A figure of cycling is gone. Former rider Roger Hassenforder, wearing the yellow jersey for the Tour de France in 1953, died Sunday at the age of 90 at the Departmental Rest and Care Center in Colmar (Haut-Rhin), the newspaper L’Alsace announced.
Born July 23, 1930 in Sansheim (Haut-Rhin), this Alsatian by birth and heart raced for thirteen seasons from 1953 to 1965. He won eight stages of the Tour de France, in six participations, and was also made know by his fiery character and his inflammatory statements.
“I have a Bobet in each leg,” he said jokingly, referring to the three-time French winner of the Tour. His sense of repartee contributed to his great popularity and his attacking temperament carried him to astonishing exploits, sometimes followed by spectacular failures.
Generous in the extreme, unexpected as much as possible in his behavior, he has won the Critérium national three times (1954, 1956, 1958), the Tour du Sud-Est (1953), the Buckles of the Seine (1959), as well as than the French Pursuit Championship (1954).
In 1997, return to the career of Roger Hassenforder
On the Tour de France, this unpredictable rider, both a roller and a sprinter, wore the yellow jersey for four days from his first participation (1953). But he only finished the race once, in 1956, when he was selected at the last minute in the… Western team. Legend has it that, that year, he got it into his head to greet the riders at the start. He was blissfully in a tuxedo, after partying in a nightclub.
Voluntary road trip in the Mediterranean
“If you were more serious, I would have taken you because I have a package guy”, then launched Leon Le Calvez, the manager of the Western team. The prospect of finding Louis Caput, Hassenforder’s great friend, won out. “Banco, I am leaving, promising to arrive.” The Alsatian won four stages, the last in Montluçon (Allier) after a long solitary break of 187 kilometers.
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The following year, in the Cannes-Marseille stage, he achieved the feat of leading part of the peloton into the Mediterranean because of the heat but more certainly because of a publicity stunt in Paris-Match . “That day,” he said, “I was nine minutes early and the editor-in-chief (Editor’s note: Raymond Cartier) The front page offered me against a sea bath. When I got out of the water, everything smelled of salt, including bananas. Other runners followed me. In the evening, I was almost excluded ”.
