Jean Malléjac (19 July 1929 – 24 September 2000) was a professional

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

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 com ...

Career

Malléjac was born at

Dirinon Dirinon (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Population Inhabitants of Dirinon are called in French ''Dirinonais''. See also *Communes of the Finistère department * Dirinon Parish close *List o ...

. Previously a worker in the munitions factory in Brest, he was professional from 1950 with the Stella-Dunlop team. His biggest accomplishment was when riding for the Terrot Hutchinson team, he won a stage and wore the yellow jersey as leader of 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 ...

for five days on his way to finishing the

1953 Tour de France The 1953 Tour de France was the 40th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 3 to 26 July. It consisted of 22 stages over . The race was won by Louison Bobet, the first of his three consecutive wins. At first, internal struggles in the ...

second overall behind

Louison Bobet Louis "Louison" Bobet (; 12 March 1925 – 13 March 1983) was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 195 ...

. In 1955, as rider number 9 in the French team led by Bobet, Malléjac prepared to ride over

Mont Ventoux Mont Ventoux (; ) is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the department of Drôme. At , it is the highest mountain in the region and h ...

on stage 12 from

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

. It is a climb that riders have always feared because the first two-thirds are through a forest where the air seems humid and scarce and the rest through a bleak, lunar landscape that is proof of Mont Ventoux's history as a volcano. The French writer Antoine Blondin wrote: Ten kilometres from the summit, said the journalist Jacques Augendre, Malléjac was: "Streaming with sweat, haggard and comatose, he was zigzagging and the road wasn't wide enough for him... He was already no longer in the real world, still less in the world of cyclists and the Tour de France." Malléjac collapsed, falling to the ground with one foot still trapped in a pedal. The other leg pedalled on in the air. He was, said

Pierre Chany Pierre Chany (; 16 December 1922 – 18 June 1996) was a French cycling journalist. He covered the Tour de France 49 times and was for a long time the main cycling writer for the daily newspaper, '' L'Équipe''. Biography Chany was born ...

, "completely unconscious, his face the colour of a corpse, a freezing sweat ran on his forehead.Chany, Pierre (1988) ''La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France'', Éditions La Martinière, France Malléjac was hauled to the side of the road by Sauveur Ducazeaux, an official of another team, and Dumas summoned. Georges Pahnoud of the ''Télégramme de Brest'' reported: Dumas had to strap Malléjac down for the journey to hospital at Avignon. Malléjac and Dumas were equally furious, Malléjac insisting he had been drugged against his will and that he wanted to start legal proceedings, Dumas saying: "I'm prepared to call for a charge of attempted murder." Malléjac recovered and rode the Tour four more times before he stopped racing in 1959. He retired to run a driving school at Landerneau, near where he was born. He denied wrongdoing up to his death in September 2000 at

Landerneau Landerneau (; , ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. It lies at the mouth of the Elorn River which divides the Breton provinces of Cornouaille and Léon, east of Brest. The name is from Lan Ter ...

Teams

1950 -1951: Stella-Dunlop 1952: Stella-Huret 1953 - 1955: Terrot-Hutchinson 1956 - 1958: St Raphaël-Géminiani

Major results

;1950 :Callac ;1953 :

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

: ::Winner stage 5 ::Wearing

yellow jersey The general classification of the Tour de France is the most important classification of the race and determines the winner of the race. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification has worn the yellow jersey ( ). History For the first t ...

for five days ::2nd place overall classification ;1954 :

: ::5th place overall classification

References

External links

*
Official Tour de France results for Jean Malléjac
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallejac, Jean French male cyclists French Tour de France stage winners Doping cases in cycling 1929 births 2000 deaths Cyclists from Finistère 20th-century French sportsmen