van Impe and Bernard Thévenet
. Hinault rode in 1978 and won then and in four other years. In his autobiography, Hinault credited Guimard with an uncanny tactical sense that led to his greatest wins, including Liège–Bastogne–Liège of 1980.
Guimard's personality led to disagreements with riders, notably with Hinault in the mid-1980s. Hinault had to abandon the 1983 Tour de France
with a knee injury, and his team-mate, Laurent Fignon
, won the race. The following season Hinault left Guimard to ride for the new La Vie Claire
team. Guimard had the previous year taken on a young American, Greg LeMond, whom he knew from his win in the world junior championship in 1979 and whose career he had followed. Negotiating a contract reported as setting new standards for what riders could expect to earn exhausted his fax machine, Guimard said. "Americans are the kings of paperwork."
Guimard was left without a team when Castorama dropped out of the sport at the end of 1995. He helped form the Cofidis team but left after a court case in 1997 in which he was accused of false accounting and of obtaining credit by false pretences. Guimard had been one of the founding directors of Siclor, a company set up in 1996 with 2.8 million francs of state aid to make bicycle frames. It collapsed in January 1997 with debts of 4.5 million francs. A court sentenced Guimard to a suspended jail sentence for "abuse of social funds" and Cofidis, a moneylending company, said: "Given the personal difficulties that face Cyrille Guimard and the media risks that could unfairly bring to Cofidis, Cyrille Guimard and Cofidis have agreed to end their collaboration."
In 2003, Guimard became advisor and technical director of the French
amateur cycling team
Vélo Club Roubaix where he worked with the amateur Andy Schleck
. In 2007, Vélo Club Roubaix Lille Metropole became a professional continental team with Guimard as manager.
Guimard failed to win election in 2009 as president of the Fédération Française de Cyclisme, the body representing France at the Union Cycliste Internationale
. His campaign accused the federation's management of being clannish, eliminating those who did not please it and coopting those who did. He called for an audit of the federation's accounts. Professional riders, he said, should deposit a year of their salary as a suspended credit card payment, as potential payment for any doping offence.
He came third of the three candidates, with seven votes against the 347 for David Lappartient and 265 for Michel Callot.
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and then a television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault is a former French cyclist known for five victories in the Tour de France. He is one of only five cyclists to have won all three Grand Tours, and the only cyclist to have won each more than once. He won the Tour de France in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985...
, Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and in 1984. He missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1989, after having been the runner-up in 1984,...
, and Lucien Van Impe
Lucien Van Impe
Lucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...
, won the Tour de France.
Riding career
Guimard rode as a junior, an amateur and a professional, on the road, track and in cyclo-cross. He was national champion in all three forms: road in 1967 as an amateur, track sprint in 1970 and cyclo-crossCyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter , and consists of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and...
in 1976. The riders ahead of him in the 1970 and 1971 professional road championships were disqualified and the titles not given. He said: "After those in front of me were disqualified for failing the drugs test, the federation never had the idea of giving me the titles.". Guimard was then president of the riders' union (see below) and the resentment that that created was why he was not named champion, he said, while others in the same position had been.
Guimard was a sprinter who won nearly 100 races in eight seasons. He won stages of the Tour de France in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 - four of them in 1972 - although he finished the race only twice. He came 62nd in 1970 and seventh in 1971, the only year in which he didn't win a stage. He wore the green jersey of leader of the points competition in 1972 and won the combativity award
Combativity award
The combativity award, , is a prize given in the Tour de France. It favours constant attackers and since 1981 the winner of the award has not won the whole Tour.- History :...
in the 1972. He also won the points competition of the Vuelta a España
Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages...
and the Six-Days of Grenoble
Six-Days of Grenoble
The Six Days of Grenoble is a six-day track cycling race held annually in Grenoble, France.It takes place in the Palais des Sports in Grenoble since 1971.The 2010 event is scheduled to take place from 28 October to 2 November.-External links:*...
in 1972.
Guimard's most striking Tour de France was in 1972, when he wore the maillot jaune of leadership and matched Eddy Merckx
Eddy Merckx
Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
in the mountains. Fighting to keep the lead on long climbs created pain in his knees, one of which he injured in 1969 in an accident with a car while he was training. Merckx won two stages in the Alps and Guimard the next. Merckx tried to dispose of him on a 28 km stage to Mont Revard but Guimard, instead of cracking, won by 10 cm as the Belgian raised his hands thinking he had won.
Guimard was in second place and leading the points competition two days from the finish in Paris when he was forced to withdraw. Merckx gave his green points jersey to Guimard on the podium in Paris.
