Raoul Lesueur (29 April 1912 – 19 August 1981) was a French cyclist. He started his career as a road racer, winning numerous competitions in the 1930s and ''

Critérium des As The ''Critérium des As'' (''Race of the Aces'') was a cycle race that was generally held at the end of the season, with entry by invitation only, for the leading riders of the season. Competitors rode behind pacers on tandems or motorcycles. It w ...

'' in 1943. After World War II he focused on

motor-paced racing Motor-paced racing and motor-paced cycling refer to cycling behind a pacer in a car or more usually on a motorcycle. The cyclist (or stayer in this case) follows as close as they can to benefit from the slipstream of their pacer. The first paced ...

. In this discipline he won a European title in 1950 and the

UCI Motor-paced World Championships __FORCETOC__ UCI Track Cycling World Championships in motor-paced racing Motor-paced racing and motor-paced cycling refer to cycling behind a pacer in a car or more usually on a motorcycle. The cyclist (or stayer in this case) follows as close as ...

in 1947 and 1950. In the beginning of his cycling career, Lesueur moved from his native Le Havre to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

and trained at the local "Vélodrome Pasteur". The Velodrome was heavily damaged by bombing in 1944, as it was likely confused with a factory building, and thus demolished in 1960. The former Avenue de Velodrome is now called Rue Raoul Lesueur.

References

1912 births 1981 deaths French male cyclists Sportspeople from Le Havre UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men) French track cyclists Cyclists from Normandy {{France-cycling-bio-1910s-stub