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Directeurs Sportifs
A ''directeur sportif'' ( French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows the team in a car and communicates with riders, personnel and race officials by radio. The directeur sportif warns of obstacles or challenging terrain, updates the team on the situation in the race, and provides mechanical help. The car carrying the directeur sportif also usually carries a bicycle mechanic with spare bikes, wheels and parts. It also carries spare water bottles, food and medical equipment. Since the late 1990s, the role has increased, in keeping with better team cohesion, tactics and communication and telemetry equipment. The directeur sportif can have split times, find where riders from o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents, most of which are members of the ''Organisation internationale de la Francophonie'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Boonen
Tom Boonen (; born 15 October 1980) is a Belgian former road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2002 and 2017 for the and teams and a professional racing driver who currently competes in Belcar, having previously competed in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Boonen won the 2005 UCI World Road Race Championships, and was a single-day road specialist with a strong finishing sprint. He won the cycling monuments Paris–Roubaix 4 times and the Tour of Flanders 3 times, among many other prestigious victories, such as prevailing 5 times in the E3 Harelbeke, winning 6 stages of the Tour de France and winning the Overall title of the Tour of Qatar 4 times. Career Early years At the start of 2002 Boonen rode for , finishing third in Paris–Roubaix after an early breakaway. Fellow Belgian Johan Museeuw had escaped to a solo victory. Team captain George Hincapie crashed in a slippery section of the course leaving Boonen to ride for himself. Boonen's performance led Mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Road Bicycle Racing Terminology
A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of roads, including parkways, avenues, controlled-access highways (freeways, motorways, and expressways), tollways, interstates, highways, thoroughfares, and local roads. The primary features of roads include lanes, sidewalks (pavement), roadways (carriageways), medians, shoulders, verges, bike paths (cycle paths), and shared-use paths. Definitions Historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or some maintenance. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines a road as "a line of communication (travelled way) using a stabilized base other than rails or air strips open to public traffic, primarily for the use of road motor vehicles running on their own wheels", which i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1990 Tour De France
The 1990 Tour de France was the 77th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 30 June and 22 July 1990. The race consisted of 21 stages and a prologue. American Greg LeMond () repeated his 1989 victory in the general classification, ahead of Claudio Chiappucci () and Erik Breukink () in second and third place respectively. The Tour started with a prologue time trial at the Futuroscope theme park, won by Thierry Marie (). On the first stage, a four-rider group escaped and gained more than ten minutes on the rest of the field. Steve Bauer () became the new leader of the race, but faltered in the Alps as Ronan Pensec (), also from the escape group, took over the race lead. Two days later, during a mountain time trial to Villard-de-Lans, the lead passed to Claudio Chiappucci, who had been in the same group as well. Chiappucci fought to hang on to his advantage over defending champion LeMond, but was overtaken in the final time trial on the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Legeay
Roger Legeay (born 8 August 1949, Beaufay) is a French former professional racing cyclist and cycling team manager. Biography Legeay was the manager of the Peugeot cycling team in its final year of existence in 1986. In 1987, he created the Vétements Z-Peugeot team as a continuation of the Peugeot cycling team, which he managed until 2008. During its existence, due to changes in sponsorship, the team was renamed Z-Peugeot (1988–89), Z-Tomasso (1990), Z (1991–92), GAN (1993–96) and Crédit Agricole (1997-2008). Legeay's team is best remembered for being the team which the American cyclist Greg LeMond rode for when he won the Tour de France in 1990. He managed also Pascal Simon Pascal Simon (born 27 September 1956) is a retired French road racing cyclist. A native of Mesnil St. Loup, he was a professional cyclist from 1979 to 1991. Pascal was the oldest of four brothers that all became professional cyclists: Régis, ..., Stephen Roche, Ronan Pensec, Cédric Vasseur, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddy Merckx
Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (, ; born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours (five Tours de France, five Giros d'Italia, and a Vuelta a España), all five Monuments, setting the hour record, three World Championships, every major one-day race other than Paris–Tours, and extensive victories on the track. Born in Meensel-Kiezegem, Brabant, Belgium, he grew up in Sint-Pieters-Woluwe where his parents ran a grocery store. He played several sports, but found his true passion in cycling. Merckx got his first bicycle at the age of three or four and competed in his first race in 1961. His first victory came at Petit-Enghien in October 1961. After winning eighty races as an amateur racer, he turned professional on 29 April 1965 when he signed with . His first major victory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 Tour de France, 1999 to 2005 Tour de France, 2005 after recovering from testicular cancer, he was later stripped of all his titles when an investigation found that he Lance Armstrong doping case, had used performance-enhancing drugs over his career. At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlon, triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, he began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola Cycling Team, Motorola team. He had success between 1993 and 1996 with the UCI Road World Championships, World Championship in 1993 UCI Road World Championships, 1993, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Tour DuPont in 1995 and 1996, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joaquim Agostinho
Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH (7 April 1943 – 10 May 1984) 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,''International Cycle Sport'', UK, 1984 winning on Alpe d'Huez in 1979, and finishing third twice. All total he finished in the top 10 of a Grand Tour eleven times, made three podiums and won a total of seven stages between the Vuelta and Tour. Youth Agostinho was born in a small village, near Torres Vedras. He lived for several years in Casalinhos de Alfaiata. Out for a ride as a youth, he encountered Sporting Clube de Portugal's cycling team on a road near Casalinhos de Alfaiata – Torres Vedras. He began an impromptu race; the team could not catch him, even though Agostinho was riding a standard steel bicycle. Agostinho fought for three years with the Portuguese army in Angola and Mozambique during the Portuguese Colonial War of 1961–1974. Jean-Pierr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sean Kelly (cyclist)
John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest Classics riders of all time. From becoming a professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won 193 professional races, including nine Monument Classics, Paris–Nice a record seven years consecutively and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. Kelly won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, and four green jerseys in the Tour de France. He achieved multiple victories in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only Monument he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Grand Prix des Nations and stage races, the Critérium International, Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya. Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the Road World Championships Elite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean De Gribaldy
Jean de Gribaldy (18 July 1922 – 2 January 1987) was a French road cyclist and directeur sportif. He rode in the Tour de France in 1947 and 1948. Biography Born in Besançon, Doubs ''département'', Gribaldi was a professional racing cyclist from 1945 to 1954. He began a successful career as a directeur sportif in the mid-1960s. Nicknamed ''le Vicomte'' ("the Viscount") due to his aristocratic ancestry, he discovered Sean Kelly, Joaquim Agostinho, and Éric Caritoux Éric Caritoux (born 16 August 1960 in Carpentras, Vaucluse) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who raced between 1983 and 1994. He had 22 victories in his career, the highlights of which were winning the Vuelta a España in 1984 .... He gave a second chance to many riders dropped by other teams. Most saw their career take a new dimension under Jean de Gribaldy. A street in Besançon, where he was a shopkeeper, has been named Montée Jean de Gribaldy since 1994. Each year, a Jean de Griba ... [...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] |
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] |
