SAINT-LEONARD-DE-NOBLAT, France (Reuters) – Mourners at the funeral of Raymond Poulidor on Tuesday paid tribute to a French cyclist who never achieved his goal of winning the Tour de France but in the process won widespread admiration for his courage and integrity.
Poulidor was given a final send-off in his hometown in the Limoges region of central France, the rural heartland where he grew up as the son of poor farmers and where he died last week aged 83.
Family members and cycling dignitaries crammed into the tiny church in Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat, while several hundred people stood in the town square outside watching the funeral service on a big screen.
Poulidor finished the Tour de France on the podium eight times but never came first.
He was competing in the 1960s and 1970s at the same time as two of cycling’s greatest champions – Jacques Anquetil and Eddie Merckx – who each won the tour five times, regularly pushing Poulidor off the top spot.
But his perpetual runner-up…
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