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 The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

and known for ending the reign of five-times Tour champion

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 victorie ...

, though both feats are tarnished by Thévenet's later admission of

steroids A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and ...

use during his career. He also won the

Dauphiné Libéré The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th cent ...

in 1975 and 1976.

Origins

Thévenet was born to a farming family in

Saône-et-Loire Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part. Saône-et-Loire is Bo ...

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...

and lived in a hamlet called Le Guidon (The Handlebar).L'Équipe, France, 12 July 2003 It was there in 1961 that he saw the Tour de France for the first time, on a 123 km stage from

Nevers Nevers ( , ; la, Noviodunum, later ''Nevirnum'' and ''Nebirnum'') is the prefecture of the Nièvre Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in central France. It was the principal city of the ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. At the time Thévenet was a choirboy in the village church. He said: "The priest brought forward the time for Mass so that we could watch the riders go by. The sun was shining on their toe-clips and the chrome on their forks. They were modern-day knights. I had already been dreaming of becoming a racing cyclist and that magical sight convinced me definitively. It was never that magical when I was actually in the peloton of the Tour!" From the age of six he went to school on the rack of his sister's bike. He got his own bike a year later and pedalled the 10 km round journey himself.Cycle Sport, UK, May 2000 His first adult bike, not a racing machine but a sporty cross between a racer and a touring bike, came as a present for passing school examinations at 14. His parents needed him on the farm too much to be keen on his racing, but they knew their son's ambitions. Thévenet rode his first race and his parents found out only when they read the local paper. There was a row and the club president intervened by inviting the parents to see their son's next race. Thévenet won it. He was champion of Burgundy in 1965 and 1966 and French junior champion in 1968. In 1967 the manager of the ACBB club in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and t ...

Mickey Weigant, drove to his house to enrol him. The ACBB was an accepted development team for professionalism, particularly for the

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

team. During 1968, he rode for the amateur team of

Jean de Gribaldy Jean de Gribaldy (18 July 1922 – 2 January 1987) was a French road bicycle racing, road cyclist and directeur sportif. He rode in the Tour de France in 1947 Tour de France, 1947 and 1948 Tour de France, 1948. Biography Born in Besançon, D ...

, ''Cafés Ravis-Wolhauser-de Gribaldy'', which won the amateur Route de France. After that Thévenet did his

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require ...

in 1969.

Professional career

He turned professional with Peugeot-BP-Michelin in 1970. He rode the

for the first time in 1970, as a last-minute stand-in. He said: "I wasn't even a reserve in 1970 but, because two riders in the team had fallen ill at Peugeot, the

directeur sportif 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 se ...

picked me two days before the start." Gaston Plaud had to call a neighbour in the village because neither Thévenet's nor many other families had telephones. Thévenet had left to train with a friend, Michel Rameau, and his mother got a message to him at Rameau's house. Thévenet asked the advice of Victor Ferrari, a friend who rode the Tour in 1929. Thévenet said: "He was probably afraid that I'd hesitate and he said: 'You're not going to say No, are you crazy? Go on, go...'"Vélo, France, undated Thévenet remembered: :I can remember perfectly getting to

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

or the start I was anxious and scared at the same time, but full of pride. I was given a new suitcase, seven jerseys, six pairs of shorts, overclothes, sweaters, shirts and so on and so on. Everyone else had a brand new bike, but not me, because I wasn't on the team's entry list. Thévenet won a mountain stage ending at the ski resort of

La Mongie The village of La Mongie is at altitude. There are also residences at 1850 and the Tourmalet building at 1900. It lies below the Col du Tourmalet . It is in the canton of Campan in the Midi-Pyrénées region (department 65) of France and around ...

, most of the way up the

Tourmalet Col du Tourmalet (; elevation ) is one of the highest paved mountain passes in the French Pyrenees, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées. Sainte-Marie-de-Campan is at the foot on the eastern side and the ski station La Mongie two-thirds of ...

in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

. He said: "That evening, it was all clear 'j'ai compris bien des choses'' That I'd saved my season and, because of that, my job, because the obligatory two-year contracts for new professionals didn't exist then." In the 1972 Tour he crashed badly on a descent and was temporarily

amnesic Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...

