# Fignon



## raindog (31 Aug 2010)

It's just been announced on the news here that Laurent Fignon has died


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## alecstilleyedye (31 Aug 2010)

sad news 

news in english hard to find though…


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## raindog (31 Aug 2010)

alecstilleyedye said:


> news in english hard to find though…


I'm not surprised, this was announced literally minutes ago as a news flash halfway through the news.


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## benguin (31 Aug 2010)

Not much available in French either at the moment, but I expect L'Equipe and Le Monde will run a special feature soon.

The news has left me really sad indeed. I grew up with Fignon's racing, and I always liked the man. Read his book too which, unlike most biogs, was actually very well written and touching.

benjamin


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## karlos_the_jackal (31 Aug 2010)

It's on the BBC website now. great rider I remember the 89 was the first tour I watched fully.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8957337.stm


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## montage (31 Aug 2010)

RIP


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## Willo (31 Aug 2010)

Sad news. Ironically, I read his book while on holiday in France last week.


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## threebikesmcginty (31 Aug 2010)

RIP prof


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## Team Fiwip (31 Aug 2010)

Fignon, a genuine individual in a world of conformity


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## rich p (31 Aug 2010)

very sad


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## Keith Oates (31 Aug 2010)

That has really saddened my evening, RIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## guitarpete247 (31 Aug 2010)

Bike Radar has an article from AFP.


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## Flying_Monkey (31 Aug 2010)

I just read the news. So sad. He always seemed such a thoughtful, unglamorous, nice guy in a world of too many vain and overblown sporting 'heroes'.


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## woohoo (31 Aug 2010)

Very sad. An individual who was "his own man" and always behaved in a dignified manner.


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## GrumpyGregry (31 Aug 2010)

Tragic. Way too young. I bought his book yesterday


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## Toshiba Boy (31 Aug 2010)

RIP "Professor", who will ever forget the 8 second Tour (not to mention his '83 and'84 victories of course).


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## downfader (31 Aug 2010)

A real shame. I think, though could be mistaken as I was only 6 when he won his first Tour, I remember him on the telly.


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## Fletch456 (31 Aug 2010)

Very sad; especially at 50 yrs of age. I will be buying his book soon - read a few pages in a bookshop the other day and I don't know how much it owed to Fotheringham's translation but they were enthralling.

RIP Laurent Fignon.


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## Blue (31 Aug 2010)

I loved watching him in the 80's. A sad loss.

RIP.


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## raindog (31 Aug 2010)

Cool photo gallery of him over on CN
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/photos/laurent-fignon-remembered


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## Paul_L (31 Aug 2010)

that really is sad news.


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## wafflycat (31 Aug 2010)

RIP Fignon. The 'eight second' tour finish that set cycling alive for me; never forgotten.


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## gary r (31 Aug 2010)

you dont get riders like Fignon anymore,a master in the classics as well as the tours


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## HLaB (31 Aug 2010)

RIP Fignon :-(


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## twentysix by twentyfive (31 Aug 2010)

Aw no. Can't be. He's only 50. That's just too sad.


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## HonestMan1910 (31 Aug 2010)

Sad news.

RIP


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## ACS (31 Aug 2010)

Sad news and a sad day for the sport RIP


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## HLaB (31 Aug 2010)

RIP, I've just watched this tribute on Eurosport :-(


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## Smokin Joe (31 Aug 2010)

A great rider and a very intelligent man.

RIP


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## Baggy (31 Aug 2010)

Sad news indeed, RIP.


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## Ghost Donkey (31 Aug 2010)

Saw the tribute at the start of the Vuelta highlights on eurosport too. Truly sad news. A great cyclist and a man who wasn't afraid to speak his mind.


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## StuAff (31 Aug 2010)

RIP. Great champion, great man.


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## mickle (31 Aug 2010)

Very sad indeed.


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## lay (1 Sep 2010)

This is very sad this - had a big effect on me did Fignon & the 8sec. loss by Lemond TDF win... A great great great character !


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## Willo (1 Sep 2010)

Very fitting that Sean Kelly featured on the Eurosport tribut as Fignon talks of him very fondly in his book


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## raindog (1 Sep 2010)

Some great anecdotes here from Robert Millar which prove, if proof were needed, what a powerful rider LF was.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/robert-millar-remembers-laurent-fignon


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## e-rider (1 Sep 2010)

sad news - a truely great cyclist


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## yello (1 Sep 2010)

raindog said:


> Some great anecdotes here from Robert Millar



A good read. 

And also nice to know that Robert Millar is around/contactable/still interested in cycling. For him to say anything at all carries great weight as a tribute to Fignon.


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## raindog (1 Sep 2010)

Yello - don't forget to nip out and buy today's L'Equipe - a massive four page tribute to the man - really good.


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## the_mikey (1 Sep 2010)

Very sad news. He was commentating on the France2 coverage of the tour de France this year, and taking part in end of race interviews with some of the riders.


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## Crankarm (2 Sep 2010)

Any idea what he died of as 50 is very young to be dying?


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## montage (3 Sep 2010)

Crankarm said:


> Any idea what he died of as 50 is very young to be dying?




Stomach cancer I believe


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## Foghat (3 Sep 2010)

raindog said:


> Some great anecdotes here from Robert Millar which prove, if proof were needed, what a powerful rider LF was.
> 
> http://www.cyclingne...-laurent-fignon



Indeed. Such praise from his peers carries much weight - in the same way contemporaries of Merckx and Hinault marvelled at their enormous strength.

And he executed many of his rides with extraordinary panache. Witness this outstanding performance - a long breakaway in yellow, riding away from the other Tour contenders who couldn't catch him despite working together:

Fignon solos away to Villard de Lans

What's the last long breakaway in yellow you can remember by someone on target for the overall win.....?

The '89 loss seemed an immense injustice at the time - Lemond's wheelsucking throughout much of the race (and notably, in the stage above, his expectations on Delgado and Theunisse to do his work for him as Fignon's only real rival) was appalling to see, notwithstanding the impressive time-trial stage efforts. However, Lemond's strong stance on the drug-taking culture has since elevated him in my eyes; nevertheless, Fignon unnecessarily lost that Tour more than Lemond won it, and his palmares and performances stay in the mind more as he was such a trier - never afraid to risk everything in do-or-die attacks (and winning at the La Plagne mountain finish in 1987 despite crashing spectacularly at speed on the descent of the Telegraphe), and always ready to do more than his share - whereas Lemond usually just followed wheels and did it in the time-trials.

I recall a memorable photo of Fignon sitting on the ground in the 1982 Blois-Chaville Classic (from Miroir du Cyclisme - remember that?) - his early Campagnolo Super Record titanium bottom bracket axle having broken and dumped him on the road while leading and almost certain for the win:

Blois-Chaville 1982

Ever since then I followed his career with interest - from reluctant admiration of his defeat of a recovering-from-injury Hinault in the 1984 Tour and disapproval of his rather distasteful mocking of the great man, to tremendous pleasure at his stuffing one up Lemond in the various mountain stages of the '89 Tour. He was also one of the few Tour-winning types who put some serious effort in at Paris-Roubaix - almost unheard of now.

Here's another good often-reproduced photo of him - cooling his feet with Perrier in 1984.........

Truly a great rider who represented outstanding value for money for any follower of cycle racing, and the world is a poorer place for his passing.


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## raindog (3 Sep 2010)

Nice post Foghat. 

Thought I'd share these from the L'Equipe four page tribute. I'd never seen the pic of him laughing with his old team mate before and part of the tribute was a half page interview with Hinault.


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## benguin (3 Sep 2010)

Fletch456 said:


> Very sad; especially at 50 yrs of age. I will be buying his book soon - read a few pages in a bookshop the other day and I don't know how much it owed to Fotheringham's translation but they were enthralling.
> 
> RIP Laurent Fignon.



No, the book is actually a very good read, articulate, moving and really well written. At least in French. It is actually up there in terms of style and prose with Paul Fournel's books.

benjamin


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## raindog (3 Sep 2010)

benguin said:


> No, the book is actually a very good read, articulate, moving and really well written.


I loved it, but I'm not sure it was "really well written". I thought it was a bit like chatting to someone down the pub, a bit like Ron Wood's autobiography in style.