There were concerns about Guimard's treatment during the race, and reports that he had to be carried to his bike each morning because he could no longer walk. The team official caring for him was Bernard Sainz
Bernard Sainz
Bernard Sainz, aka Dr Mabuse, was an unlicensed sports doctor who achieved great success in horse racing and cycling. He was jailed for falsely practising medicine, particularly in cycle racing.-Background:...
, sentenced to three years in 2008 for doping athletes and practising as an unqualified doctor. Sainz was sentenced to be jailed for the first half of the sentence and to be released on probation for the rest. He produced no evidence of medical training at his trial. He wrote in his autobiography:
- It was at the time of our collaboration that the first accusations of doping came. An absurd rumour with a life as long as the Loch Ness monsterLoch Ness MonsterThe Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....
because I saw it reappear in the Journal du Dimanche on 30 April 2000! For 30 years, people have been saying that I pushed Cyrille beyond his limits and that his knees ended up cracking in the 1972 Tour de France because of my methods. As is often the case, people talk and write, claiming to know everything when they know nothing.
The two men met when Sainz was assistant manager of Gan, the team for which Guimard rode with Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor , is a former professional bicycle racer. He was known as the eternal second, because he finished the Tour de France in second place three times, and in third place five times, including his final Tour at the age of 40...
. Sainz was at Guimard's side throughout the 1972 Tour. In 1973, Guimard was caught in a drugs test at the end of the stage from Avignon to Montpellier.
Knee pain ended Guimard's racing and he moved into team management.
Team management
Guimard became a directeur sportif with the Gitane team, which included Bernard HinaultBernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault is a former French cyclist known for five victories in the Tour de France. He is one of only five cyclists to have won all three Grand Tours, and the only cyclist to have won each more than once. He won the Tour de France in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985...
and Lucien Van Impe
Lucien Van Impe
Lucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...
. It was run by the former national champion, Jean Stablinski
Jean Stablinski
Jean Stablewski, known as Jean Stablinski was a French professional cyclist from a family of Polish immigrants. He rode from 1952 to 1968, winning 105 races as a professional...
. Guimard had just won the French cyclo-cross championship. He took over as main directeur sportif in 1976. Hinault was considering leaving the team but Guimard, who had ridden in the peloton with Hinault, convinced him to stay. Hinault said: "Stablinski was a manager of the old school: 'Race and we'll talk about later.' He gave me no advice at all, though he was decent enough. I would have been more impressed if he'd stuck to his word and not had me racing every race on the calendar. I wasn't a machine and he expected too much of me. But for Guimard, I might have joined up with Raymond Poulidor of the Mercier team and we'd never have got on. There'd have been wars between us and I'd have been off again, trying all the teams one by one, and wasting a lot of time. If you want to devote yourself to racing, you must find the right conditions and be able to get on with your colleagues. With Guimard I knew that things would improve and that we could agree on a programme. Guimard and I had a perfect understanding and realised most of our ambitions, even if we were to fall out later."
It was as directeur sportif that Guimard forged his reputation. He ran Gitane-Campagnolo
Gitane-Campagnolo
Gitane-Campagnolo was a French professional cycling team from 1972 to 1977 which rode on Gitane racing bikes.-History:The team was called Gitane in 1972 and was directed by Andre Desvrages for whom, in 1973, future 1980 Tour de France winner Joop Zoetemelk rode. Gitane had sponsored teams during...
, Renault-Elf-Gitane
Renault-Elf-Gitane
Renault-Elf-Gitane was a French professional cycling team that existed from 1978 to 1985 and which cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes.-History:...
, Système U-Gitane, Super U
Système U-Gitane
Système U-Gitane was an French professional cycling team that was existed from 1986 to 1988 and which cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes. In 1989 the team was renamed Super U-Raleigh-Fiat and rode Raleigh racing bikes...
, Castorama
Castorama (cycling team)
Castorama is a former French professional cycling team that existed from 1990 to 1995 and was sponsored by the French DIY and home improvement retailer Castorama....
, and Cofidis
Cofidis (cycling team)
Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne is a French professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by a money-lending company, Cofidis. It was started in 1996 by Cyrille Guimard the former manager of Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon of the Renault-Elf team of the 1980s...
; riders under his direction included Van Impe, Hinault, Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and in 1984. He missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1989, after having been the runner-up in 1984,...
, Greg LeMond
Greg LeMond
Gregory James LeMond is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California and raised in Reno, Nevada....
, Charly Mottet
Charly Mottet
Charly Mottet is a French former professional cyclist .He was one of the best French road cyclists of his era, Mottet won a total of 67 races, including the Tour de Romandie in 1990, and has 8 participations in the Tour de France. His best results in the Tour de France were the 4th positions in...
