Raymond Poulidor

Raymond Poulidor

Poulidor at the 1966 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Raymond Poulidor
Nickname	Poupou The Eternal Second[1]
Born	(1936-04-15)15 April 1936 Masbaraud-Mérignat, France
Died	13 November 2019(2019-11-13) (aged 83) Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, France
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[2]
Weight	71 kg (157 lb; 11 st 3 lb)[2]
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team
1960–1977	Mercier–BP–Hutchinson
Major wins
Grand Tours Vuelta a España General classification (1964) 4 individual stages Tour de France 7 individual stages Stage races Critérium International (1964, 1966, 1968, 1971–72) Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1966, 1969) Paris–Nice (1972–73) One-day races and Classics Milan–San Remo (1961) La Flèche Wallonne (1963) Grand Prix des Nations (1963)
Medal record Representing  France Men's road bicycle racing World Championships 1974 Montréal Road race 1961 Bern Road race 1964 Sallanches Road race 1966 Nürburgring Road race

Raymond Poulidor (French pronunciation: [ʁɛmɔ̃ pulidɔʁ]; 15 April 1936 – 13 November 2019), nicknamed "Pou-Pou" (pronounced [pu pu]), was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for Mercier his entire career.

His distinguished career coincided with two other outstanding riders – Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx. This underdog position may have been the reason Poulidor was a favourite of the public. He was known as "The Eternal Second", because he never won the Tour de France despite finishing in second place three times, and in third place five times (including his final Tour at the age of 40). Despite his consistency, he never wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification in 14 Tours (of which he completed 12). He did win one Grand Tour, the 1964 Vuelta a España. Of the eighteen Grand Tours that he entered in his career, he finished in the top 10 fifteen times.