* Jeff Jones <
[email protected]> a écrit
> On Jun 8, 1:48 am, Davey Crockett <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>> * "benjo maso" <[email protected]> a écrit
>>
>> >> The clean winners:
>>
>> >> Federico Bahamontes
>> >> Lucien Van Impe
>> >> Greg LeMond
>>
>> > Not having been implicated in doping affairs certainly doesn't mean being
>> > "clean". For instance, among the names printed in black are well-known users
>> > as Robic, Ockers, Brankart, Fritz Schaer (nicknamed "Pillen-Fritz"), etc.
>>
>> You can wipe Federico too
>>
>> The Fix was in on that win - although I don(t know if dopage was also
>> involved
>>
> Cheatin's cheatin'. He's out too then. So we remove Bahamontes and are
> left with Van Impe and LeMond. We should then weigh their hearts
> against a feather and see who's the 'cleanest' Tour winner. Against
> the rest, we carry out a Stalinist purge for the final solution
> (apologies for mixing genocide terms there).
>
> Jeff
>
Right you are Jeff
It's one thing to look at the results and another thing entirely to
_know_ the reason behind the results.
There were two main factors determining the outcome of events Way Back
When besides the relative athletic capabilities of the riders.
Firstly There were some intense rivalries between individual riders
which bordered on Fued Status. Way up North in Classics Country there
was the Van Looy--Merckx Road Show with Belgium almost equally divided
in their Loyalties and it got so bad that the Van Looy crowd wouldn't
even drink in the same bar as the Merckx Mob. And Vice Versa of
course. In actual fact it is only in very recent times that Van-L and
Merckx buried the Hatchet and even condescended to speak to each other
directly. I saw an article on it somewhere quite recently. Maybe you
even wrote it?
Then down towards South-West there were a couple of Gladiators called
Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor who were every bit as Vengeful
in their Fued as their Belgian counterparts.
Secondly and possibly of even greater significance was the Absolute
Power that the Agents held over the riders in those days. They ware
God, literally.
Take the Worlds for instance. Year after year the French entered
Anquetil and Poulidor without any real success although both riders
had the potential of winning but never did because of the bitter
rivalry. It was so bad that they would only communicate with each
other through their wives!
But fast forward to 1966 when there was a Three Man Break. Pop-Pou,
Anquetil and, since the race was on the Famous Nürburgring auto racing
circuit in Germany, Local Laddie Rudi Altig was also
there. Nürburgring had been the scene of the first ever Worlds back in
1927 when Binda led home Girardengo and Piemontesi for an All Italian
Podium and the pressure was on Altig to produce a win.
As the race unfolded Poulidor and Anquetil dropped Altig and the
French Duo started playing cat and mouse far to early, whilst still
keeping the speed up so that Altig couldn't get back on.
But as the Break faltered somewhat, Altig, better than either
Frenchman in a sprint, made a fast deal with yet another Frenchman who
had no love for either Pou-Pou or Anquetil, resulting in the ludicrous
situation of Lucien Aimar literally burying himself to tow a German up
to his two French Team-Mates where Altig easily copped the win to the
cheers of his home turf crowd.
OK, enough of Rivalries and let's move on to the Power Brokers, the
Agents.
In the days when domestiques rode for little money, and many rode for
nothing at all except an occasional Prime, pay day for most riders was
in the Post-Tour Criteriums. And this was almost as true for the Stars
as it was for the Water Carriers, all of whom were paid Start Money
roughly in proportion to their ability to draw a crowd.
Now the greatest Start-Money in the 200 times around the Town Square
crits went to that years Tour Winner. But Anquetil who was an asshole
but who had won the Tour five times seldom got any more Start-Money
than Poulidor who was a likeable Country Bumpkin from Limousin.
Anquetil used a vicious Union-Corse* agent by the name of Daniel
Dousset whilst Poulidor used a more genteel agent by the name of Roger
Piel. These were the top agents, both former Bike Racers, and between
them they had the major riders and promotors sewn up. Not merely in
France but in much of Europe at that time. And they were vicious about
protecting their "Turf" and getting maximum money for their riders
because of course they were in for their Cut. If a rider switched
agents it wasn't unheard of for all of the jilted agent's riders,
regardless of what Trade or National Team they happened to be on, to
ride against the recalcitrant individual. Or if one crossed their
agant, he could wreck their career by simply not negotiating any
further contracts for him.
So in the 1959 Tour, you must read the results keeping in mind the
bitter rivalry between the two major agents, Dousset-Piel. The actual
results were Bahamontes, Anglade - who also rode for Piel - and
Anquetil. But why? Well Anquetil was dead set against Anglade, who
used Dousset's rival Piel as an agent, commanding more Start-Money
than himself in the post-Tour Crits should he win, a point of view
with which Dousset agreed 100 per cent. And Bahamontes, apart from
being a climber, had the bike handling skills of a novice rider in the
Citizens Race at a Gay Games and wouldn't be in the least interested
in any Crits
Dousset's solution? Let Bahamontes win because it's better for
everybody's pocket book.
Remember how they Booed Anquetil in the Parc des Princes stadium?
* Union Corse = French Mafia
--
Le vent à Dos
Davey Crockett [No 4Q to reply]
