Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50

Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 By Frank Litsky and Samuel Abt, The New York Times, 9/2 PARIS — Laurent Fignon, one of France’s greatest and most enigmatic cyclists, who won the Tour de France 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 cycling federation. In April 2009, Fignon, who lived in Paris, 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 1 / 7 Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 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) time 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 triathlon 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. 2 / 7 Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 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 Associated Press, said of Fignon, "I remember that lost look 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, Lance Armstrong, the American seven-time Tour champion who has been treated for cancer, called Fignon a 3 / 7 Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 "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 4 / 7 Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 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, Bernard Hinault, 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 5 / 7 Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 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 France 2 television. During the last Tour de France, he sounded weakened by his illness — his voice gravelly, sometimes a whisper 6 / 7 Laurent Fignon, Gruff French Cyclist, Dies at 50 — 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. 7 / 7.

Load more