# Jean Anquetil



## DrSmile (Jul 22, 2006)

*Jacques Anquetil*

My dad raced in Europe in the late 70s / early 80s and he told me once that the reason he didn't go pro was because he didn't feel like shoving caffeine suppositories up his butt. I naively thought that this time period was the start of all this doping mess, but I was reading a Bicycling magazine interview with Roger Walkowiak (TDF winner 1956) where he said the following things about Jacques Anquetil:

"Anquetil, however, was always nice to me... He just got better and better. But he also took a fair amount of pills, you know. It is not something we talked about much. Of course a lot of guys would take stuff, but only when it was valuable. Some tried to do the best they could without taking anything. He was one of the ones that abused."

I found it quite disheartening to learn that doping was already a problem that plagued cycling 65 years ago.


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## ChilliConCarnage (Jun 1, 2006)

I assume you mean Jacques Anquetil.

Not only is it well known that he doped, he actually admitted to it on television, saying that only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux–Paris on just water....that they (the riders) had the right to treat themselves as they wished.

Here's some more quote attributed to Jacques:

"Leave me in peace, everybody takes dope."

“You would have to be an imbecile or a crook to imagine that a professional cyclist who races for 235 days a year can hold the pace without stimulants”

“For 50 years bike racers have been taking stimulants. Obviously we can do without them in a race, but then we will pedal 15 miles an hour (instead of 25). Since we are constantly asked to go faster and to make even greater efforts, we are obliged to take stimulants”

If you really want to see how far back doping goes in cycling (try 1886!), see the wikipedia page:

List of doping cases in cycling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## velodog (Sep 26, 2007)

Not only doping. These are instances of cheating during the 1904 TdF.
From Wikipedia

1904 Tour de France




Of the 1904 race, Edward Boeglin asked:
Was Garin the subject of an injustice? It's not impossible. But the rigour of the sanctions can be explained by the discredit into which professional cycling had (already!) fallen. An example had to be made of a champion.
Garin was incontestably the strongest rider of the period, so he was first choice. He was 34. The suspension for two years ... broke his career. We never again saw him at the front of the peloton 'this little and stubborn rider of formidable consistency ... who won all the races that mattered',
... "this rider, intelligent, crafty, instinctive and calculating,
... the little chimney sweep from Arvier, in the Aoste valley near Mont Blanc'

Edouard Boeglin, Franco Cuaz.[9][22]

Garin also won the 1904 Tour de France, by a small margin over Lucien Pothier, but was subsequently stripped of the title which was awarded to Henri Cornet. The race aroused a passion among spectators, who felled trees to hold back rivals and beat up others at night outside St-Étienne.[6] Garin was one of the mob's victims. Pierre Chany wrote:


In the climb of the col de la République, leaving St-Étienne, supporters of the regional rider, Faure, assault the Italian, Gerbi. He is thrown to the ground, beaten like plaster. He escapes with a broken finger...[6]


... 'A bunch of fanatics wielded sticks and shouted insults, setting on the other riders: Maurice and César Garin got a succession of blows, the older brother [Maurice] was hit in the face with a stone. Soon there was general mayhem: "Up with Faure! Down with Garin! Kill them!" they were shouting. Finally cars arrived and the riders could get going thanks to pistol shots. The aggressors disappeared into the night.'[6]

Garin said:



“

"I'll win the Tour de France provided I'm not murdered before we get to Paris."[23][24]

”



Misbehaviour was rife too between riders and nine were thrown out during the race for, among other things, riding in or being pulled by cars.[5] There were claims, too, that the organisers had allowed Garin to break rules — at one stage being given food where it was not permitted by its chief official — because his sponsor, La Française, had a financial stake in the race.[25]

The French cycling union, the Union Vélocipédique Française, heard from dozens of competitors and witnesses and in December disqualified all the stage winners and the first four finishers: Garin, Pothier, César Garin, and Hippolyte Aucouturier.[26] The UVF did not say precisely what had happened[27] and the details were lost when Tour archives were transported south in 1940 to avoid the German invasion and never seen again. Stories spread of riders spreading tacks on the road to delay rivals with punctures, of riders being poisoned by each other or by rival fans. Lucien Petit-Breton said he complained to an official that he had seen a rival hanging on to a motorcycle, only to have the cheating rider pull out a revolver.[28]

Tales were also said to include 'Garin taking a train', a claim confirmed by a cemetery attendant looking after his grave who, as a boy, heard Garin tell his stories as an old man.[4] In December 1904 Garin was stripped of his title and banned for two years.[4]


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## cyclesport45 (Dec 10, 2007)

Cheating in sport has been around as long as sport.


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## Shojii (Nov 27, 2004)

Phew! Lucky there's folks like Pat McQuaid and David Millar around to make sure cycling is clean now!


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## saird (Aug 19, 2008)

Shojii said:


> Phew! Lucky there's folks like Pat McQuaid and David Millar around to make sure cycling is clean now!



My sarcasm meter just exploded. :thumbsup:


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## CabDoctor (Jun 11, 2005)

saird said:


> My sarcasm meter just exploded. :thumbsup:


Don't forget Lemond. It wasn't till he started losing grand tours that doping became wide spread


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## atpjunkie (Mar 23, 2002)

well back then, racers raced full seasons, now everybody specializes. No one races hard from March to September anymore
Jacques was a realist. The racers of that era had abusive schedules to earn a living, one would be a fool to not think they took speed of some sort


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