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Gitane
Gitane is a French manufacturer of bicycles based in Machecoul, France; the name "Gitane" means gypsy woman. The brand was synonymous with French bicycle racing from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, sponsoring riders such as Jacques Anquetil (1963–1965), Lucien Van Impe (1974–1976), Bernard Hinault (1975–1983), Laurent Fignon (1982–1988), and Greg LeMond (1981–1984). It is owned by Grimaldi Industri AB. History Cycles Gitane have their roots in 1925, when Marcel Brunelière opened a smith and agricultural repair works at Machecoul in the Loire-Atlantique region of France. He began making parts for bicycles and the following year opened a further workshop to assemble bicycles for G.M.B and Marbru. Brunelière began making his own bicycles in 1930, choosing the name Gitane (meaning "gypsy" eminine. He added light motorcycles in the 1950s. The name changed to Micmo in 1960 but continued to sell Gitane bicycles. Nearly a third of Micmo was owned by Renault, the car-mak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault (; born 14 November 1954) is a French former professional road cyclist. With 147 professional victories, including five times the Tour de France, he is often named among the greatest cyclists of all time. In his career, Hinault entered a total of thirteen Grand Tours. He abandoned one of them while in the lead, finished in 2nd place on two occasions and won the other ten, putting him one behind Merckx for the all time record. No rider since Hinault has achieved more than seven. Hinault started cycling as an amateur in his native Brittany. After a successful amateur career, he signed with the Gitane–Campagnolo team to turn professional in 1975. He took breakthrough victories at both the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic and the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré stage race in 1977. In 1978, he won his first two Grand Tours: the Vuelta a España and the Tour de France. In the following years, he was the most successful professional cyclist, adding another Tour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucien Van Impe
Lucien Van Impe (; born 20 October 1946) is a Belgian cyclist, who competed professionally between 1969 and 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France. He was the winner of the 1976 Tour de France, and six times winner of the mountains classification in the Tour de France. Biography Van Impe credits the start of his career to Spaniard Federico Bahamontes, a climber nicknamed ''the eagle of Toledo'' and a former Tour de France winner. In 1968 van Impe was King of the Mountains in the Tour de l'Avenir. Bahamontes used his influence to get van Impe a contract as a professional. In 1969, Van Impe started his professional career with a 12th place in the 1969 Tour de France. In 1971, Van Impe won his first mountains classification in the Tour de France. He would repeat that five more times, a record then shared with Bahamontes. When Richard Virenque broke the record with a seventh victory in 2004, Van Impe criticized Virenque for being o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg LeMond
Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961) is an American former professional road racing cyclist, entrepreneur, and anti-doping advocate. A two-time winner of the Road Race World Championship (1983 and 1989) and a three-time winner of the Tour de France (1986, 1989, and 1990). LeMond is the only American male to win the Tour de France and is considered by many to be the greatest American cyclist of all time, one of the great all-round cyclists of the modern era, and an icon of the sport's globalisation. LeMond began his professional cycling career in 1981. In 1983, he became the first American male cyclist to win the Road World Championship. LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986; he is the first non-European professional cyclist to win the men's Tour. He was accidentally shot with pellets and seriously injured while hunting in 1987. Following the shooting, he underwent two surgeries and missed the next two Tours. At the 1989 Tour, he completed an improbable comeback to win in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Stablinski
Jean Stablewski (21 May 1932 – 22 July 2007), known as Jean Stablinski, was a French professional cyclist from a family of Polish immigrants. He rode from 1952 to 1968, winning 105 races as a professional. He won the national road championship four times - 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964. He was also world road champion in 1962, and won the Vuelta a España in 1958. Biography Jean Stablinski was born in Thun-Saint-Amand in the mining area of the Nord department of France, the son of Polish immigrants. His father died in a work accident in 1946 and Jean, at 14, started working in the mine to provide income for his family. It was at this time that he won a bicycle in an accordion competition. Legend says that his mother was so displeased by her son's new hobby that she damaged his bike. Jean, still known as Stablewski, became naturalised as French at 16 and rode his first races. It was while riding the Peace Race that a journalist's error in writing his name 'Stablinski' created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Bicycle Industry
The French bicycle industry and the history of the bicycle are intertwined. Spanning the last century and a half, the industry has seen two booms, and continues into the 21st century, albeit less dominant today. Invention To most the invention of the bicycle was by the German Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants. He patented his "draisine" (or "draisienne"), a "pushbike" powered by the action of the rider's feet pushing against the ground. Reports of early forebears of the bicycle were ''velocipedes'', and included many human-powered vehicles. One, the scooter-like ''dandy horse'' or ''celerifere'' of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, was long cited as the earliest bicycle, however, most historians now believe these unsteerable hobby-horses probably never existed, but were made up by Louis Baudry de Saunier, a 19th-century French bicycle historian. Commercialization In the 1860s, the Michaux family, Parisian coach bui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Pinto
