“Thank you Poupou”
Raymond Poulidor, also known by the nickname " Pou Pou ", participated fourteen times in the Tour de France, climbed the podium eight times and won seven stages of the French round, but never wore the yellow jersey of the tour, his bad luck, perhaps having coincided with Jacques Anquetil and "the cannibal" Eddy Merckx or simply his destiny
In 1962 Pou Pou At the age of 26, he participated in the Tour de France for the first time, finishing in third place, in a cast and with a fractured finger. Perhaps this was the first sign of what his legacy would be in the French tour.
In the final stages of 1964 , Poulidor and Anquetil fought a neck-to-neck battle on the famous ascent of the Puy de Dôme , with the French press describing them as resembling two boxers looking for a knockout. That year, Jacques Anquetil would win his fifth and final Tour de France.
“Congratulations, you're a good loser,” Anquetil said to Pulidor.
In 1965 he finished second again, losing 2'40" to the Italian cyclist Felice Gimondi, who was nicknamed "the Phoenix".
In 1974, losing a little over eight minutes, Raymond Poulidor again finished second, the winner of that year… Eddy Merckx who would achieve his fifth and last victory in the Gala round.
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At the age of 40, Pou Pou made his last appearance in the 1974 Tour de France, finishing in third place. Belgian Lucien Van Impe and Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk would finish in first and second place respectively.
Despite not having won the "Grande Boucle" he was very popular and big brands sponsored him because, although people recognized him as the eternal runner-up of the Tour, they also thought of him as a great fighter who never gave up, and he proved it by achieving great triumphs in other races in which he competed, including a Tour of Spain, two Critérium du Dauphiné, a Milan San Remo and Flèche Wallonne and the national road championship in France.
The closest he came to the yellow jersey was by less than eight-tenths of a second at the start of the 1973 Tour. He almost did it! Had he won it and worn it for just one day, no one would be talking about Poulidor today.
In this year's Tour de France, the "Grande Boucle" and the Dutch team Alpecin paid tribute to "Pou Pou" by wearing a yellow and purple jersey inspired by the colors of Poulidor's former Team Mercier. Forty-five years after Raymond's retirement from racing, his grandson Mathieu van der Poel is participating in the Tour de France for the first time.
Mathieu is an all-terrain cyclist who has won every event he has competed in, including road, mountain and cyclo-cross, and in his first participation in the French round he paid a grand tribute to his grandfather "Pou Pou" by winning the second stage and wearing the yellow jersey of the current Tour de France, van der Poel raised his index finger to the sky in a sign of dedication.
He's my little phenomenon, and he looks just like me when I was young. That's incredible! He might be a future Tour de France winner. I'm proud to see him.
Raymond Poulidor
Van der Poel accepts that he cannot win if he is afraid of losing and he knew that this was his only chance in this Tour to wear the yellow jersey, that's why he went full throttle, that's why he neutralized Sonny Colbrelli, that's why he accelerated with all his strength to leave the Frenchman Alaphilippe behind and thus arrive alone and with enough time to wear the elusive yellow jersey.
The emotion and happiness made him unable to speak or control his tears. The television cameras focused on him, covering his face, surely thinking of his grandfather, the times he accompanied him to the cyclocross championships and the times he congratulated him for wearing the rainbow jersey, that he would be supporting him from heaven.
“Imagine if he were here, how proud he would have been.”