Guillaume Bonnafond (born 23 June 1987) is a French former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2018 for the and teams. He had excelled at both

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and cycling as a youth, but eventually concentrated on the latter, training with 's Chambéry Cyclisme Formation, subsequently joining the squad as an amateur and, in 2009 as a professional.

Amateur career

Born in Valence, Bonnafond finished third in the

general classification The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulati ...

of the Tour de Lorraine as a junior, and he won the overall rankings of the Tour du Valromey, both in 2005. In the following season he recorded two third spots in two stages of the Tour de la Réunion and in 2007 there were two second spots (in stage 1B of the Tour des Pays de Savoie and stage 4 of the

Giro della Valle d'Aosta Giro della Valle d'Aosta is a stage race road bicycle race held annually in August in Aosta Valley, Italy. Since 2005, the race is organized as a 2.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing c ...

) and two third spots (in the Grand Prix des Vins du Brulhois and in stage 1 of the

Tour du Gévaudan Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

. Then 2008 turned out to be his breakthrough year on amateur level. He was added to the team and with a second place in the

Berner Rundfahrt Tour de Berne is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held in Berne, Switzerland with races for men and women. Men's event The men's event began in 1920 and has previously been a UCI 1.2 rated event on the UCI Europe Tour. Women' ...

, a third place in the Classique Sauveterre Pyrénées Atlantique and another second place in the first stage of the Tour du Chablais he started the season well. In the

Ronde de l'Isard d'Ariège The Ronde de l'Isard is a road bicycle race held annually in France. It is organized as a 2.2U event on the UCI Europe Tour. Winners References

UCI Europe Tour races Cycle races in France 1977 ...

he won the fourth stage of the under-23 competition finishing in front of

Blel Kadri Blel Kadri (born 3 September 1986) is a former French professional road racing cyclist, who most recently rode for UCI ProTeam . He is of Algerian descent. Career 2013 In March 2013, Kadri won the Roma Maxima, a newly revived race formerly known ...

and also managed to win the overall rankings that way. He then went back to ride in the Tour des Pays de Savoie again, this time with more success than the year before as he managed to win stage 1, towards

La Toussuire Les Sybelles () is a French linked ski area, located in the Savoie department in the Alps. It is one of the largest skiable domains in France. The resort was the home base of Jean-Pierre Vidal, winner of the gold medal in slalom at the 2002 Wint ...

, stage 2 towards

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...

and the general classification in front of

Julien Bérard Julien Bérard (born 27 July 1987) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2010 and 2017, entirely for the team. Amateur career Born in Paris, Bérard recorded his first notable result in July 2005 w ...

. Later that year he rode to the third place in the

Flèche Ardennaise The Flèche Ardennaise is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in June in the province of Liège, Belgium. Since 2010, the race is organized as a 1.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle ...

, the second spot in the French national amateurs road championship, a second place in the

Grand Prix Cristal Energie The Grand Prix Cristal Energie is a road bicycle race held annually in France. It was organized as a 1.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by t ...

and a third spot in the

Piccolo Giro di Lombardia The Piccolo Giro di Lombardia is a one-day cycling race held annually in Lombardy, Italy. It is part of UCI Europe Tour in category 1.2U, meaning it is reserved for under 23 riders. The race acts as the U23 counterpart to the Giro di Lombardia T ...

Professional career

In his first season as a professional he made his debut for the team in the

Tour de Langkawi The Tour de Langkawi is a multiple stage bicycle race held in Malaysia. It is named after the archipelago Langkawi, where the first edition started and finished. The race has been held annually since 1996, primarily in February. It usually con ...

where he finished in 32nd spot overall. In preparation of his first

grand tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

Bonnafond ended up in 29th place of the

Giro del Trentino The Tour of the Alps is an annual professional cycling stage race in Italy and Austria. First held in 1962, it was named Giro del Trentino ( en, Tour of Trentino) until 2016, and run over four stages in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region o ...

and the 32nd place of the

2009 Tour de Romandie The 2009 Tour de Romandie (63rd Edition) cycling road race started on 28 April and finished on 3 May in Switzerland. It was the 6th event in the 2009 UCI ProTour, and the 12th event in the World Calendar. In addition to the 18 ProTour teams, gu ...

