Bernard Thévenet (; born 10 January 1948) is a retired professional cyclist. His sporting career began with ACBB Paris. He is a two-time winner of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

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

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (born 17 June 1945), known as Eddy Merckx (, ), is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an ...

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

steroids A steroid is an organic compound with four fused rings (designated A, B, C, and D) arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter mem ...

use during his career. He also won the Dauphiné Libéré 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 B ...

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') 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. ...

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

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. 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 Communes of France, commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris ...

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 automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

team. During 1968, he rode for the amateur team of Jean de Gribaldy, ''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 military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

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'' (, ) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows t ...

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 ( , , ; , 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. Situated o ...

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, most of the way up the Tourmalet in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

. 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 brain diseases,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 temporarily caused by t ...

. 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, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media 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 Brit ...

over

Mont Ventoux Mont Ventoux (; ) 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 mountain in the region and h ...

. In the 1973 Tour, he finished second, behind

Luis Ocaña Jesús Luis Ocaña Pernía (; 9 June 1945 – 19 May 1994) was a Spanish road bicycle racer who won the 1973 Tour de France and the 1970 Vuelta a España. During the 1971 Tour de France he launched an amazing solo breakaway that put him ...

, 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 so ...

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 ...

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 one piece on top that covers the breasts, and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering ...

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

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known 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 stormed by a ...

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 (landscape), 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 ...

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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

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

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 road bicycle racing, 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 ...

. 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 France Inter () is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. It is the successor to Paris Inter, later known as France I, and created as a merger of the France I and France II networks, first as RTF Inter in October 1963, then ren ...

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, 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 cycle sport, cycling road bicycle racing, road race in the Dauphiné region in the southeast of France. The race is run over eight days during ...

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

Amaury Sport Organisation The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO and also A.S.O.) is a private company, founded in 1992, that is part of the privately-owned French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA). ASO organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well a ...

Honour

Thévenet was made a Chevalier de la

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

on 14 July 2001.

Major results

;1968 : 7th Overall

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir () is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents. Felice Gimondi, Joo ...

;1969 : 1st Stage 8

;1970 : 1st Mont Faron Hill Climb : 1st Stage 18

: 9th Overall À travers Lausanne ;1971 : 2nd Overall

Étoile des Espoirs The Étoile des Espoirs was an end of the season French cycling stage race A race stage, leg, or heat is a unit of a racing, race that has been divided in several parts for the reason such as length of the distance to be covered, as in a multi-d ...

::1st Stage 2 ( ITT) : 3rd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 3rd

Trofeo Baracchi The Trofeo Baracchi was a major Italian cycling race that ran for 50 years. It was created by Giacomo Baracchi, in memory of his father Angelo who was a great cycle racing fan. Originally (from 1941) an amateur individual time trial An indiv ...

(with Roger Pingeon) : 4th Overall

::1st Stage 10 : 6th Overall À travers Lausanne : 6th Critérium National de la Route ;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 Prologue & Stage 3b ( ITT) : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire ::1st Stage 1 : 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Prologue ( TTT) : 2nd Overall À travers Lausanne : 2nd Critérium des As : 5th Grand Prix des Nations : 6th

(with Jean-Pierre Danguillaume) : 7th Critérium National de la Route : 8th Overall

Grand Prix du Midi Libre The Grand Prix du Midi Libre (referred to as just Midi Libre) was a multiple-stage road cycling course in the south of France. The race, named after the newspaper that organized it, was first organized in 1949 and was an important preparation co ...

::1st Stage 3 : 8th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc : 9th Overall

::1st Stages 11 & 17 ;1973 : 1st MaillotFra

Road race, National Road Championships : 2nd Overall

::1st Stages 7b & 20b : 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Stage 3 : 2nd Circuit de l'Aulne : 3rd Overall

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, 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'Ital ...

