Raymond Delisle
Encyclopedia
Raymond Delisle
Raymond Delisle (born 11 March 1943 in Ancteville
, France
) is a French
former professional road bicycle racer. He is the only rider to have won a stage of the Tour de France
on 14 July, France's national day, while wearing the jersey of national champion.
He started racing as an amateur in 1961 and won the Tour du Lac Leman classic in 1963 and the national team time-trial championship in 1964, with Jean Jourden. He turned professional in 1965. He rode 12 Tours de France between 1965 and 1977. He won two stages, one in 1969
and one in 1976
. He wore the maillot jaune for two days after his stage win in 1976. His best placings were fourth in 1976 and ninth in 1977. He was national road champion in 1969. He retired in 1977 after 45 professional wins. He now owns a hotel in Hébécrevon, Manche
.
, in Normandy
. He had three sisters and it was on a women's bike too large for him that he began riding in the area around the farm.
He studied to become a plumber but became an assistant-surveyor, a job which would let him ride to wherever he was working. He joined the local Periers-Sports club in 1959 and won his first race the following season. There were no races for young riders in Normandy and Delisle raced from the start against older and more experienced riders.
In 1961 he won the national team time-trial championship at Compiègne
in a team that included Jean Jourden, who won that year's world road championship. Compulsory national service enrolled him at the barracks at Joinville to which many of France's top sportsmen were sent. He joined the AC Boulogne-Billancourt in the capital's north-western suburbs , a club which had supplied riders to the Peugeot professional team.
Delisle came third in the 1963 Route de France, one of the country's biggest and hardest stage races. His ride brought selection for the national team in the Tour de l'Avenir
, a race for amateurs and semi-professionals which rode ahead of the Tour de France on its mountain stages. He finished third behind André Zimmerman and Rolf Maurer.
In 1965 he joined the Peugeot team, recommended by Désiré Letort
, a colleague in the AC Boulogne-Billancourt.
in 1969 and on 28 June went to the start of the Tour de France in Roubaix
. He wore not the white and black jersey of Peugeot
-BP, his sponsor, but the blue, white and red of champion.
Peugeot's leader was another Frenchman, Roger Pingeon
. Pingeon had won the Tour in 1967 but he was anxious about getting through the Pyrenees
in a position to match Eddy Merckx
, who had started dominating world cycling. Delisle said of 13 July, the eve of his victory: "Roger wanted me to stay at his side. I was willing to do that but not just as a domestique. I got away with Agostinho
and Gandarias
, and if you think that I didn't lift a finger to help them, you're right. But even so, Roger felt threatened and, when we were caught, he gave me a good talking-to (un bon gifle). That evening, I ate all alone, in a corner; you get the picture?"
Delisle felt the only way to save his honour was to win a stage, and next day - France's national day - he attacked from the start. A British rider, Barry Hoban
, went with him but dropped off on the col de Mente. Both Merckx and the Dutch rider, Jan Janssen
, set off in chase but Delisle still had 23 seconds over Janssen when the stage finished at Luchon after 199 km. Delisle said: "Accounts had been settled and, that evening, Roger congratulated me. We became good friends and we never mentioned the incident again."
At the finish, the television commentator, Léon Zitrone
, asked Delisle: "How are you, Rouget?" Delisle laughed and answered: "Yes, I am in Rouget de Lisle's will and I get royalties every time they play the Marseillaise. Delisle had won as national champion on 14 July and Zitrone had punned by referring to him not as Raymond but Rouget, Rouget de Lisle being the composer of the Marseillaise, the national anthem.
He and his wife, Mireille, then bought a 16th-century manor house at Hébecrevon, which they run as a hotel.
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
Raymond Delisle (born 11 March 1943 in Ancteville
Ancteville
Ancteville is a commune in the Manche department in the Basse-Normandie region in north-western France....
, France
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...
) is a 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...
former professional road bicycle racer. He is the only rider to have won a stage of the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
on 14 July, France's national day, while wearing the jersey of national champion.
He started racing as an amateur in 1961 and won the Tour du Lac Leman classic in 1963 and the national team time-trial championship in 1964, with Jean Jourden. He turned professional in 1965. He rode 12 Tours de France between 1965 and 1977. He won two stages, one in 1969
1969 Tour de France
The 1969 Tour de France was the 56th Tour de France, taking place June 28 to July 20, 1969. It consisted of 22 stages over 4110 km , ridden at an average speed of 35.409 km/h...
and one in 1976
1976 Tour de France
The 1976 Tour de France was the 63rd Tour de France, taking place June 24 to July 18, 1976. The total race distance was 22 stages over 4017 km, with riders averaging 34.518 km/h.It was won by mountain specialist Lucien Van Impe...
