Frédéric Guesdon

Frédéric Guesdon (born October 14, 1971) is a French former professional road bicycle racer who competed as a professional between 1995 and 2012, most notably for UCI ProTeam FDJ–BigMat,[1] spending 16 years of his career with the team.

Frédéric Guesdon
Personal information
Full nameFrédéric Guesdon
Born (1971-10-14) October 14, 1971
Saint-Méen-le-Grand, France
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight73 kg (161 lb; 11 st 7 lb)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeClassics specialist
Professional teams
1995Le Groupement
1996Team Polti
1997–2012Française des Jeux
Managerial team
2013–FDJ
Major wins
Single-day races and Classics
Paris–Roubaix (1997)
Paris–Tours (2006)

Guesdon was born in Saint-Méen-le-Grand, Brittany. He turned professional in 1995 with the French Le Groupement team and moved on to the Polti team in 1996, where he scored eleventh place at Paris–Roubaix and third place at the French championship. Guesdon had his breakthrough year in 1997. Having signed with the new Française des Jeux team, he scored an early victory for the team in the prestigious spring monument Paris–Roubaix. On the day, of his 1997 Paris-Roubaix victory, he persuaded his team director Marc Madiot to designate him a protected rider alongside his team leader Max Sciandri.[2] After a race full of punctures, Guesdon was with the leading group, containing the defending champion Johan Museeuw, when they entered the velodrome and attacked early to win. Later he would put his race winning move down to inexperience.[2] Guesdon also took victories at the Classic Haribo and a stage in the Tour du Limousin. Guesdon had to wait until 2000 for his next major victory, a stage in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, a feat he repeated in 2002. Despite a complete lack of victories between this win and his next win, over three-and-a-half years later in the 2006 Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Guesdon remained loyal to Française des Jeux and Française des Jeux to him. This paid dividends when Guesdon won the 2006 UCI ProTour race Paris–Tours, his first ProTour victory and the first overall ProTour victory both for Française des Jeux since the inception of the competition in 2005. Following this result he would serve as a guide to new young team recruits.

In 1998 Madiot opined that Guesdon "[was] not a great rider, but he will have some great rides".[2]

A hip injury at the 2012 Tour Down Under provided him with determination to recover for his swansong.[2] He retired on 8 April 2012, after completing Paris–Roubaix.[3]

Major results
1996
3rd Road race, National Road Championships
6th Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise
1997
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Classic Haribo
1st Stage 2 Tour du Limousin
2nd Polynormande
1998
5th Grand Prix de Denain
6th Overall Tour du Limousin
1999
1st Stage 3 Tour de l'Ain
3rd Grand Prix d'Isbergues
2000
1st Stage 1 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 1 Giro della Provincia di Lucca
3rd Grand Prix d'Isbergues
8th Dwars door Vlaanderen
2001
1st Mountains classification Tour Méditerranéen
3rd Grand Prix de Denain
8th Tro-Bro Léon
2002
1st Stage 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
4th Overall Etoile de Bessèges
2003
5th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
5th Grand Prix de Denain
5th Grand Prix d'Isbergues
6th Tour of Flanders
7th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
2004
2nd Grand Prix d'Isbergues
4th Overall Circuit Franco-Belge
5th Cholet-Pays de Loire
7th Tro-Bro Léon
2006
1st Paris–Tours
2nd Overall La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
1st Prologue
3rd Grand Prix d'Isbergues
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
7th Paris–Roubaix
2007
1st Overall La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
2008
1st Tro-Bro Léon
4th Grand Prix de Denain
7th Tour de Vendée
8th Grand Prix d'Isbergues
9th Grand Prix de Wallonie
2009
6th Grand Prix de la Somme
9th GP Ouest–France
gollark: And?
gollark: If I can get a tablet from a bag or whatever (only the small ones are particularly pocketable, and they then lose any advantage they might have had), I can also probably get out a laptop, which is generally better.
gollark: I have a tablet for convoluted reasons, but it gets absolutely no use because a phone and laptop cover all the things I might want it for.
gollark: Than a phone? I mean, yes, they fix some of the problems, but aren't as portable.
gollark: I'm pretty sure a lot of people just use phones for most computing tasks *anyway* now.

References
  1. "Casar and Guesdon head FDJ – Big Mat lineup in Santos Tour Down Under". VeloNation. VeloNation LLC. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  2. Starrt, J. (2014). The Cobbler Retires. In: E. Bacon and L. Birnie, ed., The Cycling Anthology: Volume One. London: Yellow Jersey Press (Original work published by Peloton Publishing 2012), pp.84-99. ISBN 978-0-22409-244-9
  3. Brown, Gregor (8 April 2012). "Guesdon ends career with record-setting Roubaix". VeloNews. Competitor Group, Inc. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
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