Mercier was a French professional cycling team that promoted and raced on Mercier racing bikes. Together with the Peugeot team, the Mercier team had a long presence in the cycling sport and 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 ...

from 1935 until 1984.

History

Raymond Poulidor, Tour de France 1966 (cropped)

Cycles Mercier was the main sponsor of the team from at least 1935 on until 1969. From 1946 on, the team wore a purple jersey which in 1950 became the characteristic purple jersey with yellow neck and cuff lining which was to stay with the team until Mercier was no longer the main sponsor of the team in 1969. From 1935 to 1955 the team had as second sponsor Hutchinson and was the Mercier-Hutchinson team. From 1956 the team was known as Mercier-BP-Hutchinson which it would continue as until 1969 after which the sponsor Mercier became the second sponsor of the team. Two-time

champion and 1936 World Champion Antonin Magne finished his career with the Mercier-Hutchinson team in 1941. Around ten years later in 1953, Magne was the main

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 ...

of the team and he would guide the team up until 1970 when the name of the team changed to Fagor-Mercier. Magne guided the team during many successful years. Frenchman

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 1953 t ...

was part of the team in 1955 when he won

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and orga ...

but at this time the

was disputed by national teams so Mercier did not have the opportunity to ride the Tour as a team. Nevertheless, riders of the team won the Tour in 1937 and 1955. Despite being on the team, it appears that Louison Bobet did not wear the ''Mercier-BP-Hutchinson'' jersey but a ''Bobet-BP-Hutchinson'' jersey. This happened during several races and was common practice at the time as can be seen with other sponsors names that took the place of Mercier for example- ''A. Leducq'', ''A,Magne'', ''F.Pelissier'', ''Le Greves'' and ''M.Archambaud''. Examples of the different jerseys can be found on the French website
memoire du cyclisme
In this way Bobet was part of the Magne directed Mercier team but he rode his own mark of racing bicycles – ''Louison Bobet bicycles'' and his teams are listed as from 1955 to 1960 as ''Bobet-BP-Hutchinson''. After Bobet had left the team, Magne directed Frenchman

Raymond Poulidor Raymond Poulidor (; 15 April 1936 – 13 November 2019), nicknamed "Pou-Pou" (), was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for his entire career. His distinguished career coincided with two other outstanding riders – Jacques Anquet ...

who challenged

Jacques Anquetil Jacques Anquetil (; 8 January 1934 – 18 November 1987) was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964. He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the ye ...

in the

but also won many other races including Milan–San Remo and the 1964

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 ...

. After his Vuelta win, Poulidor famously battled Anquetil during the

1964 Tour de France The 1964 Tour de France was the 51st edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 22 June and 14 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of . Stages 3, 10 and 22 were all two-part stages with the first half ...

and ended the race second overall, 55 seconds behind Anquetil. It was in the purple Mercier jersey with the yellow sleeves that Poulidor battled Anquetil elbow to elbow on the Puy-de-Dôme mountain. Although Poulidor did not win the

he was more popular than Anquetil with the fans. Poulidor stayed with the Mercier cycling team for his whole career. After 1969, Mercier became the second sponsor of the team with the Spanish appliances manufacturer

Fagor Fagor Electrodoméstico was a large domestic and commercial appliance manufacturer based in the Basque Country, Spain and run by the Mondragon Corporation. Fagor was Spain's largest consumer appliance company and the fifth largest electrical ap ...

became the main sponsor of the team for two years making the Fagor-Mercier-Hutchinson team. Gan became the main sponsor of the team in 1973 making the Gan-Mercier-Hutchinson team which continued until 1976. During this time,

Cyrille Guimard Cyrille Guimard (born 20 January 1947) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe, won the Tour de Franc ...

emerged as a contender for stage races, winning the

Points classification The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...

in the

and leading the competition and sitting second overall in the

1972 Tour de France The 1972 Tour de France was the 59th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place from 1 to 22 July, with 20 stages covering a distance of . The long awaited clash between Eddy Merckx and Luis Ocaña after Ocaña cr ...

until the second last day when he was forced to retire with an injury. In that race, Guimard's teammate and the ever-consistent Poulidor finished the race third overall. Guimard's persistent injury affected his career and lead him to early retirement whereas Poulidor continued to perform at the top winning Paris–Nice in 1972 ahead of Merckx and in 1973 ahead of

Joop Zoetemelk Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk (; born 3 December 1946) is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist. He started and finished the Tour de France 16 times, which were both records when he retired. He also holds the distance record in T ...

and Merckx. Poulidor finished the 1974 Tour de France second overall and his final Tour, the 1976 Tour de France in third place.

joined the team in 1974 and stayed with the team until 1980, winning Paris–Nice in 1974, 1975 and 1979 as well as the 1979

. Zoetemelk challenged

Bernard Hinault Bernard Hinault (; born 14 November 1954) is a French former professional road cyclist. With 147 professional victories, including five times the Tour de France, he is often named among the greatest cyclists of all time. In his career, Hinault ...

in the

in 1978 and 1979, wearing 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 cumulat ...

in both editions. In 1980, Zoetemelk changed teams to the

TI–Raleigh TI–Raleigh was a Dutch professional track cycling and road bicycle racing team between 1972 and 1983. In that decade the team won over 900 races. The team was created and led by Peter Post. In his own cycling career, his nickname was the ''Six D ...

squad where he won the

Tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

, and then returned to Mercier in 1982. From 1977 until 1982, Miko were the main sponsor making them the Miko-Mercier-Vivagel team, and for the final two years of the team, during 1982 and 1983, COOP was the other major sponsor making them the COOP-Mercier team.

Major wins

References

External links

{{Vuelta a España team classification winners Cycling teams based in France Defunct cycling teams based in France Cycling teams established in 1935 Cycling teams disestablished in 1984 1935 establishments in France 1984 disestablishments in France