. He wore the maillot jaune for two days after his stage win in 1976. His best placings were fourth in 1976 and ninth in 1977. He was national road champion in 1969. He retired in 1977 after 45 professional wins. He now owns a hotel in Hébécrevon, Manche
Manche
Manche is a French department in Normandy named after La Manche , which is the French name for the English Channel.- History :Manche is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
.
Amateur career
Delisle was born on a farm near CoutancesCoutances
Coutances is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-History:Capital of the Unelli, a Gaulish tribe, the town took the name of Constantia in 298 during the reign of Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus...
, in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. He had three sisters and it was on a women's bike too large for him that he began riding in the area around the farm.
He studied to become a plumber but became an assistant-surveyor, a job which would let him ride to wherever he was working. He joined the local Periers-Sports club in 1959 and won his first race the following season. There were no races for young riders in Normandy and Delisle raced from the start against older and more experienced riders.
In 1961 he won the national team time-trial championship at Compiègne
Compiègne
Compiègne is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.The city is located along the Oise River...
in a team that included Jean Jourden, who won that year's world road championship. Compulsory national service enrolled him at the barracks at Joinville to which many of France's top sportsmen were sent. He joined the AC Boulogne-Billancourt in the capital's north-western suburbs , a club which had supplied riders to the Peugeot professional team.
Delisle came third in the 1963 Route de France, one of the country's biggest and hardest stage races. His ride brought selection for the national team in the Tour de l'Avenir
Tour de l'Avenir
Tour de l'Avenir is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents. Riders competed in national teams...
, a race for amateurs and semi-professionals which rode ahead of the Tour de France on its mountain stages. He finished third behind André Zimmerman and Rolf Maurer.
In 1965 he joined the Peugeot team, recommended by Désiré Letort
Désiré Letort
- Biography :Letort won the French national road race championship in 1967, but after the race failed the doping tests.Letort raced in eight Tour de Frances. He the yellow jersey in the 1969 Tour de France for one day after stage 5.- Palmarès :1963* 1969 : 9...
, a colleague in the AC Boulogne-Billancourt.
14 July victory
Delisle won the national championship on a wind-blown circuit at SoissonsSoissons
Soissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about northeast of Paris. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones...
in 1969 and on 28 June went to the start of the Tour de France in Roubaix
Roubaix
Roubaix is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is located between the cities of Lille and Tourcoing.The Gare de Roubaix railway station offers connections to Lille, Tourcoing, Antwerp, Ostend and Paris.-Culture:...
. He wore not the white and black jersey of Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
-BP, his sponsor, but the blue, white and red of champion.
Peugeot's leader was another Frenchman, Roger Pingeon
Roger Pingeon
Roger Pingeon is a retired professional road bicycle racer from France. He raced as a professional from 1964 to 1974. In 1967, Pingeon won the Tour de France. In 1969, Pingeon won the Vuelta a España and came second behind Eddy Merckx in the Tour de France.-Major achievements:19641965...
. Pingeon had won the Tour in 1967 but he was anxious about getting through the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
in a position to match 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...
, who had started dominating world cycling. Delisle said of 13 July, the eve of his victory: "Roger wanted me to stay at his side. I was willing to do that but not just as a domestique. I got away with Agostinho
Joaquim Agostinho
Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH was a Portuguese professional bicycle racer. He was champion of Portugal in six successive years. He rode the Tour de France 13 times and finished all but once, winning on Alpe d'Huez in 1979, and finishing 3rd twice...
and Gandarias
Andres Gandarias
Andres Gandarias was a Spanish professional road bicycle racer. He finished in the top 10 of the Tour de France twice.- Palmarès :1968*...
, and if you think that I didn't lift a finger to help them, you're right. But even so, Roger felt threatened and, when we were caught, he gave me a good talking-to (un bon gifle). That evening, I ate all alone, in a corner; you get the picture?"
Delisle felt the only way to save his honour was to win a stage, and next day - France's national day - he attacked from the start. A British rider, Barry Hoban
Barry Hoban
Barry Hoban is a former English professional cyclist who rode during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was the previous holder of the record for the most stage wins in the Tour de France by a British rider, winning eight between 1967 to 1975...
, went with him but dropped off on the col de Mente. Both Merckx and the Dutch rider, Jan Janssen
Jan Janssen
Johannes Adrianus Janssen, known as Jan Janssen is a Dutch former professional cyclist . He was world champion and winner of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. He was the first Dutch rider to win the Tour de France.Janssen was born at Nootdorp, a small town near Rotterdam and Delft...
, set off in chase but Delisle still had 23 seconds over Janssen when the stage finished at Luchon after 199 km. Delisle said: "Accounts had been settled and, that evening, Roger congratulated me. We became good friends and we never mentioned the incident again."
