Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon was one of France's greatest latter day professional cyclists. He began his professional career in 1982 after taking more than 50 wins in the amateur ranks. He amazingly won the Tour de France in 1983 during his first attempt, then in 1984 when he beat Bernard Hinault on the back. Fignon spent eleven years riding as a professional during which he won a total of 81 races including the Fleche Wallonne in 1986, Milan-San Remo in 1988 and 89 (the Italians have awarded him the title of "professore" for his double), the Giro in 1989 (2nd in 84) and the Grand Prix des Nations the same year. Finally, he achieved the No. 1 professional cyclist UCI World Ranking following his fantastic 1989 season.
In the eyes of many english speaking fans he remains probably most famous for having lost the Tour de France in 1989 to Greg LeMond in the final stage timetrial between Versailles and Paris for 8 "small" seconds after over 3 000 km of racing. With his flowing pony tail and exposed shoe laces he gave Lemond the chance he needed to take the yellow jersey with the aid of an aero helmet and aerodynamic triathlon handlebars.
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His career was marred by two positive doping tests for amphetamines in 1987 at the Grand Prix of Wallonia and in the 1989 Grand Prix Eindhoven.
At the end of his sporting career, Fignon launched a company organizing cycling events. It has included, through the "Laurent Fignon Organization" the Paris-Nice in 2000 and 2001, before selling the rights to Amaury Sport Organization, the organisers of the Tour de France.
The brand name "Laurent Fignon is owned by Auchan, which markets bicycles under that marque. Fignon was subsequently a consultant for a very long time on Eurosport France.
He revealed in an interview with the TV show "from 7 to 8" on June 14, 2009 on TF1 that he suffers from an "advanced cancer" of the pancreas, but did not know if this can be linked to taking performance-enhancing drugs that it took, as everyone says he, throughout his sporting career.
During his sporting career, he was considered the "intellectual" of the bunch, because of his glasses and the fact that he was one of the few holders in the peloton of the baccalaureate.
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