[CR]Anquetil bike...

(Example: Humor:John Pergolizzi)

From: "Norris Lockley" <norris@norrislockley.wanadoo.co.uk>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 15:46:06 +0100
Subject: [CR]Anquetil bike...

Martin Appel's "Jacques Anquetil" bike is almost certainly a model built by the MICMA company, on the south side of the Loire estuary..Macaliere, or something like that. Micma also produces it's top brand - the Gitane marque. Martin's frame is a standard production frame as used in the mid-range Gitanes of the 70s/80s period, and as such should give a pleasant ride.

MICMA produced bikes under such names as "Jacques Anquetil", "Cyrille Guimard" and " Raymond Delisle" - the former Peugeot rider, amongst others. Surprisingly the company never got the rights to the "Bernard Hinault" brand although "the Badger" spent a considerable part of his career with the Gitane marque. These particular brands of MICMA bikes were sold through a chain of large supermarkets. The "Luis Ocana" brand was produced by the St Etienne Cycles company (SIFEM -I think it was).

As has been pointed out earlier "Anquetil" frames were produced by a variety of companies both in France and the UK. The best most known and probably best quality frames just said, on the head transfer, "Jacques Anquetil" and "Made in France". This decal was identical in design to those used for the marques of other leading riders such as Bernard Thevenet. The latest incarnation is the "Francesco Moser"/"Made in France" frame that was recently sold on Ebay, pictures of which now grace the French pages of the Classicrendez-vous pages. In the early 80s "Thevenet" frames were being produced by Cycles Cizeron, based in the rue de Gutenberg, St Etienne, not far from Mercier's factory. Thevenet, now almost as popular as Poulidor, and an anchorman for French TV's coverage of the T-d-F etc, has a new range of high-end frames, being produced by Ets Duret, of Argent-sur-Sauldre.

The best known bikes to carry "Maitre Jacques" name, and his photo, were the "Speciale Course" models, produced by Helyett in their Sully-sur-Loire factory, not all that distant from Duret's...but no relationship existed between these two companies except rivalry.

Norris Lockley..wallowing in nostalgia...again..Settle-sur-Ribble, UK