DAVID'S

GREAT'S

TOUR

The Five Times Winner's Of Le Tour de France.

Jacques Anquetil

Le Tour de France record

Tours rode:8

Yellow Jersey's

:5

Stage victories:16

Jacques Anquetil was the first man every to win five Tour de France ,a record which has since been equalled but never bettered.

Jacques(Le Maitre)won his first Tour in 1957 at the age of 23 although unquestionably the greatest cyclist of his generation ,Jacques was unable to win the hearts of the French people who loved his great rival and fellow Frenchman Raymond Poulidor.The Anquetil-Poulidor battles for yellow were to become ledgendary in Tour history.

Jacques was to miss the 1958 Tour but was back in'59 with the rest of the French national team ,boasting such riders as Roger Riviere,Louison Bobet(3 times Tour winner and King of the Mountains)and Raphael Geminiani the 1951 King of the Mountains.On paper it was hard to see how they could be beaten but unfortunately the ego's got in the way of the racing and they ended up riding against each other ,which left the perfect opening for Federico Bahamontes to win what was to be his only Tour victory and his third  King of the mountains on his way to a record six.Jacques finished third.

Jacques also missed the 1960 Tour which saw his team mate,the young Frenchman Roger Riviere as the favourite to win,however, a tragic crash on the descent of the Perjuret Pass was to end both his Tour and his career,he would never again ride a bicycle.

1961 and Jacques,along with his French team,are as strong as ever.In a race where only two men were to wear the Yellow Jersey, Jacques emerged triumphant.He took the lead after the first time-trial,an event which would go on to be assossiated with him,and he did not lose it arriving first in Paris after 4397Km.

The 1962 Tour was to be a new experience for "LeMaitre"as he had to ride a much more defencesive race,with the likes of Poulidor, Bahamontes and German Rudi Altig all fighting for overall victory it took Jacques till the second time-trial with only two stages remaining in the race to dawn the "Golden Fleece",but he was to keep it and win his third Tour.

It was now time for Jacques to show the rest of the world who the greatest rider really was with a comprehensive victory in the 1963 race   in which he won both his trademark time-trials and mountain stages in the Alps and the Pyrenees.He was also to prove the Master of Bluffery as on the climb of the Forclaz he had managed to stick with Bahamontes , a pure climber,when suddenly he shouted "my derailleur, my derailleur"which was a signal to his Directeur Sportif to switch his cycle for a heavier frame in order that he might descend faster.It worked he won the stage, the Yellow Jersey and as a result nobody questioned who the greatest cyclist was on his arrival in Paris.

The 51st Tour de France was to go down in history for a number of reasons,firstly for the epic battle between Anquetil and Poulidor, Poulidor almost beating Jacques with his superior climbing against Anquetil's amazing time-trialing.Secondly for what was to be up until 1989 the narrowest winning margin of any Tour 55 seconds over 4504Km ,but the achievement that really made this Tour special was Jacques Anquetil's fifth Tour de France win a record which to this day has never been broken.

Eddy Merckx