the Girondin Christian Jourdan who was the first Frenchman to win the Tour du Piedmont in 1984

A month earlier, Christian Jourdan received a registered letter telling him that he was fired from the team of La Vie Claire, which he decided to join at the beginning of the season despite other offers. The severe penalty was justified by the mention of “lack of results” imposed on a runner in which he was imposed, like his companions, an almost constant neutrality in time…

A month earlier, Christian Jourdan received a registered letter telling him that he was fired from the team of La Vie Claire, which he decided to join at the beginning of the season despite other offers. The severe punishment was justified by the mention of “lack of results” imposed on a rider on whom he had imposed, like his companions, an almost constant neutrality during the Tour de France 1984, in order not to confuse the tactics made in this team, and aimed to favor the race of Bernard Hinault.

Moreover, and this does not help his case, this cyclist suffered the misfortune of a fall that forced him to retire in the Nantes-Bordeaux stage. In other words, when it comes to the Tour de l’Avenir, the SA Mérignacais member is in the shoes of an unemployed person. His general good behavior (15^e of the general classification) which earned him to receive offers to retake… renewed during the Étoile des Espoirs where he proved to be one of the best elements.

Knowing that, in the event of rejection, he will be sentenced to retirement at the age of 30 – he was born on December 31, 1954 in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, after five years of professionalism, the winner of two Paris- Camembert and of stages in Tours de Romandie 1982 and Dauphiné 1983, therefore resigned to La Vie Claire. He took it well because it allowed him to be part of the workforce invited to fight in the streets of Piedmont on October 11, 1984 and Lombardy a few days before.

A good revenge

Christian Jourdan, who likes to admit that he is stubborn, did not come without intentions. If only to prove us wrong about him. The least we can say is that he succeeded beyond his expectations, winning the Tour of Piedmont, separately.

A good revenge was obtained thanks to a very active participation in the race and a great solo effort that started 2,500 meters from the finish, which allowed him to resist the pursuit of six men led by the Danes Andersen and Pedersen.

Christian Jourdan, the first Frenchman and only the seventh foreigner to appear on the list of winners of this event, thus ended in a brilliant way the offensive actions of his compatriots Marc Gomez and Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, who really unfortunate leaders of a race influenced in its development by the proximity of the Tour of Lombardy.

So Bernard Hinault gave up, after 150 kilometers of racing, but nevertheless took his musette and returned to the hotel by bicycle. So the Irishman Sean Kelly, while always keeping the position well, avoided all overwork.

This sultry and always lively Tour of Piedmont therefore escapes the lust of road sprinters who can nevertheless think, ten kilometers from Novare, of competing for victory.

Infinite straight line

In fact, at this moment the peloton led by the Swiss Urs Freuler and the Italian Guido Bontempi, only took a group of a dozen riders that gradually formed on the impulse especially by Gomez, Duclos-Lassalle, the Irish Stephen Roche, the Swiss Erich Maechler and the Spaniard Pedro Delgado, just after climbing the small road to Gignese. This small group, counting up to a minute ahead on the return to the flat, nevertheless joined the endless straights to Novare.

But the Danes Kim Andersen and Jorgen Pedersen continued their efforts, imitated by the Italian Giuseppe Petito and joined by the Portuguese Acacio Da Silva, the Dutchman Teun van Vliet, the Belgian Rudy Rogiers and the our Frenchman Christian Jourdan.