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## Foghat (3 Sep 2010)

raindog said:


> Nice post Foghat.
> 
> Thought I'd share these from the L'Equipe four page tribute. I'd never seen the pic of him laughing with his old team mate before and part of the tribute was a half page interview with Hinault.



Thanks for posting those, raindog. I do vaguely remember that photo of the two of them laughing, and it's good to see it again.

You know, I was thinking some more about my point that Fignon's Villard de Lans escape was the last big solo escape by an overall contender in the yellow jersey, and I am convinced it was. I can't think of any lone yellow jersey breaks (successful or otherwise) since that weren't just a handful of kilometres on the final climb of a mountain stage. But on that stage, Fignon got away with over 23km remaining, and simply rode away from all the key contenders who were basically strung out in a serious collaboration to get him back. 

Aside from Lemond's abysmal implicit request at one point for Delgado and Theunisse to chase Fignon on his behalf (despite having contributed nothing to the chase at that point, and being the principal rival), the three big guns did make a serious effort to reel him in, as did the other main players who eventually rejoined the Delgado-Theunisse-Lemond train. To stay away like that on the heavyish up-and-down roads to the finish, and with his performances at Alpe d'Huez etc in his legs, is one of the great lone escapes of cycling history, and for many observers at the time (and not least the man himself!) it was a major disappointment that ultimately it wasn't rewarded by the overall win on account of having the wrong shaped bars for the last 25km of the Tour. 

I was on one of my Alpine pass-storming jaunts at the time myself, and going into a series of days based around the Izoard, Granon, Iseran, Mont Cenis, Galibier, Croix de Fer etc, and without access to a television, was comfortable that Fignon would emerge the winner having seen this particular exploit. But I well remember us arriving at the youth hostel in Lanslebourg and hearing the news that he'd gone and lost it.....by 8 seconds. And seeing the footage of him falling off the bike onto the Champs Elysees and sitting there with his head in his hands in despair is etched in my memory forever, as is that classic Phil Liggett commentary which eventually I heard when we got back to England.

So yes, that was the last big yellow jersey escape, by an overall contender, in Tour history by my reckoning, and only a handful of true greats ever achieved such a feat - Riis's (now compromised) long escape to Sestriere in 1996 was done in normal team jersey and resulted in receiving yellow, Pantani's escape up the Galibier and on to Les Deux Alpes wasn't in yellow, and I can't think of any other long escapes by others since; I suppose Armstrong could have done some whole final climbs off the front in yellow, but can't think of any - maybe someone else can. In any case, the pressure and requisite high calibre associated with staying away in the yellow jersey over more than just the last three or four kilometres of a stage are immense: very few could pull it off, and for that Fignon's place as a link with the past greats in the sport is assured.


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## threebikesmcginty (12 Sep 2010)

Lovely quote in the obituary section of Cycling Weekly taken from a Paris Match interview in January - Fignon said "I don't want to die die at 50 but if my cancer is incurable, what can I do? I love life, I love a good laugh, travel, books, good food. I'm a typical Frenchman. I'm not afraid, I just don't want to die."


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## Crankarm (13 Sep 2010)

threebikesmcginty said:


> Lovely quote in the obituary section of Cycling Weekly taken from a Paris Match interview in January - Fignon said "*I don't want to die die at 50 but if my cancer is incurable, what can I do? I love life, I love a good laugh, travel, books, good food. I'm a typical Frenchman. I'm not afraid, I just don't want to die*."



It brought a tear to my eye when I read it  .

RIP.


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## ayceejay (14 Sep 2010)

Thanks for that Foghat. My view of the cycling world changed for me that day when Lemond spent the whole race saving for that 58 seconds. There was no doubt in my mind who was the hero and who the villain but that same "win whatever" attitude was also demonstrated by McEnroe in Tennis; aggression over style. Fignon was from another (better?) era and that day marked the change for me, a sad day and news of his death is another sad day.


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## yello (15 Sep 2010)

There's also a very good supplement to Sept's Velo magazine dedicated to Fignon. A very good read and I have to say that I, achem, thought him an attractive man in his day. A very thoughtful and sometimes morose looking man.


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