Mel Pinto (September 9, 1923 – March 28, 2021) was one of the first importers of European racing bikes into the United States in 1958 when he opened Mel Pinto Imports in northern Virginia and began selling Gitane bicycles on consignment. Later, Pinto was the first to import Shimano’s Dura-Ace components into the U.S. In 1960, Pinto became a founding member of the Federation of Washington Area Bicycle Clubs, now known as the National Capital Velo Club, and in 1963 revived the moribund National Capital Open bicycle race in Washington, D.C., reestablishing it as an annual event on The Ellipse The Ellipse (sometimes referred to as President's Park South) is a park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Ellipse is also the name of the circumference street within t ... until the race's demise in 1988. Pinto sold Mel Pinto Imports in 2009 and resided in Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. until his death in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Patrick Fignon (; 12 August 1960 – 31 August 2010) was a French professional road bicycle racer who won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 and the Giro d'Italia in 1989. He is former FICP World No. 1 in 1989. He nearly captured the Tour de France for a third time in 1989 before being edged by Greg LeMond by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the Tour. Fignon won many classic races, including taking Milan–San Remo back-to-back in 1988 and 1989. He died from cancer in 2010. Early life and amateur career Fignon was born in Montmartre, Paris. His family moved to Tournan-en-Brie in 1963, where he lived until he left for Paris at age 23. His first sport was football and he got as far as playing for his ' or area. Friends encouraged him into cycling and he rode his first official race in 1976, which he won. Fignon's parents did not want him to race, and he raced without them knowing. He won four more races in his first year, but only one in his second year. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grimaldi Industri
Grimaldi Industri AB of Stockholm, Sweden, is a holding company that owns: * Cycleurope – A group of companies that manufacture bicycles and related items with the brands: Bianchi, Crescent, DBS, Everton, Gitane, Kildemoes, Monark, Peugeot, Puch, Spectra, Tec * Contento * Grimaldis Mekaniska Verkstad * Karlsson Spools * Learnify * Morgana * Plockmatic International * Pricer * 3nine Grimaldi is 100% owned by Salvatore Grimaldi Salvatore Grimaldi (; born 25 May 1945) is a Swedish entrepreneur and speaker. He is the chairman of Företagarna and the CEO of Grimaldi Industri AB. Early life Salvatore Grimaldi was born in Taranto, Italy. He migrated from Italy to Västerå .... References External linksGrimaldi Industri website [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machecoul
Machecoul ( br, Machikoul) is a former commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Machecoul-Saint-Même. 23 November 2015. Its 5,732 inhabitants are called ''Machecoulais''. It was the site of , the opening of the in 1793. Geography The ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured trucks, tractors, tanks, buses/coaches, aircraft and aircraft engines, and autorail vehicles. According to the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles, in 2016 Renault was the ninth biggest automaker in the world by production volume. By 2017, the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance had become the world's biggest seller of light vehicles. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, the Renault group is made up of the namesake Renault marque and subsidiaries, Alpine, Renault Sport (Gordini), Automobile Dacia from Romania, and Renault Samsung Motors from South Korea. Renault has a 43.4% stake with several votes in Nissan of Japan, and used to have a 1.55% stake in Daimler AG of Germany, it was sold off in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Companies Based In Pays De La Loire
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared goals. Companies take various forms, such as: * voluntary associations, which may include nonprofit organizations * business entities, whose aim is generating profit * financial entities and banks * programs or educational institutions A company can be created as a legal person so that the company itself has limited liability as members perform or fail to discharge their duty according to the publicly declared incorporation, or published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be liquidated to avoid further legal obligations. Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as corporate groups. Meanings and definitions A company can be defined as an "artificial per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-François Bernard
Jean-François Bernard (born 2 May 1962) is a French former professional road bicycle racer. Career He turned professional in 1984 for La Vie Claire, led by Bernard Hinault. He was seen as Hinault’s successor as a winner of stage races from 1986. He competed in the team time trial event at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Bernard wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification in the 1987 Tour de France and won two stages, both time trials, including one on Mont Ventoux. He finished the race third behind Stephen Roche of Ireland and Pedro Delgado of Spain and was in contention all the way to the end in what still remains among the closest Tours in history. He won three stages in the 1988 Giro d'Italia and led the race, but he crashed in a tunnel, injured his back and abandoned the race. The next year he needed an operation and months of recuperation for fibrosis in his left knee. A saddle sore and another operation forced him out of the 1990 Tour de France. He nev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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