Charly Grosskost

Charly Grosskost (5 March 1944 – 19 June 2004) was a French racing cyclist who in 1968 won the prologue time-trial of both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. He won stages of the Tour de France and of the Giro d'Italia and on the track was French pursuit champion nine times. His sporting career began with A.C.B.B. Paris.[2]

Charly Grosskost
Charly Grosskost c. 1968
Personal information
Full nameCharly Grosskost
Born(1944-03-05)5 March 1944
Eckbolsheim, German-occupied
Died19 June 2004(2004-06-19) (aged 60)
Strasbourg, France
Team information
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Professional teams
1966–1967Peugeot-BP-Michelin[1]
1968–1972Bic
1973GAN-Mercier
1974Jobo-Lejeune
Major wins
Tour de France: 2 stages
Giro d'Italia: 1 stage

Early career

Grosskost came to notice when he was 19, when he won a stage of the Route de France – amateur counterpart of the Tour de France – and then won Strasbourg-Campagne by nearly 10 minutes after riding ahead of the race for more than 50 km. In 1965, he won the Route de France and five of its seven stages and became favourite for the still bigger race, the Tour de l'Avenir. There, however, he dropped out in the Pyrenees. A drug test that followed his retirement – it has entered cycling legend that other riders pushed him off his bike for his own safety as he began foaming at the mouth and riding erratically – led to his being suspended for a year. To his death, Grosskost insisted that he had been drugged by a team helper.

Professional career

Grosskost turned professional for Peugeot on 1 May 1966, alongside Eddy Merckx of Belgium, whom he beat to win his Giro prologue. He then moved to the Bic team alongside Jacques Anquetil.

In 1968 he won the prologue of the Giro d'Italia and became the third Frenchman to wear the leader's pink jersey after Louison Bobet and Raphaël Géminiani. That same year, Grosskost won the prologue time-trial of the Tour de France at Vittel and then the first conventional stage. He wore the leader's yellow jersey for three days and finished the Tour in 17th place.

Post-career

In retirement he became a cycle dealer.

Grosskost died in 2004, after he was hit by a car while cycling with friends.[3]

Major results
1966
 France national pursuit champion (track)
1967
 France national omnium champion (track)[4]
1968
 France national pursuit champion (track)
 France national omnium champion (track)[4]
Prologue Paris–Nice
Giro d'Italia: Prologue[5]
Tour de France
overall classification: 17th[6]
winner of prologue and stage 1
wore yellow jersey for 2 days[7]
1969
 France national pursuit champion (track)
1970
 France national pursuit champion (track)
Prologue and stage 3B of Etoile des espoirs
1974
 France national pursuit champion (track)
gollark: Possibly more, depending on how intensive each MT generation thing is.
gollark: So less than the age of the universe?
gollark: I mean, I think modern CPUs can do about a thousand times that.
gollark: A million bits per second, you say...
gollark: 🦀 PRAISE FERRIS 🦀

See also

References
  1. Charly Grosskost at Cycling Archives
  2. Livre d`Or 1965. Paris: Miroir du Cyclisme. 1965. p. 28.
  3. "Death of Charly Grosskost". Autobus.cyclingnews.com. 4 June 2004.
  4. French national omnium championship result (in Dutch)
  5. Results of the 1968 Giro d'Italia Archived 14 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Memoire-du-cyclisme.net. Retrieved on 17 July 2015.
  6. Statistics from the official Tour site about Charly Grosskost. Letour.fr. Retrieved on 17 July 2015.
  7. Tour de France 1968. radsport-seite.de
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