by Roy Green » Sun May 18, 2008 10:01 pm
"Are you the guy that rode with 1960s star Frenchman Raymond Poulidor?" Well, yes, actually.
In 1961 when I worked on Sporting Cyclist magazine I spent a week or so in Nice in March, following the pros in their training camps and races there. I stayed at the same hotel as Poulidor. He actually asked me to keep him company on a couple of training rides. No heroics needed from me, as with a race every other day, the pros would ride easy tempo, for about 100km. The hardest part was keeping with him descending the Alpes Maritimes climbs. By the end of the week I was quite a fearless descender!
Poulidor was a thoroughly nice, placid, guy. He would have been the best Tour rider of the decade but for a certain Jacques Anquetil getting in his way. The week after the Nice training he won Milan-San Remo. Don't think I can claim any credit for pushing him ... It gave me a good headline for my article: 'I trained with winner of Milan-San Remo'. As for Anquetil, have just finished reading Paul Howard's steamy biography of him 'Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape'. Quelle homme!