Henry Anglade

Henry Anglade (6 July 1933 – 10 November 2022) was a French cyclist.

Anglade turned professional in 1957.

In 1959 he was closest to winning the Tour de France, when he won a stage and finished second, 4:01 behind Federico Bahamontes.

In 1959, he won the Dauphiné Libéré, a mountainous stage race over a week; then the national road championship.

He came second in the Tour de Suisse and then in the Tour de France, behind Federico Bahamontes but in front of Jacques Anquetil and Roger Rivière.

In that Tour, Anglade – riding for the regional Centre-Midi team – was the victim of the tactics of Anquetil, Rivière and others in the French national team.

They preferred to see Bahamontes take the Tour de France rather than Anglade, who was unpopular among French riders and, had he won the Tour de France, would have earned more than Anquetil and Rivière in the post-Tour criteriums that were then an important part of riders' incomes.

Bahamontes was both Spanish and a poor rider in round-the-houses races and so of little threat.

On top of that, Anquetil, Rivière and many other French stars were represented by Daniel Dousset, one of the two agents who divided French cycling, whereas Anglade was represented by the other, Roger Piel.

That was why Anglade had been left out of the national team to ride for a regional one.

At the stage finish in Grenoble, Dousset was there to meet Fausto Coppi, who was Bahamontes' sponsor, and the riders in the national team whom he represented.

Émile Besson wrote in L'Humanité: "Dousset offered contracts for criteriums by the shovel load for after the Tour of Spain. Anglade's head, second in Paris, had fallen."

Fans worked out what was going on and Anquetil was whistled and jeered as he entered the Parc des Princes on the last day.

Anglade said: "I've got no regrets about it. Racing is like that. And anyway I make it a principle to live without regrets."

Anglade was not the strongest of riders but made up for what he lacked with a good tactical sense.

He was an eloquent speaker and popular with journalists.

Riders, however, disliked him for what they perceived as his bossiness and gave him the nickname Napoleon, which referred as well to his smallness.

The 1959 national championship used the car racing circuit at Montlhéry.

Anglade was in a leading group with five laps left.

Louison Bobet was leading the chase.

The commissaires had got as far as clearing following cars out of the way so that the chasers could regain the leaders.

Anglade dropped to the back of his group, had something to eat, and set off alone when Bobet and the others were nearly on them.

The others hesitated and the chasers eased up when the two groups came together.

Anglade was convinced he'd won and eased up with 100m left to raise his hands in victory.

In 1960 he wore the yellow jersey for two days while finishing 8th overall.

Anglade joined the Pelforth-Sauvage-Lejeune in 1963 and finished the next year's Tour de France in fourth place, behind Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor and Bahamontes.

He placed in the top five of the Tour on two additional occasions in 1964 and 1965.

Henry Anglade was born in Thionville, in the Lorraine region of France close to the German border, the son of a soldier.

His family moved south to Lyon at the start of the Second World War.

There he went to school with a boy called André Camus who went cycling on Sundays and on Thursday afternoons.

Anglade turned down his invitation to join him.

It was his father who suggested that he should go, offering him the heavy family bicycle "that weighed at least 25kg".

He joined Camus and his friends and found they couldn't keep up.

One suggested he should try racing and he joined the Vélo Club du Griffon, the oldest club in Lyon.

That was when he bought himself a Longoni sports bike and tried racing.

Anglade worked with an engineering company until he could support himself from racing.

He also came fourth in the 1965 race, behind Felice Gimondi, Poulidor and Gianni Motta.

Anglade's health disturbed his 1966 season and he spent his last season, 1967, as a team rider for Raymond Poulidor.

He rode in ten editions of the Tour de France and finished all but his last.

His places in the general classification were always in the top 20 aside from his first Tour where he finished 28th, but thereafter he finished 17th, 2nd, 8th, 18th, 12th, 11th, 4th and 4th.