, Marc Madiot
Marc Madiot
Marc Madiot is a French former professional road racing cyclist and double winner of Paris–Roubaix. Retired from racing in 1994, he is now best known as the directeur sportif of Française des Jeux, a UCI ProTour cycling team....
. His riders won seven Tours de France. Van Impe said:
- Cyrille was one of the best directeurs sportifs that I ever met. Without him, I don't know if I would ever have won the Tour. Perhaps I would, but his way of talking to riders really lifted us. There's no one better for remotivating a rider. As a manager, he always stayed a rider in the way he thought. That makes all the difference. He always knew when to go after a break or to let it go. And everything he predicted at the morning briefing came true later in the race. On the other hand, the moment the race was over, he always wanted the last word. A real Breton! But Guimard is Guimard.
In the Saint Lary Soulan stage of the 1976 Tour de France Guimard shouted at Van Impe that he'd run him off the road with his car if he didn't attack Joop Zoetemelk
Joop Zoetemelk
Hendrik Gerardus Jozef "Joop" Zoetemelk is a retired professional racing cyclist from the Netherlands who has emigrated to France. He started the Tour de France 16 times and finished every time, a record. He won the race in 1980 and also came eighth, fifth, fourth and second...
. Van Impe was calculating that the Dutchman would exhaust himself. He ignored the urgings of team assistants and said that if Guimard wanted him to ride differently then he was to say so himself. It was then that Guimard drove up alongside him and made his threat. Van Impe attacked, caught the riders ahead, beat Zoetemelk by three minutes, put almost half the field outside the time limit and won the Tour. Hinault said: "With Guimard, you do not argue."
Hinault said Guimard insisted he plan his season and his career. "He had no intention of taking on too much too early. Just as you plan your tactics before each race, so you should have a career strategy, too, at least for the first three or four years." Guimard told Hinault not to ride the Tour in 1977, even though he had won the Dauphiné Libéré and beaten the favourites for the Tour, Van Impe and Bernard Thévenet
Bernard Thévenet
Bernard Thévenet, born 10 January 1948, in Saint-Julien-de-Civry, Saône-et-Loire, is a retired French bicycle racer. He is a two-time winner of the Tour de France and known for ending the reign of five-time Tour champion Eddy Merckx...
. Hinault rode in 1978 and won then and in four other years. In his autobiography, Hinault credited Guimard with an uncanny tactical sense that led to his greatest wins, including Liège–Bastogne–Liège of 1980.
Guimard's personality led to disagreements with riders, notably with Hinault in the mid-1980s. Hinault had to abandon the 1983 Tour de France
1983 Tour de France
The 1983 Tour de France was the 70th Tour de France, run from 1 to 22 July 1982 in 22 stages and a prologue, over a total distance of 3862 km., won by French rider Laurent Fignon. Sean Kelly of Ireland won the green jersey, and Lucien Van Impe of Belgium won the polka dot jersey...
with a knee injury, and his team-mate, Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and in 1984. He missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1989, after having been the runner-up in 1984,...
, won the race. The following season Hinault left Guimard to ride for the new La Vie Claire
La Vie Claire
La Vie Claire was a professional road bicycle racing team named after its chief sponsor La vie Claire, a chain of health food stores.-History:The La Vie Claire team was created in 1984 by Bernard Tapie and directed by Paul Koechli...
team. Guimard had the previous year taken on a young American, Greg LeMond, whom he knew from his win in the world junior championship in 1979 and whose career he had followed. Negotiating a contract reported as setting new standards for what riders could expect to earn exhausted his fax machine, Guimard said. "Americans are the kings of paperwork."
Guimard was left without a team when Castorama dropped out of the sport at the end of 1995. He helped form the Cofidis team but left after a court case in 1997 in which he was accused of false accounting and of obtaining credit by false pretences. Guimard had been one of the founding directors of Siclor, a company set up in 1996 with 2.8 million francs of state aid to make bicycle frames. It collapsed in January 1997 with debts of 4.5 million francs. A court sentenced Guimard to a suspended jail sentence for "abuse of social funds" and Cofidis, a moneylending company, said: "Given the personal difficulties that face Cyrille Guimard and the media risks that could unfairly bring to Cofidis, Cyrille Guimard and Cofidis have agreed to end their collaboration."
In 2003, Guimard became advisor and technical director of the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
amateur cycling team
Cycling team
A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel...
Vélo Club Roubaix where he worked with the amateur Andy Schleck
Andy Schleck
Andy Raymond Schleck is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, who also rides for . Their father Johny Schleck rode the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 1965 and 1974...