. As he began to regain his memory, he looked down at his own Peugeot jersey and wondered whether he might be a cyclist. On recognizing the team car, he exclaimed: "I'm riding the Tour de France!" He refused to abandon the race and four days later won a

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

over

Mont Ventoux Mont Ventoux (; oc, Ventor, label= Provençal ) 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 ...

. In the 1973 Tour, he finished second, behind Luis Ocaña, but in 1974 he was forced to abandon the Tour on Stage 11 due to illness. In the 1975 Tour, Thévenet attacked

on the

col d'Izoard Col d'Izoard () is a mountain pass in the Alps in the department of Hautes-Alpes in France. It is accessible in summer via the D902 road, connecting Briançon on the north and the valley of the Guil in Queyras, which ends at Guillestre in the ...

on 14 July, France's national day. Merckx, who was suffering stomach pain from a punch by a spectator, fought back but lost the lead and never regained it.

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 in La ...

wrote: :Those who were there will be slow to forget Bernard Thévenet's six successive attacks in the never-ending climb of the col des Champs, Eddy Merckx's immediate and superb response, the alarming chase by the Frenchman after a puncture delayed him on the descent of the col, the Belgian's attack on the way to the summit of the Allos, his breath-taking plunge towards the Pra-Loup valley, his sudden weakening four kilometres from the top and, to finish, Thévenet's furious push. The end of the race was frenetic. Has Eddy Merckx's long reign in the Tour de France come to an end on the Pra-Loup. Some think so; others believe that it will happen tomorrow. A British writer, Graeme Fife, wrote: :Thévenet caught Merckx, by now almost delirious, 3km from the finish and rode by. The pictures show Merckx's face torn with anguish, eyes hollow, body slumped, arms locked shut on the bars, shoulders a clenched ridge of exertion and distress. Thévenet, mouth gaping to gulp more oxygen, looks pretty well at the limit, too, but his effort is gaining; he's out of the saddle, eyes fixed on the road. He said he could see that one side of the road had turned to liquid tar in the baking heat and Merckx was tyre-deep in it. Beside the road, a woman in a

bikini A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features two triangles of fabric on top that cover the breasts, and two triangles of fabric on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but exposing the navel, and the back coverin ...

waved a sign that said: "Merckx is beaten. The

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stor ...

has fallen." Thévenet - who had taken the climb on the larger chainring - went on to win the Tour, which that year finished on the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...

for the first time. Merckx finished second, three minutes behind. Thévenet won his second and last Tour in 1977. That winter he was hospitalized with a liver ailment he attributed to long-term use of

. Several months later Thévenet lined up for the

1978 Tour de France The 1978 Tour de France was the 65th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 29 June and 23 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of . The 1978 Tour had a high-profile doping case when Michel Pollen ...

but had to abandon the second mountain stage in an ambulance. He left the Peugeot cycling team after 1979 and signed for the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

team Teka, where he won two races and a six days race with the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n rider Danny Clark. He returned to a French team in his final year, 1981, where he won a stage in the

Circuit de la Sarthe The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport race course, chiefly known as the venue for the 24 H ...

Doping

Thévenet said "I have never taken drugs; they wouldn't be any use." However, he was caught taking drugs, in the 1977

Paris–Nice Paris–Nice is a professional cycling stage race in France, held annually since 1933. Raced over eight days, the race usually starts with a prologue in the Paris region and ends with a final stage either in Nice or on the Col d'Èze overlooki ...

. His 1978 season was a shadow of his years of winning the Tour de France. He had trouble finishing even minor races. When a journalist at the radio station France Inter wondered aloud if Thévenet's repeated poor performances might be due to doping, Thévenet and his team-mates refused to talk to the station.cited de Mondenard, Jean-Pierre, Dictionnaire du Dopage (2004), Masson, France, p331 Thévenet went to hospital, where tests showed serious trouble with his

adrenal glands The adrenal glands (also known as suprarenal glands) are endocrine glands that produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol. They are found above the kidneys. Each gland has an outer cortex which ...

