Jacques Anquetil

On December 22, 1958, he married his doctor’s wife Janine Boeda who was already a mother of two children - Annie and Alain.

After Janine’s pregnancies failed, the couple considered surrogacy and later approached Annie who gave birth to his daughter Sophie.

Jacques Anquetil had an affair with Dominique, wife of his step-son Alain when the couple joined the Anquetil house. Dominique also had a child from Anquetil.

He was born on January 8, 1934, to Ernest Anquetil and Marie Anquetil. His father was a builder in Mount-Saint-Aignan in Normandy, France.

He was brought up in Normandy in a strawberry farm and later shifted with his parents and brother Philippe in Boisguillaume. In 1941 his father joined the other family members to work in the farm.

He got his first bicycle at four years of age and would ride the Alcyon twice daily to make a round to the village and return covering approximately a distance of 1½ km.

He joined a technical college in Sotteville-lès-Rouen to study metal-turning.

He gave up his first choice of running and followed his friend Maurice Dieulois to join the ‘AC Sottevillais’ club as he was fascinated by the attention his friend received from girls after becoming a ‘coureur cycliste’.

In 1952 he was included in the French team in the ‘Summer Olympics’ and earned a bronze medal in the hundred kilometre team road race. Following his impressive performance, André Boucher recommended him to Francis Pélissier, the cycling team manager of ‘La Perle’ and also a former rider of the ‘Tour de France. He was offered 30,000 old francs per month by Francis Pélissier to ride as an independent cyclist for ‘La Perle’.

In 1953, he emerged as the winner in his first professional race ‘Grand Prix de Lugano’ as also the ‘Grand Prix des Nations’ race thus becoming the unofficial champion of time trial at nineteen years of age.

He won the ‘Grand Prix de Lugano’ seven more times in 1954, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1965 and 1966. The ‘Grand Prix des Nations’ race was won by him eight more times in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1965 and 1966.

On September 22, 1954 he joined the army for a compulsory two years service and was posted as a gunner at the Richepanse de Rouen barracks.

In June 1956 he was asked by his chief to break the hour record for cycling which was held by Fausto Coppi since November 7, 1942. He agreed that if successful he would give away the reward, half of which shall be retained by the army while the other half will be given to the mother of a soldier, André Dufour who died while fighting at Palestro, Algeria.

In 1957 he took part in his first ‘Tour de France’ and emerged winner. After a gap of few years he again rode the ‘Tour de France’ in 1961 and won the race again. His winning spree in ‘Tour de France’ continued in the years 1962, 1963 and 1964 thus becoming the first rider to win the title for five times.