Francois Simon ( French: François Simon ; born , ) is a French road bicycle racer who performed at a professional level in the period 1991-2002. Winner of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia stages, champion of France, winner and winner of many major highway races in the French teams Castorama , Gan , Crédit Agricole , Bonjour .
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| Growth | 172 cm | ||
| Weight | 62 kg | ||
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Biography
Francois Simon was born on October 28, 1968 in the commune of Troyes, Department of Ob , France .
He started cycling, following the example of his older brothers Regis , Pascal and Jerome , who later also became professional racers.
He first made his name in cycling in the 1990 season, when he won the first stage of the Austrian Tour and the third stage of the Circuit des mines - in the second case he also won the general classification.
In 1991, he signed a contract with the newly created French professional team Castorama , which included within the next four years.
In 1992, he won the general classification of Mi-août bretonne, won the individual stages of the Tour Poitou-Charentes and Tour de l'Avenir , for the first time performed in the grand tour of the Giro d'Italia , where he managed to win the fifteenth stage.
In 1993 he again successfully performed at the Tour Poitou-Charentes and Tour de l'Avenir, won here at individual stages, in both cases he was the second in the general classifications. He became the second at the Ren Grand Prix , losing at the finish only to his compatriot Eddie Senier . This season he made his debut in the super-great Tour de France , and subsequently participated in it for ten consecutive seasons.
In 1994, he was second at À travers le Morbihan and third at the Marseillaise Grand Prix .
In 1995, he took second and third places in the races “ Four days of Dunkirk ” and “ Etoile de Bessez ”, respectively.
Beginning in 1996, he represented another French team, Gan , and immediately won victories at individual stages of the Circuit de la Sarthe and the “ Criterion Dauphine ”.
In 1997, he became third at the Ruth du Sud and sixth at the Criterion Dauphin. This season for the first and only time in his career he took part in the “ Vuelta of Spain ”, but he did not finish the race.
In 1999, he won the French road championship , was the best at Chateauroux Classic de l'Endre, ninth at Criterium Dauphin.
In 2000 he joined the Bonjour team, was noted for his rather successful performance in the Paris-Nice race, where he won the fifth stage and became the fourth in the general classification.
At the Tour de France in 2001, for six days he owned the yellow jersey of the leader, in the final overall standings of the race he was on the sixth line.
The last time he performed at a professional level in the 2002 season, this year Simon played for the tenth consecutive performance at the Tour de France, however, unlike all previous cases, he was not able to cover the entire distance to the end - he didn’t meet the 12th stage in time limit. On that, he decided to end the career of a professional athlete.
Links
- Simon, Francois on Cycling Archives
- Simon, Francois on CycleBase
- Simon, Francois at Memoire du cyclisme