At the finish, the television commentator, Léon Zitrone
Léon Zitrone
Léon Zitrone was a Russian-born French journalist and television presenter.- Biography :Léon Zitrone was born in Petrograd, Russia on 25 November 1914. He died on 25 November 1995, in Levallois-Perret ....
, asked Delisle: "How are you, Rouget?" Delisle laughed and answered: "Yes, I am in Rouget de Lisle's will and I get royalties every time they play the Marseillaise. Delisle had won as national champion on 14 July and Zitrone had punned by referring to him not as Raymond but Rouget, Rouget de Lisle being the composer of the Marseillaise, the national anthem.
Style
The writer Jean-Luc Gatellier said of Delisle that "he was a creative, a puncher-climber, a Manchot who didn't lack the legs to push big gears, sitting on the nose of his upward-pointing saddle. And, in fact, a rider impossible to categorise, neither a leader nor a team rider, but a man of July who mattered to the Tour de France."Assessment
Arsène Maulave of the Belgian magazine, Coups de Pédale, wrote:- We expected a new head of French cycling in 1970, AnquetilJacques AnquetilJacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964...
having retired, but he [Delisle] wasn't cut out to give orders, not having the soul of a leader. He had, of course, shown his talent. He had won soundly and intelligently, but he remained above all an exemplary team-mate for Pingeon and then for ThévenetBernard ThévenetBernard 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...
. Raymond belongs to the history of the famous team with the chequered band [a reference to the Peugeot team's jersey], to which he often brought honour. Foreign teams solicited him, notably Italian ones, but he stayed loyal to Peugeot because he liked the atmosphere there.
Retirement
Delisle won the Polymultipliée and a criterium at Lescouet-Jugon in his last season, 1977. He also came ninth in the Tour de France and fifth in the season-long Prestige Pernod, forerunner of the World Cup. He had ridden 47,654 km and 250 stages in the Tour. He retired at the end of that season and began selling bicycles under his own name.He and his wife, Mireille, then bought a 16th-century manor house at Hébecrevon, which they run as a hotel.
Palmarès
1964- national amateur team-trial championship (with Jean Jourden)
1965
- Hénanbihen
1966
- Brionne
- Hyères
- Lescouet-Jugon
1967
- Munneville
1968
- Poullalouen
- Sizun
- Saint-Brice en Coglès
- Biot
1969
- Antibes
- Tour de l'Herault
- Saint-Brieuc
- PolymultipliéeTrophée des GrimpeursThe Trophée des Grimpeurs, called Polymultipliée until 1970, is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in August in the region of Val-d'Oise, France, between Argenteuil and Sannois. Between 1980 and 2002 it was a criterium...
- national road championship
- Tour de France1969 Tour de FranceThe 1969 Tour de France was the 56th Tour de France, taking place June 28 to July 20, 1969. It consisted of 22 stages over 4110 km , ridden at an average speed of 35.409 km/h...
:- Winner stage 16
- Le Mesnilbus
- Patay
1970
- Circuit des genêts verts
- Commentry
- Maël-Pestivien
- Trophée d'Europe de la Montagne
1971
- Camors
1972
- Camors
1973
- Jurançon
- Nice
1974
- Vuelta a España1974 Vuelta a EspañaThe 29th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 23 to May 12, 1974. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 2,987 km, and was won by José Manuel Fuente of the Kas-Kaskol cycling team...
- Winner stage 10A
1975
- Draguignan - Seillans
- Henon
- Genua-Nice
- Tour du Haut VarTour du Haut VarThe Tour du Haut Var is an early-season two-day road bicycle race in the Provence region of France. From 2005 to 2008, it was organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. In 2009, the race was changed to a two-day 2.1 event.-Palmarès:...
1976
- Putanges
- Saint-Pol sur Ternoise
- Plessala
- Tour de France1976 Tour de FranceThe 1976 Tour de France was the 63rd Tour de France, taking place June 24 to July 18, 1976. The total race distance was 22 stages over 4017 km, with riders averaging 34.518 km/h.It was won by mountain specialist Lucien Van Impe...
:- Winner stage 12
- 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 two days - 4th overall
- 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 :...
1977
- Trophée des GrimpeursTrophée des GrimpeursThe Trophée des Grimpeurs, called Polymultipliée until 1970, is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in August in the region of Val-d'Oise, France, between Argenteuil and Sannois. Between 1980 and 2002 it was a criterium...
- Tour de France1977 Tour de FranceThe 1977 Tour de France was the 64th Tour de France, taking place June 30 to July 24, 1977. The total race distance was 22 stages over 4096 km, with riders averaging 35.419 km/h....
:- 9th overall