2020 Preview Sample

OBITUARIES
Just
as life had to go on in 2020, so too
did death. While coronavirus accounted
for an unimaginable toll of excess
mortality across the world, lives still began
and came to a close independently of
the pandemic that had wreaked so much
damage. Cycling – being part of the
human experience and not separate from
it – had cause therefore to bid farewell
to those who had played their part in
manifold ways, furthering the cause of a
sport that so much respects its past. This
year, just as in any other, those individual
tales and chapters closed, those friends
and family members mourned, take
their place alongside others in the pages
that follow. Each and every one leaves
something irreplaceable behind.
JACQUES DUPONT
19 JUNE 1928 – 4 NOVEMBER 2019
Olympic kilometre champion at the 1948 London Games and a professional racer for ten seasons,
during which he won Paris–Tours on two occasions, Jacques Dupont died at the age of 91 in
Saint-Jean-de-Verges.
Born a little to the north of that that Ariège village, in Lézat-sur-Lèze, Dupont began as a track
specialist. His career almost came to an end in 1946 when he sustained a serious head injury while
racing on the velodrome at Perpignan, the incident temporarily depriving him of the ability to
talk and ultimately leaving him with permanent speech difficulties. Doctors had told him it was
unlikely he would be able to race again. However, Dupont’s robust constitution enabled him to
make a quick recovery physically, and he moved from the Pyrenean foothills to Paris to further
his track career.
French pursuit champion in 1948 and silver medallist in the sprint at that year’s World Track
Championships in Amsterdam, Dupont went to the London Olympics as a medal favourite and
lived up to that billing when he claimed the kilometre title on the Herne Hill velodrome that
hosted the track events. He added a bronze medal in the team road race.
Dupont turned pro in 1950 with the Peugeot-Dunlop team, and won Paris–Tours for the first time
in their colours the following season. He made his Tour de France debut in 1952, representing
the Paris team. Never overly fond of stage races, he abandoned on the sixth stage. He also failed
to make it to the finish on his two subsequent appearances, in 1953 and 1955.
Known for his meticulous approach to racing, which earned him the nickname ‘Jacques la
méthode’, he was a persistent threat in one-day races, particularly those with flatter courses. He
won the French road title at Montlhéry in 1954 and took a second Paris–Tours win in 1955, his
average speed of 43.666kph earning him the yellow riband for the fastest average on a race of
more than 200km in length. He held this record until 1962, when Dutchman Jo de Roo broke
it, once again in Paris–Tours.
Dupont retired from racing in 1960 after a season with the prestigious Saint Raphaël-Geminiani
team led by Jacques Anquetil and took up a new career in the family butcher’s. Later in his working
life, he ran a DIY and tool shop at Cahors.
He remains the best rider ever to emerge from the department of Ariège in the Pyrenees, and
regularly appeared as the guest of honour at track and road events in that region.
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OBITUARIES
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