The Wisdom of Géminiani ROULEUR MAGAZINE

Words: Isabel Best

28 June, 1947 It’s the first Tour de since the war; No one apart from Géminiani, Anquetil’s the year René Vietto unravels and loses his . You can see him in the yellow jersey on a 139k time-trial. The year background, standing up through the Breton schemer attacks—and sunroof of the team car. “There was no wins—on the final stage into . But on more a duel than there were flying pigs,” this particular day, in a tarmac-melting Géminiani recalled many years later. heatwave, a young rider called Raphaël “When you’re at your limits in the Géminiani is so desperately thirsty, he gets mountains, you should never sit on your off his bike to drink out of a cattle trough, rival’s wheel. You have to ride at his side. thereby catching foot and mouth disease. It’s an old trick. With Anquetil at his level, Not the most auspicious of Tour beginnings Poulidor was wondering what was going for a second year pro. on. He thought maybe Jacques was stronger than him. Well, you can see, he 18 July, 1955 wasn’t looking great. Only, an Anquetil Another heatwave. This time on Mont who’s not in top form is still pretty good.” Ventoux. Géminiani is in the break, with the Swiss champion Ferdi Kübler and a French regional rider, Gilbert Scodeller. Ferdi A few snapshots from the 50 Tours de attacks. “Be careful, Ferdi; The Ventoux is France of Raphaël Géminiani. That’s right; not like other passes,” Géminiani warns. 50. He rode 12, was a directeur sportif for “And Ferdi is not like other riders,” Kübler 20 and followed the remainder as a retorts, before charging off, only to short- journalist for France Télévision and ASO. circuit on the upper slopes, effectively “Ah yes, is something I know a little ending his career. It’s a day of attrition. bit about,” he says. Jean Malléjac collapses and has to be carted off to hospital; there’s talk of The train rolls into Clermont-Ferrand under amphetamine abuse. Of the first full British purple clouds. Since Vichy we’ve been team to take part in the Tour, only two trundling through woodland covered in riders make it to the end of the stage. And the green foam of new leaves, through a , Géminiani’s team-mate, landscape of rolling hills, small fields and rides past all this to claim the stage, and snaking narrow lanes. In the distance, eventual overall victory. forming the rim of the bowl into which we’re descending, are the extinct 12 July, 1964 volcanoes of the surrounding Chaîne des It’s probably the most famous photograph Puys, culminating in the Puy de Dôme. in the history of cycling. and , leaning on each This is where Géminiani was born and bred, other, looking like they’re grinding to a halt, the son of Italian immigrants who fled about to fall over, battling their way up the Mussolini’s politics in the 1920s. It’s where Puy de Dôme. Everything is at stake; the his father opened a bike shop and where Tour’s outcome is in the balance. Over Raphaël learnt to ride, won races and, in those 3 kilometres the spectators hold their retirement, opened a clutch of bars and breath. No one could know what would nightclubs. It’s where he still lives now, happen next. aged 91. Raphaël Géminiani – aka Le Grand Fusil year.) Coppi’s early death from (The Big Gun); The Boss; Gem; The after a trip to ? Géminiani had Telephone; Le Grand Machin (Big Thing)— shared a room with him, got the same a rider whose larger-than-life personality illness, yet survived. Anquetil pulling off the couldn’t possibly be encompassed in one lunatic stunt of winning the Dauphiné nickname. Libéré, then flying to the same evening to start — and win — the 600k- Nor can his riding genius be expressed in a endurance epic, Bordeaux-Paris? That was neat list of stage wins, GC placings or Gem’s idea. Legend has it that when multi-coloured jerseys. Above all, Gem was Anquetil climbed off his bike in the early exciting, unpredictable, up for trouble. hours of the morning, ready to abandon, Take the Tour in ’55, when, in freezing rain Géminiani goaded him back into the race, and wind, he lost 11 minutes in the course telling him not to act the “big poofter.” of a stage to the climbing sensation . Yet with 100k still to Then there’s that picture with a donkey. It go, he clawed it all back. One particular had been given to him by a fan at the descent was so treacherous, riders and start of the 1958 race — the one where motorbikes were tumbling like skittles. he’d been shunted off the national team. Géminiani simply sliced his way through Without missing a beat, he