July 14th is Bastille Day in France. So, does a French rider win today and make his country proud? I raced the Coor’s Classic for La Vie Claire in 1988 and a teammate, Vincent Barteau won on Bastille Day a couple years later riding with Greg LeMond. A little recent Bastille Day Tour Trivia below.

# Number of French winners on Bastille Day in the last ten years – three (Jalabert 2001, Virenque 2004, Moncoutié 2005)

# Number of bunch sprints on Bastille Day in the last ten years – zero.

French wins on Bastille Day

Since 1947, 13 French riders have won a stage of the Tour de France on the national holiday, Bastille Day (July 14). Those winners are:

Emile Idée in 1949 in Nîmes
Jean Robic in 1953 in Luchon
Jacques Vivier in 1954 in Vannes
Jean Bourles in 1957 in Ax-les-Thermes
Jacques Anquetil in 1961 in Périgueux and in a time trial in Paris in 1964
Roger Pingeon in 1968 in Albi
Raymond Delisle in 1969 in Luchon
Bernard Thévenet in 1970 in La Mongie and again in 1975 in Serre-Chevalier
Bernard Labourdette in 1971 in Gourette
Mariano Martinez in 1980 in Morzine
Vincent Barteau in 1989 in Marseille
Laurent Jalabert in 1995 in Mende and again in 2001 in Colmar.
Laurent Brochard in 1997 in Loudenvielle

Vincent Barteau and Greg LeMond