Gustave Garrigou

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	France
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)1
1907–1908 1909–1912 1913–1914	Peugeot Alcyon Peugeot
Major wins
1911 Tour de France Paris-Brussels Milan-Sanremo
Infobox last updated on:
July 1, 2008 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

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.

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 19 points behind teammate Lucien Petit-Breton. A team rider, in the next three years, he placed fourth in 1908, second in 1909 and third in 1910 behind winning teammates Petit-Breton, Francois Faber and Octave Lapize.

He won the Tour in 1911 surviving not only the race but death threats because 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.

Garrigou had built a lead of 16 points after the end of Stage 6 but by the time they reached the Pyrenees, Duboc had reduced it to 10 points. With Duboc finishing 3 hours behind, Garrigou finished second to consolidate a lead which increased when stage winner Maurice Brocco was disqualified for unsportmanlike behaviour.

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. The culprit was eventually found to be a helper with a rival team but Duboc's supporters had suspected Garrigou, as the man most likely to profit from stopping Duboc.

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 points based on the position in which riders finished stages.

As leader of an all-French team, Alcyon, Garrigou was supposed to retain the title in 1912, but a last-minute publicity stunt cost him. The Belgian Odile Defraye was included in the team and repaid them by outsprinting Garrigou in stages 2 and 3 on the way to victory. Garrigou finished third behind Eugene Christophe.

The Tour of 1913 saw the ending of the points system deciding the winner of the general classification. Garrigou finished in second place 8 minutes and 37 seconds behind another Belgian, Philippe Thys.

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.

Retirement

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

Achievements

Grand Tour results timeline

References

• Gustave Garrigou profile at the Cycling Website

v • d • e Winners of the general classification in the Tour de France 1903 Maurice Garin • 1904 Henri Cornet • 1905 Louis Trousselier • 1906 René Pottier • 1907-1908 Lucien Petit-Breton • 1909 François Faber • 1910 Octave Lapize • 1911 Gustave Garrigou • 1912 Odile Defraye • 1913–14 Philippe Thys • 1915–18 World War I • 1919 Firmin Lambot • 1920 Philippe Thys • 1921 Léon Scieur • 1922 Firmin Lambot • 1923 Henri Pélissier • 1924–25 Ottavio Bottecchia • 1926 Lucien Buysse • 1927–28 Nicolas Frantz • 1929 Maurice De Waele • 1930 André Leducq • 1931 Antonin Magne • 1932 André Leducq • 1933 Georges Speicher • 1934 Antonin Magne • 1935 Romain Maes • 1936 Sylvère Maes • 1937 Roger Lapébie • 1938 Gino Bartali • 1939 Sylvère Maes • 1940–46 World War II • 1947 Jean Robic • 1948 Gino Bartali • 1949 Fausto Coppi • 1950 Ferdinand Kübler • 1951 Hugo Koblet • 1952 Fausto Coppi • 1953–55 Louison Bobet • 1956 Roger Walkowiak • 1957 Jacques Anquetil • 1958 Charly Gaul • 1959 Federico Bahamontes • 1960 Gastone Nencini • 1961–64 Jacques Anquetil • 1965 Felice Gimondi • 1966 Lucien Aimar • 1967 Roger Pingeon • 1968 Jan Janssen • 1969–72 Eddy Merckx • 1973 Luis Ocaña • 1974 Eddy Merckx • 1975 Bernard Thévenet • 1976 Lucien Van Impe • 1977 Bernard Thévenet • 1978–79 Bernard Hinault • 1980 Joop Zoetemelk • 1981–82 Bernard Hinault • 1983–84 Laurent Fignon • 1985 Bernard Hinault • 1986 Greg LeMond • 1987 Stephen Roche • 1988 Pedro Delgado • 1989–90 Greg LeMond • 1991–95 Miguel Indurain • 1996 Bjarne Riis • 1997 Jan Ullrich • 1998 Marco Pantani • 1999–2005 Lance Armstrong • 2006 Óscar Pereiro • 2007 Alberto Contador • 2008 Carlos Sastre • 2009 Alberto Contador