From Jacques Anquetil to Louison Bobet, La Grande Boucle is preparing to pay tribute to his legends

The champions will not be present only in the peloton on the next stages of the Tour de France, but also in memories.

“In 2024, in Italy, we honored several transalpine champions. Quite honestly, we thought that we had to do so for our French champions, it is the least of things”declared Christian Prudhomme before the Tour de France in Franceinfo: Sport. Then in 2025, the large loop made a hook from the West, in Normandy and Brittany, land of legends of French cycling. Jacques Anquetil and Jean Robic will be the first honored on the fourth stage, Tuesday, July 8.

At the 128th kilometer of the race, between Romilly-sur-Andelle and La Neuville-Chachant-d'Oisel (Eure), the runners of the Tour de France will climb the coast baptized in the name of Jacques Anquetil (3.5 km at 3.6%), winner five times from the Tour de France (1957, 1961, 1962, 1962 and 1964), two editions of the Tour 1964) and a Tour of Spain (1963). Panels illustrated by champion photographs will notably serve benchmarks to the peloton to find out the number of meters remaining until the summit. “It's great that the tour passes there, because it was his training rib, rejoices his widow Dominique Anquetil, in Franceinfo: Sport. When we inaugurated the coast in 1997, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Raymond Poulidor were there “.

His memory is transmitted today from generation to generation. “We have an exhibition on him with trophies, who travels from town to city. She is in Rouen for a month, but she also went through Avranches, Carpentras … Jacques, it was a monumentcontinues Dominique Anquetil, whose family still has a castle which is used for events. And even today, it's crazy like people and admirers are moved when they go to the castle to see the trophies and find their idol “.

A few kilometers further, the journey of this fourth stage of the Tour de France will go through the Côte de Bonecours, where a stele is erected in honor of Jean Robic. It was in this coast that the 26 -year -old Breton entered the history of the Grande Boucle, on July 20, 1947, during the last stage between Caen and Paris. He had chosen his reliefs to escape, take the lead, keep it to Paris, and win his only Tour de France. Each year, a cyclo race called “Robic-Bonse” takes this coast, with some 300 participants. “It remains an emblematic figure of the area and the fact that a stele is erected in his memory helps to maintain it. These are old glories which did not have the equipment and the accompaniment that runners have today, it is good to pay tribute to them”underlines Jean-Claude Caquelard, who has long organized the Cyclo Robic-Bonsecours.

During the seventh stage, it is a living legend of the Tour which will be entitled to these honors, in Brittany. Bernard Hinault, five -time winner of the Grande Boucle (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985) will see the peloton pass through Yffiniac, his commune of birth, then by Calorguen, at an hour's drive, where he lives. For the occasion, Yffiniac, where a sports complex and a roundabout already bear its name, has created a badger mascot (its nickname) with a yellow jersey. Too bad if the champion prefers discretion.

The next day, the departure will be given from Saint-Méen-le-Grand, the town of Louison Bobet, first winner of three consecutive France towers between 1953 and 1955. A departure that fell out of the centenary of his birth, on March 12, 1925. “With the Mayor, we've been writing to Christian Prudhomme for six years so that Saint-Méen is a city stage of the Tour in 2025, for his 100th anniversary, and we received a favorable response “explains Claude Villaume, elected representative of the village and former volunteer of the association of friends of Louis Bobet.

An association that maintains its memory by holding a museum on the history of the champion. “There are still a few elders who have known him, so he stays in our hearts, and we also have some classes who come to the museum, the children are bathed in this story that is transmitted”he continues. To pay tribute to him, the organizers of the Tour as well as elected representatives of the village will go to his grave to place a wreath.