Former Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon has died of cancer at the age of 50.
“He died at 12.30pm local time,” Radioshack team manager Alain Gallopin told Reuters on August 31.
Frenchman Fignon won the Tour in 1983 and 1984, the Giro d’Italia in 1989 and the Milan-San Remo classic in 1988 and 1989, and was regarded as one of the best riders of the 1980s.
He failed to win the Tour a third time in 1989 when he started the final-stage time trial with a 50-second lead but was pipped by eight seconds, the closest margin ever, by American Greg LeMond.
In a book published in June 2009, We Were Young and Carefree, Fignon revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer. He also admitted having used doping products but said he did not know if they had caused his illness.
“I don’t want to die at 50 but if my cancer is incurable, what can I do?,” he told Paris-Match magazine in January.
“I love life, I love a good laugh, travel, books, good food. I’m a typical Frenchman. I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to die.”
In 1983 at the age of 22, Fignon, with his round glasses and ponytail, became the youngest rider for 50 years to win the Tour, after taking advantage of the withdrawal through injury of Bernard Hinault who had won the race four times.
The young champion again defeated his elder in 1984, winning the nickname of “The Teacher” for his tactical skills.
After he ended his career, Fignon managed races including the Paris-Nice before becoming a television consultant.
He worked for France television on the last Tour de France despite a voice broken by his illness and said at the end of the race that he would be back in 2011.
“We knew that Laurent was not well but we thought that once again he would survive,” Jean-Francois Bernard, a former Tour de France rider, told Radio France-Info. — Reuters