Jacques Marinelli was born on the 15th December of 1925 in Blanc-Mesnil, France. He was a professional rider between 1948 and 1955.
He rode the Tour de France six times between 1948 and 1954, his most successful year was 1949 when he was wearing the yellow jersey for six days. That Tour de France was one of the peaks of the rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.
Marinelli was already leading the general classification when he and Coppi escaped on the 5th staged and crashed. Marinelli could continue the race immediately, but Coppi needed a bike change. The Campionissimo refused to ride any of the spare bikes of the Italian team, he wanted to wait for his own. That cost him 18 minutes that day, and he was 38 min behind Marinelli n the GC. Also, Bartali was waiting with Coppi, he lost some minutes too, although he was later allowed by team manager Alfredo Binda to ride away from Coppi, who was getting slower by hunger and exhaustion.
Marinelli lost the jersey to another Italian rider, Fiorenzo Magni on the 10th stage.
After his retirement at the age of 28, unlike many other cyclists (like Jean Robic or Roger Walkowiak) he could find his place in the everyday life and became a director of a furniture factory. He was even awarded by the French government for leading a successful life after having retired from professional sport.
Allegedly, he still has his yellow jersey, although it has been eaten by moths.
Jacques Marinelli is the oldest living Tour de France yellow jersey wearer.
Marinelli’s professional teams:
1948–1951 Alcyon-Dunlop
1951 Stucchi
1952 Vanoli
1953 Peugeot
1954 Pschitt
1955 Mercier-Hutchinson
Leadpic: Jacques Marinelli with Fausto Coppi