quickly named the chaos, taking every conceivable risk, it Marcel — after the French DS — and yet somehow remaining upright. Looking presented it to him as a gift, with crazed, he hurtled past his DS and yelled, photographers on hand to record the “Hey Marcel, ever seen anyone like me?” moment. then gobbled up Gaul and his breakaway companions to win the stage in Monaco He had a genius for publicity. Bicycle with two minutes to spare, puncture manufacturers had always backed teams notwithstanding. but in the ‘50s and ‘60s the car became pre-eminent and as bike sales declined, so There are stories of his fearsome temper; did that source of cash. Géminiani upending a plate on Bobet’s head at the pioneered sponsors from outside the dinner table, or holding a fork to his industry. had already throat—provoking tears in his highly-strung paved the way in by getting Nivea to rival. In ’58 he nearly won the Tour out of sponsor a team. Géminiani approached revenge for having not been selected for the drinks company St Raphaël, simply on the French team. He didn’t win — but the basis of their shared name. Even better, thanks to his efforts, neither did the French. the team became St-Raphaël-Géminiani, Yet without his loyalty and sharp tactics effectively canonising him. the same Bobet could not have won his three Tours. Neither could Anquetil have From Clermont-Ferrand station we take a won his five, without Géminiani first as taxi and half an hour later pull up outside a team-mate, then directeur sportif. And he ghost house in a village cul-de-sac. The was — still is — a raconteur par excellence driver thinks we have the wrong address. whose droll remarks bring cycling history to The garden is overgrown, with trees in life. When the notoriously devout Bartali need of pruning and strawberry bushes insisted the peloton attend mass in Lourdes, colonising the drive. With a little trepidation, he observed; “I think God has better things I ring the bell. From behind the door I can to do than get involved in cycle races.” hear a television blaring.

Flip through your mental picture book of The door opens, and there he is. With his extraordinary moments from that epic commanding nose and beady eyes under epoch, and you’ll find he was there. Gaul bushy brows, there’s no mistake; this is The destroying everyone in the rain in the ? Boss. That’s how Gem lost his yellow jersey. Koblet, on an insane 135k solo break that He takes us out into his back garden which would win him the Tour? Géminiani was in opens onto an orchard, a wild, green the chase group. (He finished second that wilderness. He lives alone; his wife having passed away a few years ago. He tells us about a recent prostate operation where GEM’S GEMS the surgeon screwed up twice, with the result that he spent six months on crutches. On post-war food You wouldn’t know it now. He makes his Everything’s changed. There was the comeback sound simple, just a question of musette, they gave you two water bottles, positive thinking: “What I’d had was an and you had to make do. There were no accident. It’s not as if I had liver or lung cars which brought you water, you had to disease where you don’t know where it’ll fill up at water fountains. end.” The first Tour in ’47 was the first time I ate We chat, and Pauline, the photographer, bananas and oranges. We couldn’t get does her thing. I struggle to keep to my line them during the war; there were no boats. of questions; we keep veering off on They gave us some chicken at the start in irresistible detours. Around midday he Paris and they put rice cakes in the truck. pours out a round of whiskey, then another. After a couple of days the chicken was full I’m getting tangled in tangents. of maggots, and the rice cake was hard as rock. I talked about it to a journalist. On a table in his living room, piles of faded came to the start and A3 scrap paper are filled with rare photos opened the bag and the chicken from his racing days. Géminiani is practically walked out on its own. There unmissable, the picture of virility, bursting was no notion of healthy diets at the time. with life, always in the process of cracking It was revolting. a joke. He waves his cigarette over them as he talks. The ash lengthens to a In ‘48, do you know how many riders out of centimetre or two, yet he is oblivious to my 160 made it back to Paris? Forty-four. That alarm. “Next time you come, you’ll have to was Bartali’s year. There was no hygiene. spend three days going through this stuff. There was one bathroom for ten riders.

