Éric Caritoux (born 16 August 1960 in

Carpentras Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal dialect, Provençal Occitan language, Occitan: ''Carpentràs'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the ...

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most comm ...

who raced between 1983 and 1994. He had 22 victories in his career, the highlights of which were winning the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and taking the French road race championships in 1988 and 1989. He rode the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

on 11 occasions, his best finish being 12th in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Early years

Caritoux was born in

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

at the foot of

Mont Ventoux Mont Ventoux (; ) is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the department of Drôme. At , it is the highest mountain in the region and h ...

. He first started cycle racing as a junior with the local club in Carpentras, he developed into a strong climber riding in the hilly

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

region and often using Mont Ventoux in his training rides. As an amateur Caritoux won the 1982 edition of the Tour du Vaucluse Open beating future Tour de France winner

Laurent Fignon Laurent Patrick Fignon (; 12 August 1960 – 31 August 2010) was a French professional road bicycle racer who won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984, as well as the Giro d'Italia in 1989. He held the title of FICP World No. 1 in 1989. Fignon came ...

into second place, he clinched that victory by winning the 15 kilometre mountain time trial up Mont Ventoux between

Bédoin Bédoin (; ) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Geography Located at the base of Mont Ventoux, it is the starting point of one of the three routes to the summit of the mount ...

and Chalet Reynard. That win persuaded

Jean de Gribaldy Jean de Gribaldy (18 July 1922 – 2 January 1987) was a French road cyclist and directeur sportif. He rode in the Tour de France in 1947 and 1948. Biography Born in Besançon, Doubs ''département In the administrative divisions of ...

manager of the Sem–France Loire professional squad to sign Caritoux for the 1983 season. The 1983 SEM team had Sean Kelly as team leader and Caritoux soon fitted into the role of Kelly's main helper in stage races. In 1984, