The French team Saint-Raphaël is considered a pioneer of today's colourful sponsorship landscape in cycling - at least when it comes to sponsors who do not come directly from the cycling scene. The racing team celebrated its successes primarily with Jacques Anquetil. However, the Frenchman only received recognition for his elegant riding style and his Tour victories after his career.
The genesis
In the mid-1950s, cycling was facing major changes. Due to the increasing popularity of motorbikes and cars, sales in the bicycle industry declined. This in turn affected cycling, which until then had been financed exclusively by bike companies. The victims of this development were the riders, including Raphaël Geminiani. He denounced the exploitation by the bike companies and founded his own racing team in 1954 - while still an active rider - with the help of a smaller bike manufacturer and with bikes that were marketed under the name "Raphaël Geminiani".
Geminiani then persuaded the French aperitif manufacturer Saint-Raphaël to become a sponsor for the 1955 season. In doing so, he followed Fiorenzo Magni, who had already engaged the cosmetics manufacturer Nivea for his Italian team in 1954 - the first sponsor at the time that did not come from the world of cycling. In France, however, the outrage on the part of the race organisers and the criticism from the press was much greater: Cycling and the cycling industry should keep to themselves, was the tenor. Geminiani, however, was prepared. He always claimed that the team name referred to his first name Raphaël. This was followed by a number of reprimands and threatened bans. It was not until 1956 that the red lettering of Saint-Raphaël appeared permanently on the jersey.
In the same year, the team's Tour de France winner was Roger Walkowiak. However, the Frenchman won for the North-East-Central regional squad, as national and regional teams took part in the Tour at that time. This did not change until 1962.
The most significant victory
It is one of the most iconic images in cycling history: Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor battle shoulder to shoulder up the dusty road to the Puy de Dôme. Both seem to be at the end of their tether, but neither wants to concede even one metre to the other.
It was the third-to-last stage of the 1964 Tour de France and the only mountain finish. A great opportunity for Poulidor to attack. Despite losing time due to defects and crashes, he was only 56 seconds behind Anquetil in the classification. For the press, this was a sign that Poulidor was the stronger of the two riders this time. For Anquetil, on the other hand, it was about his fifth overall Tour victory. He had already won the Giro d'Italia a few weeks earlier. As the second rider after Fausto Coppi, he now wanted to win the Giro and Tour double. However, he looked vulnerable in France.
Up to the Puy de Dôme, Anquetil rode alongside Poulidor for the most part, not in his slipstream - a guideline from Geminiani to give Poulidor a psychological boost. It was only 900 metres before the finish that a visibly exhausted Anquetil had to let his rival go. He is said to have collapsed at the finish. However, Anquetil defended the yellow jersey by 14 seconds. His advantage: the final stage was a time trial, his favourite discipline. Anquetil finally won the 1964 Tour by 55 seconds ahead of Poulidor - his closest victory, but the one that earned him the most respect.
The boss
Geminiani was one of the great French riders of the 1950s, but never won the Tour. In the era of the national teams, he often had to subordinate himself to compatriots like Louison Bobet. Geminiani was regarded as a loyal but controversial character. Cunning, emotional, often ruthlessly direct: the Frenchman could be infectious, but he could also offend people. This temperament also characterised his work as team boss. The end of his career as a racing driver was heralded by a momentous trip to Burkina Faso, where he and Fausto Coppi contracted malaria during a sponsored race. Geminiani survived, Coppi died.
Geminiani then sat in the team car from 1962. In the same year, Anquetil moved to Saint-Raphaël with some team-mates, as his Helyett racing team had disbanded. However, the relationship between Geminiani and Anquetil was initially characterised by tensions. At the 1962 Vuelta a España, for example, Anquetil demanded before the final time trial that team-mate Rudi Altig, in the leader's jersey, should be given the inferior equipment. After all, he was the captain. Geminiani rebuffed him. Altig won the time trial and the Vuelta; Anquetil, second overall, left in a huff before the final stage. Offended in his honour, Anquetil demanded that Geminiani be replaced by his former manager Paul Wiegant before the start of the Tour. There was a vote of all ten Tour riders - with eight to two votes in favour of Geminiani. Only a home visit by the team boss to Anquetil put an end to the differences.
In addition to his understanding of racing, Geminiani was characterised by a certain slyness. He often found loopholes in the rules or used tactics to fool the competition. However, like Anquetil, Geminiani had a liberal attitude towards doping substances, which he publicly trivialised as "stimulants". He died in 2024 at the age of 99.
