Alcyon (cycling team)

Alcyon was a French professional cycling team that was active from 1905 to 1959,[1][2] and returned in 1961 and 1962.[3][4] It was started by Alcyon, a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.

Alcyon
Gitane–Leroux–Dunlop–R. Geminiani riders Gérard Thiélin, Anatole Novak, Bas Maliepaard and Jean Forestier at the 1962 Tour de France
Team information
RegisteredFrance
Founded1905 (1905)
Disbanded1962
Discipline(s)Road
Team name history
1905–1912
1913–1914
1915–1921
1922–1931
1932
1933–1959
1961
1962
Alcyon–Dunlop
Alcyon–Soly
Alcyon
Alcyon–Dunlop
Alcyon–Armor
Alcyon–Dunlop
Alcyon–Leroux
Gitane–Leroux–Dunlop–R. Geminiani

History
Germain Derycke at the 1954 Tour de France
André Darrigade at the 1961 Tour de France

The team won the Tour de France four times before World War I with François Faber in 1909, Octave Lapize in 1910, Gustave Garrigou in 1911 and Odile Defraye in 1912. Alcyon won the team prize at the Tour de France from 1909 to 1912 and then from 1927 to 1929.[5]

Immediately after the First World War, Alcyon like many other bicycle companies joined a Consortium that employed many riders under the La Sportive name. This consortium would win the Tour de France from 1919 to 1921. The Consortium stopped in 1922 and the member companies which included Automoto, Peugeot and Alcyon restarted up their separate cycling teams. Alcyon grew into a very strong team that dominated the Tour de France with three wins in with Nicolas Frantz in 1927 and in 1928 and Maurice De Waele in 1929.

Alcyon dominated the Tour de France during the 1920s. In the 1929 edition, Maurice Dewaele won the race despite the fact that he was sick when the race went through the Alps. This was because no one attacked the Alcyon rider there.[6] The organisers of the Tour de France decided in 1930 that the race would be disputed by national teams. It has been said that this was done to break the domination of some of the commercial teams, most notably Alcyon [7] As a result, Alcyon was unable to continue to dominate the race. However Alycon-Dunlop riders riding for the French national team were able to dominate the race, such as André Leducq, an Alycon-Dunlop rider who won the very first Tour that was disputed by national teams.[8] Leducq would win the Tour again in 1932, while another Alycon rider, Georges Speicher won the Tour again in 1933.[9] Belgians Romain Maes and Sylvère Maes were riders of the team when they won the Tour de France in 1935, 1936 and 1939.

After World War II, the team name changed to Alcyon-BP (1946–1949), which was followed by Alcyon-Dunlop (1950–1954). Alcyon stopped sponsoring the team after 1958,[10] although a team existed for 1961 and 1962, managed by former rider Georges Speicher.[3][4]

Major wins
gollark: Use steganography to hide the contents of your flyers in random undifferentiated corkboard area.
gollark: Nobody has to know.
gollark: Just make them assume that it was approved at some point but they forgot or weren't paying attention.
gollark: Oh yes, good idea, social engineering.
gollark: Encrypt the paper so they can't see them either.

References
  1. "Alcyon - Dunlop (1905)" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  2. "Alcyon - Dunlop (1959)" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  3. "Alcyon - Leroux (1961)" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  4. "Gitane - Leroux - Dunlop - R. Geminiani (1962)" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  5. "95th Tour de France Past Winners ; Winning Teams". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  6. "La tentation des équipes nationales". Cyclismag.com. Archived from the original on 2008-11-17. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  7. "Equipe de France". Archived from the original on 2007-11-05. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  8. "Palmares:André Leducq". Velo-Club. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  9. "Palmares:Coureurs Français Georges Speicher". Velo-Club. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  10. "Alcyon-Dunlop 1958". cycling website.net. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2007-11-12.

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