Gustave Garrigou

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Gustave Garrigou
Personal information
Full name Cyprien Gustave Garrigou
Date of birth September 24, 1884(1884-09-24)
Date of death January 28, 1963 (aged 78)
Country Flag of France France
Team information
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type All-rounder
Professional team(s)
Peugeot (1907-1908), Alcyon (1909-1912), Peugeot(1913-1914).
Major wins
1911 Tour de France
Paris-Brussels
Milan-Sanremo
Infobox last updated on:
May 23, 2008

Cyprien Gustave Garrigou (b. 24 September 1884, Vabres, France, d. 23 January 1963, Paris) was one of the best professional racing cyclists of his era. He rode the Tour de France eight times and won once. Of 117 stages, he won eight, came in the top ten 96 times and finished 65 times in the first five.

Contents

[edit] Career

Garrigou was a thin Parisian who gained from his lightness in the mountains but had the strength to ride hard on flat stages. He had remarkable powers of recovery. As an amateur he won Paris-Amiens and Paris-Dieppe. He turned professional in 1907 and that year won the national championship, the Tour of Lombardy, Paris-Brussels and came second in the Tour de France.

He won the Tour in 1911 after surviving not only the race but death threats. Fans of another French rider, Paul Duboc, believed Garrigou to be behind an incident in which Duboc collapsed in the Pyrenees and lay in agony for an hour after drinking from a poisoned bottle. The culprit was eventually found to be a helper with a rival team but Duboc's supporters suspected Garrigou, as the man most likely to profit from stopping Duboc.

Feelings came to their height in Rouen, where Duboc lived and in which notices had been posted in his name pointing out that he would have been leading the Tour had he not been poisoned and inciting the crowd to take revenge. Duboc had nothing to do with the notices and was alarmed as the race organizer, Henri Desgrange. Three cars provided a barrier between Garrigou and the crowd until the race had cleared the city.

Garrigou won the Tour with a generous number of points over Duboc. In some early years, the Tour was decided not on elapsed time but on in which position riders finished stages.

Garrigou was an all-rounder, also winning Paris-Brussels (1907), Milan-San Remo (1911) and the Tour of Lombardy. He was national champion in 1907 and 1908. His career ended with the outbreak of war in 1914.

[edit] Teams

Garrigou rode for Peugeot (1907-1908), Alcyon (1909-1912) and then again for Peugeot(1913-1914).

[edit] Retirement

Garrigou retired to Esbly, Paris, and went into business.

[edit] Achievements

1907
Tour de France - 2nd Overall, Stage 10 and 12 wins
Giro di Lombardia - 1st Overall
Paris-Brussels - 1st Place
1908
Tour de France - 4th Overall
1909
Tour de France - 2nd Overall, 1 Stage win
1910
Tour de France - 3rd Overall, 1 stage win
1911
Tour de France - 1st Overall, 2 stage wins
Milan-Sanremo, 1st Place
1912
Tour de France - 3rd Overall
Paris-Roubaix - 2nd Place
1913
Tour de France - 2nd Overall, 1 stage win
1914
Tour de France - Stage 14 win

[edit] References

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Octave Lapize
Winner of the Tour de France
1911
Succeeded by
Odile Defraye
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