The most influential drivers
Jacques Anquetil
Anquetil became a star of the French sports press at the age of 19. This was helped by his superior victory in the Grand Prix des Nations, the most prestigious individual time trial in cycling at the time. His outstanding time trial skills later paved the way for his five Tour victories. He was a calculated cyclist. Anquetil saw his victories more as a means to an end in order to secure good contracts in lucrative criterium or six-day races. When he won the Tour de France for the fifth time in 1964, he saw no financial sense in winning it again. As a racing cyclist, Anquetil lived in contradictions anyway: On the one hand, he stood for pedantic route reconnaissance, especially in time trials, and on the other, for an excessive lifestyle with expensive cars, good food and lots of champagne - often late into the night before race days. He died of stomach cancer in 1987 at the age of 53.
Jean Stablinski
Because of his four French championship titles, Stablinski was nicknamed "Monsieur France". However, he celebrated his greatest success by winning the Road World Championship in 1962, but Stablinski was never able to win his favourite race, Paris-Roubaix. Nevertheless, he is closely associated with the history of the race. Stablinski grew up in the region and regularly helped the race organisers with tips on new pavé sections. Among other things, the infamous section in the Arenberg forest can be traced back to Stablinski, which was first included in the race in 1968. After his death in 2007, Stablinski received a memorial stone at the entrance to Arenberg. He was regarded as an accomplished tactician, but spent the majority of his career as a loyal supporter of Anquetil.
Roger Rivière
The talented Frenchman was only part of the professional peloton for four years. Geminiani brought his compatriot to Saint-Raphaël in 1957, having become aware of Rivière two years earlier at a local race in his home country. In 1957, Rivière won the world championship title in the single pursuit on the track and set a world hour record. The rather publicity-shy Rivière had a rivalry with Anquetil, which helped the Spaniard Federico Bahamontes to win the Tour in 1959, as the two Frenchmen did not want to support each other. Without Anquetil in the team, Rivière was considered the big favourite for the 1960 Tour before he crashed into a ravine on a descent on the 14th stage. Rivière was hospitalised with serious injuries to his head and spine. He survived, but was confined to a wheelchair from then on. He died of cancer in 1976 at the age of 40.
The German influences
In 1959, Saint-Raphaël founded a sister team under the name "Rapha - R. Geminiani - Dunlop". Many years later, this name inspired the British riders Simon Mottram and Luke Scheybeler to create the now popular cycling clothing company "Rapha". The racing team existed until 1961 and included the German riders Rolf Wolfshohl and Willi and Rudi Altig. The Altig brothers also rode for Saint-Raphaël from 1962 to 1965. During this time, Rudi Altig won the Vuelta a España as well as the green jersey in the Tour de France (1962) and the Tour of Flanders (1964).
The controversy
With Anquetil, Saint-Raphaël undoubtedly had the best driver of the time. However, he was rarely recognised and applauded by the public. Poulidor was ahead in the favour of the French. The public could sympathise with him - while Anquetil's successes hardly aroused any emotion. The press in particular created the legend of an equal Poulidor, who often lost due to bad luck. A nuisance for Anquetil. However, his riding style met with little favour from the public: Anquetil rarely produced daring attacks and sporting dramas, his victories were based on far-sighted, calculated tactics. The public found his successes dull; occasionally he was accompanied by boos - Anquetil was seen as unapproachable and arrogant. The book "Les années Anquetil" records an episode in which Anquetil even considered losing a tour against Poulidor in order to boost his popularity. Only after a conversation with Geminiani did he abandon this plan. Anquetil only received the honour of being the first rider to win the Tour five times after his career.
The end
At the end of the 1964 season, Saint-Raphaël withdrew as a sponsor as the company feared changes to the law on alcohol advertising in France. Thanks to the team's success, team boss Geminiani quickly found a new sponsor: the French branch of car manufacturer Ford.
The trophy cabinet
- Tour de France 1962, 1963, 1964 (Jacques Anquetil)
- Vuelta a España 1959 (Antonio Suarez), 1962 (Rudi Altig), 1963 (Jacques Anquetil)
- Giro d'Italia 1964 (Jacques Anquetil)
- Tour of Lombardy 1962, 1963 (Jo de Roo)
- Tour of Flanders 1964 (Rudi Altig)
