Jean de Gribaldy (18 July 1922 – 2 January 1987) was a French

road cyclist Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes Recreational cycling, recreational, Road bicycle racing, racing, Bicycle commuting, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, ...

and

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 ...

. He rode in 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 ...

in 1947 and 1948.

Biography

Born in

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'', Gribaldi was a professional racing cyclist from 1945 to 1954. He began a successful career as a

in the mid-1960s. Nicknamed ''le Vicomte'' ("the Viscount") due to his aristocratic ancestry, he discovered Sean Kelly,

Joaquim Agostinho Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH (7 April 1943 – 10 May 1984) was a Portuguese professional bicycle racer. He was champion of Portugal in six successive years. He rode the Tour de France 13 times and finished all but once,''International Cy ...

, and

Éric Caritoux Éric Caritoux (born 16 August 1960 in Carpentras, Vaucluse) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who raced between 1983 and 1994. He had 22 victories in his career, the highlights of which were winning the Vuelta a España in 1984 ...

. He gave a second chance to many riders dropped by other teams. Most saw their career take a new dimension under Jean de Gribaldy. A street in Besançon, where he was a shopkeeper, has been named Montée Jean de Gribaldy since 1994. Each year, a Jean de Gribaldy cycling race is organized in Besançon.

Bibliography

* Pierre Diéterlé, ''Jean de Gribaldy, la légende du Vicomte'', Editions du Sekoya, 2014

References

External links

jeandegribaldy.com
a complete site about Jean de Gribaldy (French)
Cyclismag: Le Vicomte conteur
(French)
Cyclismag: De Gri, le découvreur de pépites
(French)
Cyclismag: Bouts d'ficelle
(French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gribaldy, Jean De 1922 births 1987 deaths Sportspeople from Besançon French male cyclists Cyclists from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Directeur sportifs 20th-century French people