. In his first grand tour, the

2009 Giro d'Italia 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

he managed to reach the finish line of the 21st stage in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to complete the race in 85th position. His best result was a 22nd spot in the 14th stage from

Campi Bisenzio Campi Bisenzio is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about northwest of Florence. History The word Campi in the municipality's name stems from the fields which are widespread i ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

. He finished his first professional season with a 12th spot in the

Route du Sud The Route d'Occitanie is a road bicycle race with 4 stages held annually in Southern France. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It is usually held a week before the Tour de France ...

and a fifth place in the fifth stage of the

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents ...

The 2010 season started off in January when he took part in

La Tropicale Amissa Bongo La Tropicale Amissa Bongo is a road cycling race held in Gabon and is part of the UCI Africa Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale ( ...

, a stage race in

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

. There he finished in fifth position in stage 3, third position in stage 6 and 18th overall. Also this year he prepared for the Giro d'Italia in the Giro del Trentino, improving his 2009 result to 22nd. However this time he did not manage to complete the

2010 Giro d'Italia The 2010 Giro d'Italia was the 93rd edition of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race started off in Amsterdam on 8 May and stayed in the Netherlands for three stages, before leaving the country. The route included climbs ...

as he did not finish stage 6 towards

Marina di Carrara A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

. In the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné he finished in 66th position overall and in 8th position in the mountains classification. The second grand tour he completed was the 2010 Vuelta a España, which he did in 57th place. Late he would ride to the 22nd spot in the

Giro di Lombardia The Giro di Lombardia ( en, Tour of Lombardy), officially ''Il Lombardia'', is a cycling race in Lombardy, Italy. It is traditionally the last of the five 'Monuments' of the season, considered to be one of the most prestigious one-day events in cy ...

to finish the season. In the 2011 pre-season Bonnafond tried his luck in some of the classic races. He started off with a 32nd spot in

Paris–Camembert Paris–Camembert (also Paris–Camembert Trophée Lepetit or Paris–Camembert Lepetit) is a semi classic held annually in April. Since 2005, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. The route of the race has varied over th ...

, but did not finish the

2011 Amstel Gold Race The 2011 Amstel Gold Race was the 46th running of the Amstel Gold Race, a single-day cycling race. It was held on 17 April 2011 over a distance of and was the tenth race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season. 's Philippe Gilbert claimed victory for ...

and the 2011 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Following those results he did not participate in the Giro d'Italia, but did finish another grand tour by completing the

2011 Vuelta a España The 2011 Vuelta a España was held from 20 August to 11 September. The bicycle race began in Benidorm with a team time trial and ended, as is traditional, in Madrid. The 2011 Vuelta was the 66th edition of the race and was the first Vuelta in 33 ...

in 26th position overall.

Career achievements

Major results

;2005 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Tour du Valromey Juniors : 3rd Overall Tour de Lorraine Juniors ;2006 : 10th

Paris–Tours Espoirs Paris–Tours Espoirs ( en, Paris–Tours Prospects) is a French single-day road cycling race held every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours. It is organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race is held as a 1 ...

;2007 : 3rd Grand Prix des Vins du Brulhois : 9th

;2008 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Tour des Pays de Savoie ::1st Stages 2 & 3 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Ronde de l'Isard The Ronde de l'Isard is a road bicycle race held annually in France. It is organized as a 2.2U event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union C ...

::1st Stage 4 : 2nd

: 3rd Classique Sauveterre Pyrénées Atlantique : 3rd

: 2nd Road race, National Amateur Road Championships : 2nd

: 3rd

;2012 : 2nd Overall

Paris–Corrèze Paris–Corrèze was a road bicycle race held annually in France, usually between a department near Paris and the department of Corrèze. It was created by Laurent Fignon and Max Mamers. It was first held in 2001 and since 2005 it has been organi ...

: 7th Overall

Tour de l'Ain Tour de l'Ain, also known as the Prix de l'Amitié, is an annual professional cycling stage race held in eastern France. G.P. de l'Amitié The first edition of the race was in 1970, as the G.P. de l'Amitié (Friendship G.P.). It was held over fo ...

;2013 : 6th Overall

Tour du Limousin Tour du Limousin is a 4-day road bicycle race held annually in Limousin, France. It was first held in 1968 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. In 2011 it was upgraded to an 2.HC The UCI 1.HC and UCI 2.HC ar ...

;2015 : 9th Overall

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnafond, Guillaume 1987 births Living people French male cyclists Sportspeople from Drôme Cyclists from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes