Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

80th edition: Emile Idée is back

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News Cycling Pro Road & Mtb 2011

Published on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 19:14

Written by Luca Salvatelli

Organisers invited the two most successful riders in this race to kick-off its 80th edition. Five-time winners Emile Idée and Raymond Poulidor are coming to Porto-Vecchio. The memories of one of his favourite races are still very clear in the mind of 90-year-old Idée: “We only raced for one day back then, and it usually got hectic from the very beginning. Then the peloton would often break up and only the strongest riders would be up front in the finale. I always was one of them”.

His consistent top placings on the roads of the Critérium National (with two podiums in addition to his five wins) earned him the nickname “King of Chevreuse”. Emile could have reigned even more supreme over his rivals if he had not been so generous in the 1948 edition: “I had already won four times, so that year I teamed up with my brother-in-law Camille Danguillaume to help him finish first. We were afraid of losing the sprint, so we worked together and he took the win.” In Corsica, Emile Idée will meet Jens Voigt, another five-time winner who sees mountains in very much the same way as him: “I do like climbs,” says the veteran, “but those which are too long are not my cup of tea. I was able to hang tough on climbs, but then I had a hard time recovering, which is why I never excelled in stage races.”