Peugeot team was a French professional

cycling team A cycling team is a group of cycle sport, cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle racing, bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important i ...

that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes. It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team,

Alcyon The Alcyon was a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer between 1903 and 1954. Origins Alcyon originated from about 1890 when Edmond Gentil started the manufacture of bicycles in Neuilly, Seine. In 1902, this was complemented b ...

History

Peugeot cycles started producing bicycles in 1882, and from then on it was involved in sponsoring cyclists. At the beginning of the century a Peugeot cycling team existed. Hippolyte Aucouturier rode Peugeot cycles when he won Paris–Roubaix and Bordeaux–Paris in 1903, and when he was disqualified from the

1904 Tour de France The 1904 Tour de France was the second Tour de France, held from 2 to 24 July. With a route similar to its previous edition, 1903 Tour de France winner Maurice Garin seemed to have repeated his win by a small margin over Lucien Pothier, while ...

in which he had finished fourth overall, for the illegal use of trains and cars. But the Peugeot team obtained success for the following four years in the Tour de France with

Louis Trousselier Louis Trousselier (; 1881 – 24 April 1939) was a French racing cyclist who won the 1905 Tour de France. His other major wins were Paris–Roubaix, also in 1905, and the 1908 Bordeaux–Paris. He came third in the 1906 Tour de France and won 1 ...

René Pottier René Pottier (5 June 1879 in Moret-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne – 25 January 1907 in Levallois-Perret) was a French racing cyclist. Pottier won the amateur category of the 1903 Bordeaux–Paris race before turning professional. He came second in ...

and Lucien Petit-Breton. The Peugeot team finished second overall in the 1912 Giro d'Italia. The team would obtain two further victories in the Tour de France with Belgian

Philippe Thys Philippe Thys (; nl, Philippe Thĳs; 8 October 1889 – 16 January 1971) was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France. Professional career In 1910, Thys won Belgium's first national cyclo-cross championship. The foll ...

before the outbreak of the First World War. Directly after the war, Peugeot cycles was one of the companies that made a consortium that pooled their resources into a collective

called La Sportive. The objective of forming such a consortium was to keep the sport alive in the poor post-war economic situation. After three years of the La Sportive consortium, Peugeot re-established its separate cycling team, and with Belgian

Firmin Lambot Firmin Lambot (; 14 March 1886 – 19 January 1964) was a Belgian bicycle racer who twice won the Tour de France. Born in the small town of Florennes,The Bicycle, UK, 26 March 1952, p6 Lambot worked as a saddler. He worked 12 hours a day, star ...

won the

1922 Tour de France The 1922 Tour de France was the 16th Tour de France bicycle race, taking place from 25 June to 23 July. The 1922 Tour consisted of 15 stages covering a total of . The race was won by the Belgian Firmin Lambot, who had also won the 1919 Tour de F ...

. During this time the team was known as the Peugeot team, or sometimes the name of a co-sponsor was added, which occasionally was Wolber,

, Dunlop, Tedeschi, Bianchi-Pirelli. From 1936 until 1955 the team was the Peugeot-Dunlop team. Yves Petit-Breton (son of the two time Tour de France winner Lucien Petit-Breton) would be a directeur sportif of the team in 1956. From 1948 to 1959 there was a Belgian

which was also sponsored by Peugeot, called Elvé-Peugeot. In 1958, Gaston Plaud became the directeur sportif of Peugeot- BP, where he would stay until the mid seventies. He would direct big names to success, such as

Charly Gaul Charly Gaul Sporting Cyclist, UK, undated cutting (8 December 1932 – 6 December 2005)Walter Godefroot,

Tom Simpson Thomas Simpson (30 November 1937 – 13 July 1967) was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He was born in Haswell, County Durham, and later moved to Harworth, Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road cycling as a teenager b ...

, Jean-Pierre Danguillaume, and the early career of Eddy Merckx. In 1963 Team Peugeot adopted the black and white checkerboard design, that would be on their white jersey until the team retired from the sport in 1986. During this time the team achieved many successes, such as

winning Bordeaux–Paris in 1963,

Milan–San Remo Milan–San Remo (in Italian ''Milano-Sanremo''), also called "''The Spring classic''" or "''La Classicissima''", is an annual road cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy. With a distance of 298 km (~185.2 miles) it is t ...

in 1964, and then in 1965 becoming world champion and winning the Giro di Lombardia. Eddy Merckx 1967cr

Eddy Merckx rode his first two seasons with the team, and won

twice, Gent–Wevelgem, La Flèche Wallonne, a stage in the

1967 Giro d'Italia The 1967 Giro d'Italia was the 50th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. The Giro started in Treviglio, on 20 May, with a stage and concluded in Milan, on 11 June, with a split leg. A total of 130 riders from 13 ...

, and the world championships road race with the team, in 1966. In 1967, the Tour de France was disputed by national teams, and one of Peugeot's riders,

Roger Pingeon Roger Pingeon (; 28 August 1940 – 19 March 2017) was a professional road bicycle racer from France. Biography Growing up near the Jura Mountains, he was a cross-country skier as a teenager before taking up bicycle racing. He spent two y ...

won the race. He would win the 1969 Vuelta a España for the team. The team won the Vuelta a España again, with

Ferdinand Bracke Ferdinand Bracke (born 25 May 1939) is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist who is most famous for holding the World Hour Record (48.093 km) and winning the overall title at the 1971 Vuelta a España in front of Wilfried D ...

in 1971. The name of the team changed in 1965 to Peugeot-BP

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

, which it stayed until 1976, when

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

took the place of the second sponsor.

