Faces from the peloton: Raymond Impanis (1925-2010)

The winner of the longest ever individual time trial (139 km ) in the history of Tour de France, Raymond Impanis had a successful career. Although a bit in the shadow of the biggest names of the era.

Raymond ImpanisThat certain individual time trial at Tour de France 1947 was one of his two TDF stage victories. He collected the other one in the subsequent year. Impanis rode Tour de France a total of seven times.

Raymond Impanis had the peak of his career in the 1950s. In 1954 he won Paris-Nice (his second victory at the race happened in 1960) , Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. Impanis started the “Hell of the North” 17 times and finished 16 times, which made him a solo record holder for many-many years. ( Only Servais Knaven was able to equal him in 2010, now they’re joined record holders.) He finished Liège-Bastogne-Liége 2nd for four times (1947, 1948, 1954 and 1955).


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MORE FACES IN THE PELOTON

French cyclist and 2nd in overall, Paul Duboc at a checkpoint at Tour de France 1911

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The cyclist, who is mostly remembered by being poisoned at the Tour de France in 1911. Paul Duboc (1884-1941) competed as a professional rider between 1907 and 1927. He won 5 Tour de France stages (one in 1909 and four in 1911) his best result in the general classification was a 2nd place. In 1909 … Read more

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French cyclist Raymond Delisle

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Raymond Delisle was one of those cyclists who was always lurking around the favourites in the most important and/or most iconic Tour de France stages without having significant success. Delisle started his professional career in 1965 in team Peugeot, where he was racing  till 1976. (His last year as professional cyclist he spent with the … Read more

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Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merkcx sprints for the victory at Milano-Sanremo spring classic race in 1966

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Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen at Ronde van Vlaanderen Tour of Flanders

Double winners of Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix

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Iconic road cycling races fun facts. Eddy Merckx at the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Eddy Merckx Koppenberg

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