“Well, we’d better eat,” he declares and On learning the métier we leave the house without locking it and I taught myself. There was my father but he pile into his Merc. He drives to his village couldn’t give me that much advice restaurant, where he orders a carafe of because he was of a different generation rosé and we eat a terrible meal. "A bit like and he didn’t know French cycling. I read chewing gum?" he volunteers regarding a lot — I wanted to know all about Bartali. I the meat, while I struggle to keep my was 13 when he won the Tour in ’38. I thoughts in order. He won’t let us pay, and loved the fact that he was a climber, on our return journey insists we don’t need which was how he beat the Belgians like safety belts. Sylvère Maes, Vervaecke and Lowie. I was astounded — he showed how it could be Back at his house, we inspect his office, done. Then there were the old Tour riders crammed with more photos and books. who came to races, like Charles Pélissier, André Leducq or Maurice Archambaud. “See that?” he says, pointing out one They gave us good advice and I listened photo above his desk. “That was on the to them, and then there were the old Tourmalet in 1951. There’s Coppi in front, journalists who’d seen everything. I had my me in the middle and Koblet behind. Now, little world. where’s the peloton?” The best way to do something well is to Nowhere to be seen, of course. But who’s know yourself, so you’re not at the mercy the small figure in the background, about of some joker telling you any old nonsense. 30 metres behind the trio? “Oh, that’s That’s how I made myself. Bartali…” Success in sport is a question of strength, but it’s also a question of being able to -0-0-0- adapt. It’s about discovering yourself, and other riders’ difficulties, to know your limits On riders today and what you’re capable of and to put all They’re wretched. That’s why I don’t that into place over the years. That’s how watch cycling anymore. Look at them. you make a name for yourself. You have They’ve got nothing to say. They’re there to know yourself. If you don’t, you’ll make with their helmets and their dark glasses. mistakes, and you won’t last long. Quel horreur! I can’t watch them. I listen to fans and they’re sad; they go to the Tour, On never having won a or to other races, and they can’t I should have won the . I recognise any of the riders. They’re so should have won the Giro... I had all the ungracious; they cross the finish line, they jerseys. I was always beaten two days do their TV interviews, and they don’t even before the finish! I had the yellow jersey in take off their sunglasses. And then they’re the Tour and I was beaten by Gaul. In the astonished no one knows who they are! Vuelta I came third. In the Giro I finished fourth and I had the pink jersey. But I also On reputation did things no one else could, like the three Charles Pélissier would say, if you behave grand tours in the same year. [In 1955 he badly with one person, you’re doing it with came third in the Vuelta, fourth in the Giro 10,000 people. Why? Because that person and sixth in the Tour.] will talk about it to another person, who’ll tell someone else. By the end of the year, I was a climber; I beat Bartali in ’51 in the 10,000 people will know about it. So, be mountains classification in the Tour. wary, and be to people, because Likewise with Coppi [‘52] and Charly Gaul they’ll talk about that too. The general [‘57] in the Giro; I beat the three best public is hard to win over. We used to say, climbers. Every now and then I woke up! I it’s easier to give yourself a bad reputation won seven or eight Tour stages. I was than a good one! French national champion. I could ride when I wanted to. On recognising champions You can spot champions. You can tell But I was Coppi’s team-mate when he was whether they’re good or not when they with . When I saw the sacrifices he ride; there are their gestures, how they made, I said to myself, ‘I’ll be a champion, conduct themselves in a breakaway, but super-champion — that’s too much. coming back from a puncture, or in a Oh là, là! No, I’m not made for that!’ or on a climb. Style is something you can spot straight away. When you see In the end, what does it all amount to? I them two or three weeks later in another didn’t win the Tour. So what? Look