Arte TV

Dan Gregory said:

If you've got Arte on Sunday they are showing the Tour de France film
centred on the Telecom Team followed by the classic Duel between
Anquetil/Poulidor. See
http://www.arte-tv.com/fr/semaine/244,broadcastingNum=469114,day=2,themaNumber=469114,week=26,year=2005.html

Thanks for the heads-up.

The Anquetil / Poulidor duel up the Puy de Dome is the classic bike
race. Poulidor said recently the reason he came second is that he was
never prepared (or able) to give 110% like Anquetil but he also felt
that Anquetil damaged his health in the pursuit of victory.

I don't know if the book Pour l'Amour de Jacques
<http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2253113336/> is out in the UK.
Anquetil was a lot more complex than a simple bike rider and the story
of his domestic arrangements would probably shock most UK readers, or
land him in jail.

In the book Sophie Anquetil discovers that her true mother is her half
sister - sounds like a bad script from East-Enders well things didn't
stop there for Jacques. Sophie also discovers that she is the aunt of
another sibling.

The tactics of bike racing probably seemed simple in comparison.

davidof said:

Dan Gregory said:

If you've got Arte on Sunday they are showing the Tour de France film
centred on the Telecom Team followed by the classic Duel between
Anquetil/Poulidor. See
http://www.arte-tv.com/fr/semaine/244,broadcastingNum=469114,day=2,themaNumber=469114,week=26,year=2005.html

Thanks for the heads-up.

I didn't watch the Telekom film but caught the Poulidor/Anquetil movie,
very interesting insight into both cycling and French culture at the
time. There is Anquetil's open admission that he takes drugs - the
French sports minister had to tell him to button it as he was setting a
bad example. Of course the film was made in 2001 so could not examine
(if it had wanted to) Anquetil's complex character in the light of his
daughter's shocking revelations.