Henry Anglade

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.[3]

Anglade worked with an engineering company until he could support himself from racing.[4]

Anglade turned professional in 1957. 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.[5] That was why Anglade had been left out of the national team to ride for a regional one.[6]

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."[6][7] 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."[3]

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.

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 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.

Anglade crashed in a criterium at Montélimar in 1966 and broke his spine. He said:

I was mixing it with Raymond Poulidor [on s'amusait à se tirer la bourre avec Poulidor]. I was in front and he was trying to join me. We were approaching a bend and I stepped on the gas and unfortunately my pedal touched the road. I flew off the bike: fractured vertebral column. I was at the end of my contract with Pelforth and it wasn't being renewed. Antonin Magne, the manager of Mercier, going through Roger Piel, my agent, opened the door for me. For me it was a real pleasure. But I never really came back to my old level. So I wrote a letter of resignation, explaining that I didn't deserve to be paid to be a racer. Magne phoned me: he'd never seen such a thing. The book of my career closed.[3]

Anglade left cycling on 13 September to work for the Olympia-Werke typewriter company with one of his cousins. He wanted no more to do with cycling until, in 1975, the Lejeune brothers who ran a bike factory in Paris and sponsored a team invited him to join.[9] He managed Lejeune-BP in three Tours de France, where he managed Roy Schuiten, Ferdinand Bracke and Lucien Van Impe. He said the team lacked leaders and wasn't a success.[9]

Stained-glass window at the Notre Dame des Cyclistes

Anglade learned how to make stained-glass windows and designed and created those in the cyclists' chapel, Notre Dame des Cyclistes at Labastide-d'Armagnac in the Landes. He said:

Ever since I was really tiny, I have always admired stained-glass windows. When I was a choir boy, I couldn't follow the Mass because I was in ecstasy in front of a window. Somehow I had it in my skin. Five years ago I went to a demonstration of how the windows were made and I flipped. I signed on for more. I made a window of the Virgin, which I gave to Father Massié for the 40th anniversary of the Notre Dame des Cyclistes at La Bastide d'Armagnac. I was really proud and happy.[3]

The professional cyclist's habit of endorsing commercial products never left him. In 2008, he endorsed the brand of hearing aid that he wore.[12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henry Anglade.

• Henry Anglade at Cycling Archives
• Official Tour de France results for Henry Anglade