Robik, Jean

Jean Robic was born on June 10, 1921, in the Vouziers commune of the Ardennes department, France . By origin - Breton .

At the age of seven, he returned with his family to his historic homeland in Brittany , lived in the commune of Radenac . He started cycling in early childhood with the filing of his father, a passionate cycling enthusiast.

In February 1940, Robik moved permanently to Paris and got a job as a cycle mechanic at Sausin. At that time, he already had certain achievements in small regional races, although in wide circles he still remained unknown.

With the outbreak of World War II, in connection with the German invasion of France, sports in the country declined sharply, although some races did take place, and Robik tried to take part in them. He performed in classical road disciplines and in cyclocross , and in 1943 received the status of a professional by joining the Génial Lucifer team.

In 1944, during the Paris-Roubaix race , he fell unsuccessfully and received a skull fracture. Since then, at competitions he began to wear a leather protective helmet, which later became his characteristic feature - wearing a helmet at that time was not yet common in cycling, and for this he was even given the nickname “Leather head” ( fr. Tête de cuir ). Also, for his small stature and protruding ears, he was sometimes called "Goat" ( French Biquet ), and the famous sports journalist Rene de Latour in the Sporting Cyclist magazine leads the nickname "The hobgoblin from the Breton swamp" ( English the hobgoblin of the Brittany moor ) ^{[2 ] [3]} .

Four days before the start of the Tour de France in 1947, Robik married Raymond Kornik and promised to bring his wife a yellow T-shirt as a wedding present ^{[4] [5]} . Being a debutant of the Tour, he was not considered as a favorite, but from the very beginning he began to show fairly high results: he took ninth place at the starting stage, won the fourth stage. With a light weight of about 60 kg, he easily overcame the mountain stages in the Alps, managed to recover during the light Mediterranean stages and safely drove the Pyrenees with renewed vigor. Bonuses taken in the mountains allowed him to rise to fifth place in the general classification, and after a successful performance in the 139-kilometer race with a separate start, he was in third place. During the final stage, the leader of the overall standings, Pierre Brambilla, could not maintain his advantage, Jean Robic and another representative of France, Eduard Fachleitner, left him behind due to a decisive attack - it was between them that the struggle for leadership in the general began. About 100 km from the finish line, Lucien Tesser also joined them at the request of the coach of the French national team. Fachleitner tried several times to attack, but Robik responded to his attacks every time. Tesser ultimately drove forward, but the riders did not react to this, because he did not pose a danger to them in the fight for the yellow T-shirt ^[6] . It is known that Robik offered Fahleitner 100,000 francs for help, he agreed to work ahead against Brambilla who was chasing them, hoping solely for luck and possible exhaustion of his companion. Jean Robic held on to the finish line, did not run out of steam and did not fall - thus won the general classification of the Tour de France, paying in the end the promised amount. Fachleitner, who became the second in the general with a 4-minute lag, subsequently recalled the reproaches of his teammate Rene Vietto , who had repeatedly told him that “it was necessary to ask for more” ^{[7] [8]} .

In the future, Robik took part in the Tour de France nine more times and was marked by victories at three separate stages, although he failed to repeat his success in 1947. In 1950, as part of the Thomann-Riva Sport team, he won the race “ Rome - Naples - Rome ”, became the first cyclocross world champion in history, beating the future three-time champion Roger Rondo ^{[9] [10]} .

He remained an active professional cyclist until 1961, although in recent times he no longer won high-profile victories and participated in competitions solely for the sake of starting fees ^{[11] [12]} .

He had three children: Jean-Lou (born 1948), Alain (born 1949) and Christine (born 1952). Together with his family, he lived in Wissou, but ultimately his marriage broke up. After completing his sports career, Robik could not find himself in ordinary life, often lost his job, suffered from severe depression.

He died in a car accident on October 6, 1980, near the Klei-Suyi commune, when he was returning from a party hosted by Jop Zutiemelk on the occasion of his victory in the Tour. He was buried in a cemetery in Wissou.

Today, a monument to Jean Robic is erected on a hill in Rouen , the athlete is depicted in his characteristic leather helmet. A museum room in memory of Jean Robic has been set up in the city hall of Radenac, in addition, the street on which the cyclist’s house was located now bears his name ^{[13] [14]} .

• Robik, Jean at ProCyclingStats
• Robik, Jean on Cycling Archives