Maurice De Muer Maurice De Muer (4 October 1921 – 4 March 2012) was a French cyclist who rode as a professional between 1943 and 1951 and later became a cycling team manager. He won Paris–Camembert in 1944 and finished second in the 1946 edition of Par ...

became directeur sportif with the team in 1975, and directed

Bernard Thévenet Bernard Thévenet (; born 10 January 1948) is a retired professional cyclist. His sporting career began with ACBB Paris. He is twice a winner of the Tour de France and known for ending the reign of five-times Tour champion Eddy Merckx, though bo ...

to beat Eddy Merckx, in the

1975 Tour de France The 1975 Tour de France was the 62nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 26 June and 20 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of . Eddy Merckx was attempting to win his sixth Tour de France, but b ...

. He directed the team until 1982. The last time the team would win the Tour de France would be with

, in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

. In 1982 Shell became the second sponsor, and until its finish the team was Peugeot-Shell-Michelin. In the late seventies and early eighties, the team signed many Anglophone riders. Many of these came from a Parisian Amateur club

Athletic Club de Boulogne Billencourt Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt or A.C.B.B. is a French sports club based in the suburbs of Paris in the commune of Boulogne-Billancourt. The club offers a variety of sports, but is primarily known for cycling, rugby union, judo, figure sk ...

(ACBB) that acted as a feeder club for top amateurs to turn professional. Phil Anderson, Robert Millar, Stephen Roche, Sean Yates, and

Allan Peiper Allan Peiper (born 26 April 1960), is a retired Australian professional cyclist and current pro cycling team manager. He began cycling at 12 years of age, competing on both road and track, with success. Selected for the Australian team, at the ...

all started their careers with the Peugeot team. The last time that the team had the yellow jersey of the Tour was the

1983 Tour de France The 1983 Tour de France was the 70th edition of the Tour de France, run from 1 to 24 July, with 22 stages and a prologue covering a total distance of The race was won by French rider Laurent Fignon. Sean Kelly of Ireland won the points classifi ...

when

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, ...

wore the jersey, but had to abandon the Tour, due to a broken collarbone. The team had its last chance at a Grand Tour win in the 1985 edition of the Vuelta a España with Robert Millar. Millar was wearing the leader's red jersey on the penultimate day when Pedro Delgado attacked him, to take the stage and the leader's jersey. In its final year of existence (1986), the team was managed by Roger Legeay. After 1986, Legeay created the Vétements Z-Peugeot team as a continuation of the Peugeot cycling team. Legeay's team was subsequently renamed Z-Peugeot (1988–89), Z-Tomasso (1990), Z (1991–92), GAN (1993–96) and

Crédit Agricole Crédit Agricole Group (), sometimes called La banque verte ( en, The green bank) due to its historical ties to farming, is a French international banking group and the world's largest cooperative financial institution. It is France's second lar ...

(1997–2008), before being disbanded in 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 (when the team was known as Z-Tomasso). Other directeur sportifs of the Peugeot cycling team during its existence included: Leon Van der Hulst, Roland Berland, Robert Naeye, Roger Moreau, Jean Lecocq, Camille Narcy, Serge Beucherie, and Jean-François Guiborel.

Major wins

* Tour de France General classification 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1913, 1914, 1922, 1967, 1975, 1977 * Vuelta a España General classification 1948, 1969, 1971 * Tour de France Mountains classification 1984 * World Road Race Championship 1957, 1965, 1967 * World Cyclo-Cross Championship 1961, 1963 * Road Race Championship 1907, 1908, 1920, 1962, 1973, 1975, 1976 * Cyclo-Cross Championship 1913, 1914, 1960 * Road Race Championship 1908, 1909, 1910 * Road Race Championship 1965, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1978 * Cyclo-Cross Championship 1961, 1963 * Road Race Championship 1957, 1972 * Road Race Championship 1936 * Cyclo-Cross Championship 1964, 1967, 1968 * Road Race Championship 1914, 1924, 1948, 1949 * Road Race Championship 1984 * Road Race Championship 1948 * Road Race Championship 1984 *

1907, 1914, 1918, 1964, 1966, 1967 * Tour of Flanders 1973 * Paris–Roubaix 1904, 1905, 1907, 1913, 1963 * Amstel Gold Race 1983 * Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1949, 1957, 1967 * Grand Prix des Nations 1949, 1962 *

Paris–Tours Paris–Tours is a French one-day classic road cycling race held every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours. It is a predominantly flat course through the Chevreuse and Loire valleys; the highest point is 200 m, ...

1906, 1907, 1914, 1917, 1951, 1970 * Giro di Lombardia 1907, 1908, 1917, 1951, * Paris-Nice 1967

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peugeot (Cycling Team) Defunct cycling teams based in France Peugeot Cycling teams established in 1901 Cycling teams disestablished in 1986 1901 establishments in France 1986 disestablishments in France

History

Major wins

References

Further reading

External links