Tour de France 2023 presented a great gift for every road cycling history fans: after 35 years Puy de Dôme was reintroduced to the race. Although the 9th stage of Tour de France 2023 was only the 14th appearance of the ascent, it became one of the most iconic places in the history road cycling … Read more
When Jacques Anquetil won Vuelta a Espana on 15th May, he became the first rider in the history of cycling to win all three Grand Tours at least one time. When he managed to win also the Tour de France that year, he became the first rider to make the Vuelta-Tour double. By the way, … Read more
During his extraordinary career, Eddy Merckx won Paris-Nice three times (1969, 1970 and 1971). The edition in 1969 was one of those few times, when he had the chance to compete against Jacques Anquetil, who rode his last Paris-Nice that year. Merckx became 1st, Anquetil 3rd, and it’s quite symbolic, that the thord man on … Read more
The world of road cycling sometimes loves the second placed riders more than the winners. It’s especially the case of French cyclist, “The Eternal Second”, Raymond Poulidor (1936-2019), who rode Tour de France 14 times, he completed 12 of them, finished second of the general classification 3 times, and third 5 times. But he never … Read more
According to the latest rumors, Tour de France will return to Puy de Dôme in 2023. Tour de France visited Puy de Dôme last time in 1988. Since the construction of a track railway and due to the very narrow road, it was told for many many years, that the return of the race to … Read more
5-time Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil attented the race for the first time in his career in 1957. Actually, on 29th June 1957 there were two half stages: 3/a, a 15 km long team time trial and a 134 km long usual road stage. The time trial was won by the French team, which … Read more
The 44th Tour de France was held between 27 June and 20 July 1957. This was the first of Jacques Anquetil’s five victories.
This was Anquetil first ever mountain stage victory at the Tour de France, although he has already won the race three times.