at the race and you still have the same difference now with those who won. I impression, you know it’s a good rider. prefer to be 91, in good health, than to have won the Tour and be lying in the They don’t necessarily have to win. graveyard. Champions don’t win straight away. They build themselves little by little, but they Best memories progress faster than others. I don’t have a single best memory, I have many. I was national champion, I had the I had Simpson, I had , I had yellow jersey, the pink jersey — I had them – he won the Dauphiné all. But I think my best memories were as a Libéré. I discovered Julio Jimenez and directeur sportif. We won all the races, some Spanish riders. I looked after the apart from Paris-Roubaix. We won four Colombian team – there was Herrera, he Tours de France, two Vueltas, the Giro, was a great climber. The Portuguese team. Bordeaux-Paris twice, the World I had all the teams. I even had Merckx, but Championships, the French national at the end of his career, in ‘77. Anquetil championships five times — we won won five Tours, the Giro, the Vuelta. I had everything. Altig. I had lots of Dutch riders who could really ride; [Albertus] Geldermans, [Bas]

Malipaard, [Jo] De Haan. They were tough When I see the suffering Froome puts guys. himself through to be a champion, it’s not surprising he wins. Our riders do a little bit of On never saying ‘in my day’ training here, a little bit of training there. To When I was a DS I had to forget I’d been a be a champion now you have to be tough, rider and had to think about things really tough. You have to do your métier. differently. You have to adapt or you’re The French aren’t brave enough to do it left behind. I evolved with my times. You seriously. should never say, ‘In my day.’ Oh là, là! It’s the one thing you should never say to a You can’t live like everyone else and win rider. He couldn’t give a toss. the Tour.

On On racing now Bardet lives quite near me. He’s not too The Tours they do now—I could have done bad. I gave him a bit of advice but eight in a year. he didn’t listen. He’s got — excuse my language — a tiny arse and not much On visiting the UK core strength. So I told him, do some I raced at Herne Hill in London. Well, we strength training while you’re young and raced, and then at 5pm everything develop some muscles. Because with the suddenly stopped. We took our bottles gears you’re pushing, you need power. and they served tea. I said what’s going There’s no power there; he’s going to on? They said, ‘This is . At 5pm we screw up his career. I watched him the have tea.’ other day on the final climb in Liège- Bastogne-Liège, it was tailor-made for him On racing in Africa but he was completely overwhelmed. I rode in Africa when I got malaria [With in 1959.] But before that, I During the war with all the rationing I was raced in Abidjan in ’57 [The Tour de Côte so thin — you’d get a fright if you saw the d’Ivoire, which Géminiani won]. I brought photos. But I still did an hour of strength over a young rider, Ferdinand Devèze — training a day and that’s how I built up my we called him Féfé. There were 11 stages muscles. You can do that when you’re and I won nine. I let one of my friends win young. But there he is with his tiny arse and one and then we lost one. It was really he hasn’t got the power. It’s a shame tough with the heat and the sand. because he’s got the right temperament. Why did we lose a stage? One day they On the king of breakaways delayed the start. We said to the Stablinski was the king of breakaways. He organisers, ‘What’s going on?’ They said, wasn’t the most physically talented but he ‘We can’t start because there are lions on had one of the best palmarès in France. the course.‘ And Devèze, when he heard He got involved in break after break, and that, he fainted. ‘I don’t want to die! I would almost handpick his companions. don’t want to die! I don’t want to be They asked, ‘Mr Stablinski, how is it that eaten by lions!’ That kind of thing. Well, he you’re always in the right break?’ He said, was tired, you know. So I said, ‘Okay, so ‘Because I made it, of course.’ If he saw this is what we’re going to do. At the start, someone who could beat him he’d stop instead of going off like we normally do, riding. When he had the right mix, he’d be, we’ll let the peloton attack. Either they’ll ‘Okay lads, let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!’ I get eaten and we’ll get past nice and kept him in my team for a long time. easy, or we’ll lose the stage.‘ And that’s Having Stablinski in a team was fantastic. how a lad from Cameroon won that day! He was a master of racing. The race organisers thought a professional Why the French will never win from Europe wouldn’t make it through with We’re very far from having a French rider all the difficulties, but I was used to tough winning the Tour. They don’t make the conditions. They thought it would be our necessary sacrifices to be at their best. Waterloo in Africa. But it was our Austerlitz! On Géminiani vs. Bobet On getting malaria with Coppi in Burkina There were two of us. The drama was that I Faso in 1959 rode for myself, and Bobet rode for himself. My doctor tested me for everything. When In 1950 he came third and I came fourth. he knew I’d come back from Africa he In ’51 I came second and he came 30th, went straight up to the Pasteur institute in in ’52 he wasn’t there and I won two Paris and had tests done that revealed it stages. In ’53 the French team was all over was plasmodium falciparum, the mortal the place. There were four of us; there was strain of malaria. They managed to stop Bobet and me, there was [Nello] Lauredi the fever and my wife rang Italy to say and Antonin Rolland [as potential leaders.] we’ve found out what Raphaël’s got. And What should we do? Could any of us win the doctor who was looking after Coppi the Tour? I had bronchitis, so I couldn’t. So said, ‘Madame, you look after your it was; Rolland, can you? ‘Oh no...’ and husband for whatever he’s got, I’ll treat you, Lauredi? ‘Oh...’ and you, Bobet? Coppi for what he’s got.’ And we had the [Bangs fist on table.] He said, ‘if you help same illness. Twenty years later he me, I’ll win the Tour.’ So it was Bobet, and admitted he’d made a mistake. he won that Tour in ’53. Then in ‘54 he did it again and in ‘55 we had to work for him. It I was in a coma with a temperature of was normal. 41°C. I had no idea what was going on, I lost my mind. It was only after the fever Riding for the French team made me lowered that I became normal again. I popular and well known. I won stages, I suffered a long time afterwards, of course. won the mountains classification, I helped To know that Coppi had died... it was a Bobet win the Tour. It was terrific. But it was shock. I stopped racing after that. It was also a bit to my detriment, because we traumatic. I was weakened by it. It wasn’t had to ride as a team. I couldn’t ride for worth it. myself.

Merckx On morale He won his last race with me, the Tour I’d get all my riders together at the start of Méditerranéen. I wanted him to stay in the season. We’d spend a month together cycling, looking after the young riders, but and then I’d give them a blank piece of not do the big seasons like he used to. I paper and say, ‘tell me which races you’d saw he was at the end of his career. He like to do.’ After we went our separate agreed. ways I’d say, okay, you’re doing this race, which you requested. And we’d prepare But then he rang me and said, ‘Raphaël, I the rider for it. He was confident he would want to win the Tour a sixth time. Your ride, and in the best conditions. Nowadays, programme for me won’t work. I want a they tell riders two days before, ‘you’re big team.’ doing the Giro’. But you have to prepare yourself mentally. My riders were prepared I said, ‘Oh là, là! But that’s not what was because I’d given them the chance to agreed.’ I tried to convince him he was choose their race — on condition they got taking a big risk. But it wasn’t enough. So I results. And that’s why we won. It’s no sent the boss of Fiat France to see him. He coincidence. went to Brussels and couldn’t persuade him either. So he said what do we do, do When Anquetil did the Dauphiné Libéré we build a big team or we keep a small followed by Bordeaux-Paris, it was one? So I said we’ll do a small team something no one will ever do again. It without Merckx. Merckx joined a big team, took me two months to prepare, because he raced three months and he retired. Anquetil was tough. He didn’t think he He’d reached the end and he didn’t know could do it. I said, you will do it. And he did. it. All the champions in no matter what sport, they never want to finish, they I had a young rider, Aimar, riding the Tour always go on fighting too long. in his second year. He was happy because he was second on GC. And I said, ‘no, you’re not going to be second.’ a tremendous climb and all the great ‘But Mr Géminiani,’ he said, ‘we’re good, names on its palmarès. I said to the we’re second.’ organiser, ‘I’m coming, but I’d like you to ‘You’re not finishing second!’ You see, I take Simpson’. knew the terrain, and I knew the rider’s And he said, ‘an Englishman in my race? potential. There was a stage which finished Are you kidding? No way!’ in Turin. So I said, ‘we’re arriving in Turin. This I said, ‘listen, if you don’t take him, I’m not Italian rider, Bitossi, is going to win the coming.’ stage. Your job is to stick with him; you sit ‘Ok, well bring your Englishman.’ on his wheel, and you’ll see.’ So he stayed Who won ? It was Simpson! with Bitossi. Bitossi won the stage and Aimar was with him, but Janssen, who was He loved cycling. He came to Europe to in the yellow jersey, wasn’t. So Aimar won become a champion and he made great the Tour de France and Janssen came sacrifices. He was as charming as they second. come. He was jovial, he respected people, and he knew how to get along straight You have to give them strength. You have away. He spoke French with an English to tell them, ‘you’ve got to win!’ You have accent that people found endearing. He to get into a lad’s head; because it’s with liked to have a laugh. He had a lot of the head you win the Tour. qualities, the poor lad.

Above all, you have to tell a rider the truth. Froome, he’s missing that. He doesn’t You don’t have the right to make mistakes. capture the public’s imagination. He’s a If you do, he’ll lose confidence in you. But machine made for winning, but he hasn’t if what you tell him comes true, you have got the charm. To be a champion you his total confidence. That’s what counts. have to win and appeal to people. Not everyone can be like that. On eating with Fausto Coppi When I rode for Bianchi I was riding for On racing now Coppi’s team. Coppi would only spend There’s no one like the old riders. They had ten minutes at the table. He didn’t hang class. It was the way they won. Now it’s all around. He‘d eat oats and wheat germ. about millimetres. You have to be good So I was with the rest of the team and every day. But there’s no sparkle; no one ordered some red wine. They said: ‘No, no, takes off and puts ten minutes into the no! Fausto doesn’t want us drinking.’ peloton. Nowadays there’s no more style, I said, ‘well, I’m used to having a glass and no panache. They win, but they play it I’m going to have one now.’ Anyway safe. Coppi arrived and could see what was happening straight away. He could see his On rats and great men team-mates were worried I was going to We had riders who we admired and who cause a rumpus. we respected. Coppi, you respected. And he said, ‘It’s okay, Géminiani can Merckx, you respected. Bartali you have a drink, because I know if he has a respected. There was a degree of glass I can still count on him tomorrow. admiration too. They kept their heads And you guys can stick to your fruit juice, above water and we knew they could because if you have a drink I know accomplish feats we weren’t capable of. tomorrow you’ll be nowhere to be seen.’ Then there were the riders who always took advantage of other riders’ work. We On called them rats. They never lead. There I brought Simpson over. He arrived at a were lots of rats then and there’s even club in St Brieuc. The club’s director said, more now. A rider who didn’t lead, who’d ‘I’ve got a rider who’s not bad, you should let himself be carried along without ever take him.’ So I took him on. But I had doing anything, to ride a whole race difficulty getting him on races. Because an anonymously, I could never stand that. English rider, at that time... I talked to the Bobet called them rats. He said, ‘long live organiser of a race; it was the Mont Faron, the cold, long live the rain, because we’ll leave the rats on the road. Long live the mountains because the rats will stay at the Published: Issue 54 (2016) bottom.’ The harder the race was, the happier we were, because the rats couldn’t follow.