Jersey tales

No26: La Redoute. Billed by its ex-pro founder as a ‘team of friends’, La Redoute were a significant force in the peloton during the early 1980s, even if they struggled to bag any major titles along the way

When the route of the 1985 Tour de France was unveiled, Raphaël Géminiani liked the look of one day in particular. Géminiani, a former French national champion, had been installed as the sports director of La Redoute the previous year. As he looked over the 1985 route his eyes were drawn to a split stage in the Pyrenees to be held on 17th July.

First on the day’s menu was a 52km stage from Luz-saint-sauveur to the top of the

Col d’aubisque. Then, after a brief rest, there was a ride of 83km from Laruns to Pau and a second ascent of the Aubisque. Géminiani’s imagination was so captured by the two stages that he immediately declared that the leader of his La Redoute team, Stephen Roche, would win both. Two stage wins in a single day. That was the aim.

Roche had joined La Redoute from Peugeot in 1984. It was a move that led to long-running legal proceedings from Peugeot, who claimed to already have a contract with Roche. With the legal case rumbling on, the Irishman wasted little time in opening his account with his new team, winning Nice-alassio in February 1984. It was a win not without incident given that he struck Bernard Thévenet, his director at the time, in the face on the run-in to the finish.

Thévenet had driven alongside Roche on the final circuit to offer some words of encouragement, and finished by giving his rider a goodbye push.

‘I swung my arm round and caught him right in the face with my fist,’ Roche wrote in his autobiography Born To Ride. ‘I could never have someone touching me from a car like that. It just wasn’t on.’

Fast forward nearly 18 months and

Roche was in the Pyrenees with Géminiani as his sports director. On the morning of the Aubisque stages Géminiani, aware of his bold predictions nine months earlier, told Roche he had a present for him.

‘Géminiani presented me with a special silk skinsuit that he’d had handmade for me,’ Roche later wrote. ‘My first reaction was to tell him that I wouldn’t be turning up at the start wearing a kit like that, that I’d be a laughing stock. But he insisted, “The stage is only 40 kilometres [sic].

You don’t need food, you’re going to get clear on the Aubisque and they won’t be able to catch you. You’re going to ride it like a time-trial.”’

Still feeling a little uncomfortable, Roche wore a jersey over his new skinsuit until he reached the Aubisque. At the foot of the climb the Irishman ditched the jersey and launched his move, catching stage leader Lucho Herrera on the ascent and powering away to claim the first Tour stage of his career.

While Roche didn’t back up his win with a second victory in the afternoon stage, Géminiani and La Redoute could still celebrate because Roche’s teammate, Régis Simon, took the honours, beating Spain’s Alvaro Pino in the final sprint into Pau. Roche would finish third in Paris, announcing himself as a Grand Tour contender in the process. It was the second time La Redoute had landed on the podium in cycling’s biggest race – Robert Alban had also finished third in 1981.

From amateur beginnings

La Redoute’s foundations lay in the VC Roubaix, an amateur cycling club that had formed in 1966 and which found financial backing from the

Roche’s win was not without incident given that he struck Bernard Thévenet, his director at the time, in the face

mail-order retailer La Redoute, which had been based in Roubaix since it first formed as a textile company in the 1830s.

In 1979 a professional team was formed, sponsored by La Redoute, with the aim of promoting young talent. Alongside a number of relatively inexperienced riders in their early to mid-twenties were a few hardened professionals, riders such as Mariano Martinez – who had a Tour stage and a polka-dot jersey to his name – and 1971 Paris-roubaix winner Roger Rosiers. Indeed, it was Rosiers who recorded the outfit’s first win, claiming the

GP St Raphaël in mid-february 1979.

La Redoute finished its debut season with a reported 15 wins across eight different winners, although perhaps the most notable result was Rosiers’ fifth-place finish in the notorious 580km Bordeaux-paris. For Philippe Crépel, the former professional rider behind the team, the environment that he created based on their ‘ nordiste spirit’ meant that La Redoute was principally ‘a team of friends’.

Chasing victories

Jean-luc Vandenbroucke and Paul Sherwen arrived for the 1980 season and helped the squad build on their initial successes. Vandenbroucke, an extremely talented and experienced rider, recorded a number of victories including the overall win at the Four Days of Dunkirk. In July, Bernard Vallet and Martinez opened the team’s Tour account. First, Vallet won a 160km stage from Montpellier to Martiques, defeating future La Redoute sports director Bernard Thévenet in the final grind to the line by four seconds. Two days later Martinez won a monster 242km Alpine stage from Serre-chevalier to Morzine that took in the Galibier, Madeleine and Joux-plane. Martinez finished more than two minutes clear despite falling twice on the stage. That he did so on Bastille Day just served to sweeten the taste of victory for the French team.

Other notable races won by La Redoute include the Tour de Romandie (Roche, 1984), Paris-tours (Vandenbroucke, 1982) and the Criterium International (Roche, 1985). The team also took podium finishes in four of the five Monuments, notably placing three riders in the top six at the 1984 edition of ParisRoubaix, the outfit’s ‘home’ race.

They came closest to winning a Monument when Vandenbroucke and Roche each crossed the finish line a fraction behind the winning rider – Vandenbroucke at the Tour of Lombardy in 1982 and Roche at the 1985 edition of LiègeBastogne-liège.

La Redoute folded in 1985. Roche claimed the team’s final wins, appropriately enough taking a brace of stages at the Tour of Ireland. This jersey is part of Paul Van Bommel’s collection of memorabilia, on display at the Bike Experience Centre in Boom, Belgium.

Go to deschorre.be/develodroom.html

That Martinez won the monster Alpine stage on Bastille Day just served to sweeten the taste of victory for the French team