. In 2007, Vélo Club Roubaix Lille Metropole became a professional continental team with Guimard as manager.
Cycling politics
Guimard was president of the professional riders' body, the Union Nationale des Coureurs Professionels, when he was 23. He and another team manager, Roger Legeay, created the AIGCP, to represent teams in negotiations.Guimard failed to win election in 2009 as president of the Fédération Française de Cyclisme, the body representing France at the Union Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland....
. His campaign accused the federation's management of being clannish, eliminating those who did not please it and coopting those who did. He called for an audit of the federation's accounts. Professional riders, he said, should deposit a year of their salary as a suspended credit card payment, as potential payment for any doping offence.
He came third of the three candidates, with seven votes against the 347 for David Lappartient and 265 for Michel Callot.
Palmarès
1967- national amateur road champion
1968
- Saint-Tropez
- Genua-Nice
- Châteaugiron
- Charlieu
- Aulnay-sous-Bois
1969
- Chateaubriant
- Genua-Nice
- Issé
- Hérouville
1970
- Antibes
- Bain-de-Bretagne
- Callac
- La Limouzinière
- national track sprint champion
- Ronde d'Aix-en-Provence
- Tour de France1970 Tour de FranceThe 1970 Tour de France was the 57th Tour de France, taking place June 27 to July 19, 1970. It consisted of 23 stages over 4366 km, ridden at an average speed of 35.589 km/h....
- Winner stage 1
1971
- Callac
- Chateaugiron
- Route Nivernaise
- Vuelta a España1971 Vuelta a EspañaThe 26th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 29 to May 16, 1971. It consisted of 17 stages covering a total of 2,892 km, and was won by Ferdinand Bracke of the Peugeot cycling team...
:- Winner stages 3 and 15
- Winner points classification
- Winner combination classification
- Tour de France1971 Tour de FranceThe 1971 Tour de France was the 58th Tour de France, taking place June 26 to July 18, 1971. It consisted of 22 stages over , ridden at an average speed of ....
- 7th place overall classification
1972
- Blot
- Chateaulin
- GP des Herbiers
- Six-Days of GrenobleSix-Days of GrenobleThe Six Days of Grenoble is a six-day track cycling race held annually in Grenoble, France.It takes place in the Palais des Sports in Grenoble since 1971.The 2010 event is scheduled to take place from 28 October to 2 November.-External links:*...
(with Alain van Lancker) - Maurs
- Paris–Bourges
- Plancoët
- Rungis
- Tour de Picardie
- Chateau-Chinon
- Sarzeau
- Moorslede
- Tour de France1972 Tour de FranceThe 1972 Tour de France was the 59th Tour de France, taking place July 1 to July 22, 1972. It consisted of 20 stages over 3846.6 km, ridden at an average speed of 35.371 km/h. The long awaited clash between Eddy Merckx and Luis Ocaña after Ocaña crashed on Col de Menté in the 1971 Tour de...
- Winner stages 1, 4, 14B and 15
- Wearing yellow jerseyYellow jerseyThe general classification in the Tour de France is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey .-History:...
for 8 days - Winner Combativity awardCombativity awardThe combativity award, , is a prize given in the Tour de France. It favours constant attackers and since 1981 the winner of the award has not won the whole Tour.- History :...
1973
- Auxerre
- Bain-de-Bretagne
- Ergué-Gabéric
- Issé
- Joyeuse
- Le-Ferté-Bernard
- Lamballe
- Nantes-La Beaujoire
- Pléaux
- Ronde d'Aix-en-Provence
- Saint-Just
- Tour de France1973 Tour de FranceThe 1973 Tour de France was the 60th Tour de France, taking place June 30 to July 22, 1973. It consisted of 20 stages over 4140.4 km, ridden at an average speed of 33.918 km/h. After winning the 1973 Vuelta a España and the 1973 Giro d'Italia, Eddy Merckx did not participate in the Tour...
- Winner stage 3
1974
- Biot
- Callac
- Flers
- Grigny
- Plaintel
- Pleurtuit
- Saint-Brieuc
- Tour de France1974 Tour de FranceThe 1974 Tour de France was the 61st Tour de France, taking place June 27 to July 21, 1974. It consisted of 22 stages over 4098 km, ridden at an average speed of 35.241 km/h...
- Winner stage 8A
1975
- Camors
- Canet-plage
- Chalais
- Grand Prix Ouest-France
- Ploërdut
- Quiberon
- Serenac
- Sin-le-Noble
- Saint-Macaire en Mauges
1976
- national cyclo-cross champion
- Lanarvily