Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50

By Frank Litsky and Samuel Abt, The New York Times, 9/2

PARIS — , one of ’s greatest and most enigmatic cyclists, who won the in back-to-back years before losing

the event in 1989 to the American Greg LeMond in the race’s closest finish,

died here on Tuesday. He was 50.

His death was confirmed by the French federation. In April 2009,

Fignon, who lived in , learned that he had advanced cancer of the

digestive tract and that it had spread to his lungs.

From 1982 to 1993, Fignon won more than 75 races and earned as much as

$900,000 a year. His victories included the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy)

in 1989 and the Milan to San Remo Classic in 1988 and 1989. He won the Tour

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de France in 1983 and ’84. But as he said years after the 1989 race,

"Nobody talks about the two Tours I won, only about the one I lost."

The 107-year-old Tour de France, the world’s premier bicycle race, lasts

three weeks. In 1989, it covered 3,285 miles, including the final day’s

15.5-mile (25-kilometer) trial from Versailles to Paris. At the start

of the day, Fignon was the overall leader and LeMond was second, 50 seconds

behind.

In a time trial, the riders start one by one. LeMond was the next-to-last

starter and Fignon the last, starting two minutes apart. LeMond, helped by

an aerodynamic helmet and new handlebars, kept up an almost

superhuman pace in the time trial and averaged 33.8 miles (54.4 kilometers)

an hour, still a Tour record.

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Fignon, his blond ponytail blowing, could not match that pace, and LeMond

won the trial by 33 seconds and the Tour by 8 seconds. The Tour director,

Christian Prudhomme, speaking to The , said of Fignon, "I

remember that lost in his eyes on the finish line at the

Champs-Élysées, which contrasted with Greg LeMond’s indescribable joy."

In 2003, a survey of Tour journalists, authors and former riders voted the

time trial the Tour’s greatest race.

The defeat effectively ended Fignon’s career, though he did not retire

until 1993.

In a statement after Fignon’s death, , the American

seven-time Tour champion who has been treated for cancer, called Fignon a

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"dear friend" and "always a friendly face with words of advice."

Yet as much as the French public adores its cycling stars, there was little

love for Fignon. He was remote and brusque and could be willful, even

arrogant, never reluctant to snatch victory away from deserving teammates

in a race. He struck photographers, and ignored reporters and fans.

Journalists awarded him their Prix Citron, the lemon prize for the least

likable rider in the 1989 Tour.

"At least I won something," he later said.

Fignon often alienated his fellow riders. In his 2009 autobiography, "We

Were Young and Carefree," published last year, he said drug use had been

common among racers, an accusation many of them angrily denied. He admitted

to having used cortisone, amphetamines and other drugs, and twice failed

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doping tests.

"In those days, everyone did it," he wrote.

Fignon was born Aug. 12, 1960, in Paris. He rode his first race at 15 and

won more than 50 races as an amateur. He won his first Tour in 1983, when

he was not quite 23 and was known mainly as a lieutenant to his team

leader, , who could not seek his fifth Tour victory that

year because of tendinitis in his right knee. Fignon later taunted Hinault

when Hinault became his main rival on another team.

Fignon was the rare rider to wear glasses then and to read books. Having

spent a term in veterinary school

— "college" to most others in the bicycle

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racing world

— he was nicknamed the Professor.

That changed to the Playboy after he won the Tour and began showing up at

late-night discos, cocktail parties and celebrity ski weekends.

In later years, he organized semiclassic one-day races and then operated

the Paris-Nice race for a few years. Bicycles were marketed under his name.

Most recently, he opened a hotel in the foothills of the Pyrenees and was a

commentator at bicycle races for television. During the last Tour

de France, he sounded weakened by his illness

— his voice gravelly, sometimes a whisper

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— but characteristically grumpy and perceptive.

He is survived by his wife, Valerie, whom he married in 2008; a son,

Jeremy; and a daughter, Tiphaine, from a previous marriage.

Fignon spoke openly about his illness, saying in interviews that he

suspected his drug use as an athlete had led to the cancer. Last January,

he told the magazine Paris Match: "I do not want to die at 50 years. I love

life, love to laugh, travel, read, eat well like a good Frenchman. I’m not

afraid of death. I just do not want it."

Samuel Abt reported from Paris; Frank Litsky from New York.

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