Word: anquetil
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...France's Jacques Anquetil, 30: the Tour de France bicycle race for an unparalleled fourth straight year, and his fifth win in eight years of competition. After 23 days on the grueling, 2,816-mi. course that snakes in and out of six countries, only 81 of 132 starters were still riding as the tour swung into the final 17-mi. dash for Paris. Anquetil had a bare 14-sec. lead over his closest pursuer, but then bike racing's reigning rajah turned it on and pumped across the finish line for a 55-sec. victory, slimmest margin...
France's Jacques Anquetil, 29, is the world's best bicycle racer-and one of its most unpopular athletes. A one-time baker's helper from Sotteville (literally: Stupidville) in Normandy, he makes a fetish of independence-testily ignoring fans, truculently snubbing opponents, even going so far as to wear his watch on his right wrist, simply because most people wear theirs on the left. Critics complain that Anquetil "does not like to suffer" (a quality Frenchmen demand in heroes) and that he races "like an accountant" (always conserving his strength, never taking risks). "Jacques," his coach...
Over the Hill? Anquetil can afford to be rude. He is the only cyclist ever to win all three of Europe's top marathon races-the Tour de France, the Giro d'ltalia and the Vuelta a España. He once set a world record by covering 46,159 km. (about 29 miles) in one hour and he has won the Grand Prix des Nations, a kind of World Series of bike racing, seven times. The sport pays him $150,000 a year, and he lives in champagne luxury-beautiful blonde wife, country house near Rouen, Mercedes...