. He admitted taking steroids and called for an end to drugs in the sport. "I was doped by cortisone for three years and there were many like me," he told

in ''Vélo-France''. The steroids had been prescribed to him by François Bellocq, the Peugeot doctor, who had qualified only in 1976. Thévenet told Chany: :We were all convinced we were doing the right thing 'être dans le vrai''and we were certain we were a step ahead of the rest so far as what we were doing to prepare for competition. The young doctor with our team had taken the time to explain to us how the body reacted to effort, which nobody had done before him. His words convinced us of his competence, and maybe we were overconfident, but I had the feeling that he was taking us out of the continual experimentation 'l'empirisme habituel''to get us on a more methodical and scientific road. From then on, everything that was said around us seemed to come from ignorance, jealousy or ''malveillance''. I was at ease with myself, satisfied deep down that I was doing my job seriously. That was how it was from 1975 until just recently.

Retirement

Thévenet became

in 1984 of the La Redoute team of

Stephen Roche Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de Fr ...

, then of RMO in 1986 and 1987. He became a television commentator and opened a company selling cycling clothes bearing his name. He was asked whether it was hard being a racing cyclist; his reply was that being a French farmer was harder. Thévenet became race director of the

Critérium du Dauphiné The Critérium du Dauphiné, before 2010 known as the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, is an annual cycling road race in the Dauphiné region in the southeast of France. The race is run over eight days during the first half of June. It is par ...

in 2010 after the organisation of the race was taken over by the

Amaury Sport Organisation The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury. It organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well as golf, running, sailing and off-road motorsport events. The president of ASO is Je ...

Honour

Thévenet was made a Chevalier de la

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

on 14 July 2001.

Career achievements

Major results

;1970 : 1st Stage 18

;1971 : 4th Overall

::1st Stage 10 ;1972 : 1st Jersey green

Overall

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. It ...

::1st Stages 11 & 17 : Bussières : La Souterraine : Le Creusot : Montceau-les-Mines ;1973 : 1st MaillotFra

Road race, National Road Championships : 2nd Overall

::1st Stages 7B & 20B : 3rd Overall

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the ...

::1st Stage 11 : Le Creusot : Montceau-les-Mines : Chateau-Chinon : Saussignac ;1974 : 1st MaillotVolta

Overall Volta Ciclista a Catalunya : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Critérium International The Critérium International was a two-day bicycle stage race held in France every spring from 1932 until 2016, typically the last weekend of March. It was formerly known as the Critérium National de la Route, first run in 1932. For many years ...

: 1st

Overall

Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme The Catalan Cycling Week (''Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme'' in Catalan) was a multi-stage road bicycle race held in Catalonia, Spain. Held annually from 1963 until 2005, it was run as a 2.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour in the second half of Ma ...

: Auzances : Bussières : Dunières : La Clayette : Saint-Quentin ;1975 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stages 15 & 16 : 1st Jersey yellow-bluebar

Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : Antibes : Beaulac-Bernos : Brette-les-Pins : La Rochelle : Montceau-les-Mines : Paray-le-Monial : Rodez : Saint-Brieuc : Saint-Martin en Ré : Seignelay : Aulnay-sous-Bois : Jeumont : Ronde de Seignelay : Vendôme ;1976 : 1st Jersey yellow-bluebar

Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 1st Six-Days of Grenoble (with Günter Haritz) : Ploërdut : Serenac : Pogny : Mende ;1977 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stage 20 : 1st Tour du Haut-Var : Bourges : Circuit des genêts verts : Circuit du Cher : Maël-Pestivien : Ronde de Seignelay : Saclas-Mereville ;1978 : Chauffailles : Nogaro ;1980 : 1st Six-Days of Grenoble (with Danny Clark) : 1st

Polynormande The Polynormande is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in August in the region of Normandy, France. Between 1980 and 2002 it was a criterium. Since 2003, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental ...

: Concarneau : Villefranche-en-Rouerge : Saint-Martin de Landelles ;1981 : Châteauroux - Classic de l'Indre : Les Herbieres : Castillon-la-Bataille)

Grand Tour results timeline

References

External links

Official website of Thevenet with clothes line and some commentary
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thevenet, Bernard 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Saône-et-Loire French male cyclists Tour de France winners Doping cases in cycling French sportspeople in doping cases French Vuelta a España stage winners Cyclists from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté 21st-century French people 20th-century French people

Origins

Professional career

Doping

Retirement

Honour

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tour results timeline

See also

References

External links