Lucien Aimar

Lucien Aimar

Aimar at the 1973 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Lucien Aimar
Born	(1941-04-28) 28 April 1941 Hyères, France
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Amateur team
1963–1964	Saint-Raphaël–Gitane–R. Geminiani
Professional teams
1965–1966	Ford France–Gitane
1967–1969	Bic–Hutchinson
1970–1971	Sonolor–Lejeune
1972	Rokado–Colders
1973	De Kova–Lejeune
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France General classification (1966) 1 individual stage (1967) One-Day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (1968)

Lucien Aimar (pronounced [lysjɛ̃ ɛmaʁ]; born 28 April 1941) is a French cyclist, who won the Tour de France in 1966 and the national road championship in 1968. He is now a race organizer.

Amateur career

Lucien Aimar came second in the Tour de l'Avenir in 1964, 42 seconds behind the Italian, Felice Gimondi. But for a one-minute penalty for an incident involving a Belgian rider, Aimar would have won. Later that year he rode in the individual road race at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Professional career

Aimar (left) with Ford France–Hutchinson teammate Jacques Anquetil at the 1966 Tour de France

Aimar on a 1972 UAE stamp

1965

Aimar turned professional in 1965 for Ford-Gitane, a team led by Jacques Anquetil. He made sufficient impression for the manager, Raphaël Géminiani, to pick him for the Tour de France in his first season. Aimar abandoned the race while climbing the Col d'Aubisque in the Pyrenees on the ninth stage.

1966

Aimar won Genoa-Nice at the start of the season, came second on the Flèche Wallonne and won the Tour de France. His victory was based on an attack on the Aubisque, where he had pulled out the previous year, and on another attack in Turin. Each was followed by fast descending, at which he was talented. He also benefited from the support of Jacques Anquetil, riding his last Tour de France. Anquetil ensured that his team would ride in Aimar's support and then left the race. Aimar finished 1:17 ahead of the Dutchman, Jan Janssen and Anquetil's French rival, Raymond Poulidor. His season ended with ninth place in the world championship on the Nürburgring in West Germany. His ride was criticised, however, for help that he gave to the German, Rudi Altig. Aimar chased a breakaway group that included Jacques Anquetil, his partner in the French team, and took Altig with him. Altig won the title and Anquetil came second.

1967

In 1967, Aimar's and Anquetil's team became Bic, sponsored by a company making ballpoint pens, cigarette lighters and razors. Aimar won the Four Days of Dunkirk, the hill climb of Mont Faron and came seventh in the Giro d'Italia after sacrificing his chances for Anquetil. Aimar rode the Tour de France for France, the organizers having started a two-year experiment with national teams. Aimar was joint leader with the eventual winner, Roger Pingeon. Aimar won the eighth stage at the top of the Ballon d'Alsace, then rode for Pingeon and finished sixth.

Aimar came second in the national road championship at Felletin in the Creuse, finishing behind Désiré Letort. Letort was later disqualified for doping.

1968

The Tour de France again opted for national rather than sponsored teams. Aimar chose to lead the French 'B' team rather than be a support rider in the 'A' team. He finished seventh, coming second behind Roger Pingeon on stage two, in the Chartreuse. The same two riders broke away in the national championship on a demanding circuit at Aubenas (Ardèche). Aimar beat him in the sprint, collecting the blue, white and red jersey of national champion that he had refused to wear the previous year in solidarity with Désiré Letort.

1969

Aimar had trouble finding his form in 1969, a year already difficult because a one-month suspension for doping denied him a start in the Vuelta a España. He lost his national champion's jersey to Desire Letort and then rode a disastrous Tour de France, suffering in the Alps and finishing 30th. The manager, Géminiani, was so disillusioned with his riders that he didn't bother following the race any further once it had reached his home in Clermont-Ferrand.

1970

Aimar left Bic, which had a new leader in Luis Ocaña, a Spaniard long resident in France. He joined the new Sonolor-Lejeune team, run by Jean Stablinski with Lucien Van Impe and Bernard Guyot as leaders. Aimar won the Critérium de la Polymultipliée, then came 17th in the Tour de France in support of Van Impe. He finished his season with second place in Bordeaux–Paris behind the specialist Herman Van Springel.

1971

Aimar stayed with Sonolor, but with the team leadership confirmed in Van Impe, who finished the Tour de France third, winning the climbers' competition. Aimar was ninth, his best place since 1968.

1972

His career in decline, Aimar left Sonolor to join a new German team, Rokado, alongside his compatriots Gilbert Bellone and Jean Graczyk and the leaders, Rolf Wolfshohl and Gerben Karstens. Aimar finished the Tour, his eighth in succession, 17th.

1973

For his last season, Aimar rejoined Raphaël Géminiani, who had persuaded a nightclub dancer called Miriam de Kova to sponsor a team, De Kova–Lejeune, for the publicity it would give her. The team made little impression other than the pink jerseys it wore. The team provided the last five in that year's Tour de France, in which Aimar finished 17th. After team's money ran out at the end of the race, Aimar stopped racing to become a technical adviser for cycling in Provence-Côte d'Azur and then organizer of the Tour Méditerranéen.

Major results

Source:

1963

8th Overall Tour de l'Avenir

1st Stage 8

1964

2nd Overall Tour de l'Avenir

1965

3rd Paris–Camembert

4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

9th Overall Circuit du Morbihan

10th Circuit des Boucles de la Seine

1966

1st Overall Tour de France

1st Genoa–Nice

2nd Overall Eibarko Bizikleta

2nd La Flèche Wallonne

3rd Overall Escalada a Montjuïc

3rd Circuit de l'Aulne

4th Overall Critérium National de la Route

5th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st Points classification

5th Circuit d'Auvergne

7th Critérium des As

8th Tour de l'Hérault

9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

9th Circuit des Boucles de la Seine

9th Grand Prix de Cannes

1967

1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk

1st Mont Faron Hill Climb

2nd Road race, National Road Championships

2nd Manx Trophy

4th Overall Paris–Nice

5th Paris–Tours

6th Overall Tour de France

1st Stage 8

6th Circuit des Boucles de la Seine

7th Overall Giro d'Italia

7th Grand Prix d'Isbergues

7th Polymultipliée

8th Tour de l'Hérault

1968

1st Road race, National Road Championships

7th Overall Tour de France

7th Overall Paris–Nice

7th Overall A Travers Lausanne

7th Trofeo Baracchi (with Charly Grosskost)

9th Overall Vuelta a España

9th Critérium National de la Route

10th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

1969

4th Baden-Baden (with Bernard Guyot)

5th Overall Tour de l'Oise

5th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

1970

1st Polymultipliée

1st Stage 5 Grand Prix du Midi Libre

2nd Critérium National de la Route

2nd Bordeaux–Paris

3rd Critérium des As

5th Overall Paris–Nice

8th Genoa–Nice

8th Mont Faron Hill Climb

1971

3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm

6th Overall Paris–Nice

9th Overall Tour de France

9th Grand Prix d'Isbergues

9th Bruxelles–Meulebeke

1972

1st Stage 4b (TTT) Paris–Nice

9th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk

10th Overall Volta a Catalunya

1973

1st Stage 5a Four Days of Dunkirk

8th Bordeaux–Paris

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973
Vuelta a España	11	—	—	9	—	—	—	—	—
Giro d'Italia	—	—	7	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour de France	DNF	1	6	7	30	17	9	17	17

Legend

—	Did not compete
DNF	Did not finish

External links

• Complete Palmarès
• Palmares (in French)
• Lucien Aimar at Cycling Archives (archived)