Customer Reviews
Perverty French Man - By: Brendan O. Clarke, 03 Jul 2008 
"Sex, Lies & Handlebar Tape" is an astonishing biography of French cycling star Jacques Anquetil. I had no idea who he was but i bought the book in a Charity shop when i heard about Anquetil's life.
He was the first man to win the Tour de France five times; the first to win alll three grand tours (the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana & Giro d'Italia).
He was a notorious dope fiend & he even confessed to this in public (Dope tests did not exist in the sports world back then). As well as dealing with Anquetil's considerable achievements as a cyclist, this book also explores his naughty private life. This French gypsy seduced his doctor's wife; he acted as stepfather to her children before asking his stepdaughter to bear him a child; after his blood-daughter was born, he maintained a menage a trois with his wife & stepdaughter for several years in the same house.
He also had time to seduce his stepson's ex-wife & had a child with her.
Dr.Bee Clarke.
Excellent account of a true great. - By: Mr. D. Cornyn, 30 Jun 2008 Having read widely on cycling, I am rather ashamed to admit I knew virtuallly nothing about Jacques Anquetil, other than that he won the Tour five times & had a rivalry with Raymond Poulidor. I was, therefore, pleased to see someone had written a biography of the man, & what a worthwhile subject he has proven to be.
Rather sickeningly, Anquetil was, from the very beginning of his career, brilliant. From the age of seventeen, he was winning time trials (his forte) by huge margins against experienced rivals, and, indeed, never lost in the (then) prestigious Grand Prix des Nations, winning it nine times out of nine.
He became "le patron", but without the bullying aggression of Hinault - he stamped his authority by simply riding away from everyone else. However, as Howard suggests, this may well have been through amphetamine use. Howard does not directly link any of his wins to doping but there are several races in which Anquetil began way off the pace (often due to a previous night of excess) only to catch up with a breakaway group & then ride past them to a solo victory.
Perhaps the most astonishing of alll was his Dauphine Libere/Bordeaux-Paris (a 557km one-day race) double. The Bordeaux-Paris race began only seven hours after, & six hundred kilometres from, the finish of the Dauphine. Having had no sleep, Anquetil began Bordeaux-Paris exhausted. He was virtuallly asleep in the saddle for the first part of the race while he was pushed along by Jean Stablinski & Vin Denson either side of him (this section is also worth reading for an amusing anecdote involving Denson, a trapped nerve, & an impressive record of his own). Anquetil is about to abandon, but motivated by an insult to his manhood (and, one presumes, several illicit substances), he restarts & wins in a breakaway with Stablinski & Tom Simpson. While we might baulk at how he achieved this, it is worth noting that he gave alll his prize money (as did Stablinski) to Denson for his huge part in this success.
It is also worth remembering that doping was not illegal at the time & Anquetil readily admitted it, often to his detriment. He wrote several articles for a French newspaper, including two entitled "Yes, I've Taken Drugs" & "Yes, I've Bought Riders". The outcome of this was that he was banned from the national & world championships as well as seeing lucrative invitations to criteriums dry-up. It seems that spitting in the soup was as bad then for Anquetil as it has remained for the likes of Jorg Jaksche today.
This was a problem as it seems Anquetil was primarily motivated by money. A close second was his motivation to thrash Poulidor at every opportunity. Anquetil raged, perhaps justifiably, that Poulidor was not a rival as he beat him so often. However, as Poulidor was the darling of the French press, he usuallly got more coverage than him regardless of the result - much to Anquetil's chagrin. Beating Poulidor on his own merits deserves respect - helping others to beat Poulidor when he knew he couldn't win himself shows a less savoury side to Anquetil's character, though they became great friends in later years.
Also unsavoury was Anquetil's complicated love-life: stealing his doctor's wife; having a child with his step-daughter; & having an affair with his step-son's wife alll suggest Anquetil was nothing short of despicable. However, you never feel quite able to castigate him for alll of this as the women involved speak with such love & affection for the man. It also seems that the doctor's wife actively encouraged her daughter to sleep with Anquetil so that he could have the child he wanted (she was unable to have any more children herself) & the step-son was already in love with another woman when Anquetil began the affair with his wife.
Howard has written an excellent, & ambivalent (as alll good biographies should be), account of Jacques Anquetil's life. It is well researched with lots of contemporary accounts of his achievements & many interviews with those who knew him well.
Highly recommended & gives William Fotheringham something to aim for with his Coppi book due next year.