::1st Stage 11 : 3rd Overall Tour de l'Aude ::1st Stage 1 : 4th Grand Prix des Nations : 5th Overall À travers Lausanne : 6th

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège , also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five ''Cycling monument, Monuments'' of the Eur ...

: 7th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc : 9th Overall

::1st Stage 4 ;1974 : 1st MaillotVolta

Overall

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; Tour of Catalonia, ) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of the Basque Country. The race has had ...

::1st Stage 4 & 7b ( ITT) : 1st Critérium National de la Route : 4th Overall

::1st Stage 2 : 5th Road race,

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...

: 6th

Giro di Lombardia The Giro di Lombardia (), officially ''Il Lombardia'', is a cycling race in Lombardy, Italy. It is traditionally the last of the five 'Cycling monument, Monuments' of the season, considered to be one of the most prestigious one-day events in cycli ...

: 6th Grand Prix des Nations : 7th

Gran Premio di Lugano The Gran Premio di Lugano () is a road bicycle race held annually in Lugano, Switzerland. Prior to 1981 it was held as an individual time trial but in recent years it has been organised as a UCI race classifications, 1.1 event on the UCI Europe T ...

: 9th Circuit de l'Aulne :

::Held

after Stages 2 & 3 ;1975 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

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

Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Stage 5 : 1st Stage 4a ( ITT)

: 1st Stage 2 ( ITT) À travers Lausanne : 2nd

: 3rd Overall

Four Days of Dunkirk The Four Days of Dunkirk () is road bicycle race around the Nord-Pas de Calais region of northern France. Despite the name of the race, since the addition of an individual time trial in 1963, the race has been held over a 5 or 6 day period for ...

: 3rd Paris–Camembert : 3rd Grand Prix des Nations : 4th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc : 4th

Bruxelles–Meulebeke Brussels-Meulebeke () was a men's road cycling road race held in Belgium annually in May from 1964 to 1975. The competition's roll of honor includes two victories by Rik Van Looy and Eddy Merckx. The record of victories, however, belongs to Fred ...

: 5th Critérium des As : 6th Road race,

;1976 : 1st Jersey yellow-bluebar

Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Stages 4 & 5 : 1st Stage 5a

: 1st Stage 2

Tour du Limousin Tour du Limousin is a 4-day road bicycle race held annually in Limousin, France. It was first held in 1968 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle raci ...

: 2nd Overall

: 2nd Overall À travers Lausanne : 2nd

: 2nd Circuit de l'Aulne : 4th Tour du Haut Var : 5th Overall

: 5th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc : 5th Grand Prix des Nations : 5th

(with

Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke (born 31 May 1955) is a Belgian people, Belgian former road bicycle racer, track cyclist and directeur sportif. He is an uncle of Frank Vandenbroucke (cyclist), Frank Vandenbroucke. He was a prologue specialist, winning 19 ...

) : 6th Grand Prix de Monaco ;1977 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stage 20 ( ITT) : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Escalada a Montjuïc ::1st Stages Stages 1b & 1c ( ITT) : 1st Tour du Haut Var : 1st Circuit du Cher : 1st Maël-Pestivien : 2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Stage 7b ( ITT) : 2nd Overall

: 3rd Overall À travers Lausanne : 5th Critérium des As : 9th Grand Prix des Nations ;1980 : 1st La Poly Normande : 8th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 8th Overall

Vuelta a Andalucía The Vuelta a Andalucía (Tour of Andalusia) or Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) is a regional Spanish road bicycle race first held in 1925. Since 2005, it has been a 2.1 category race on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became a part of the new UCI ...

: 10th Tour du Haut Var ;1981 : 1st Critérium Professionnel de Châteauroux : 1st Stage 4a ( ITT) Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire : 2nd Overall Tour du Vaucluse ::1st Stage 1

Grand Tours general classification results timeline

References

External links

* *
Official Tour de France results for Bernard Thévenet
{{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 sportsmen 20th-century French sportsmen

Origins

Professional career

Doping

Retirement

Honour

Major results

Grand Tours general classification results timeline

See also

References

External links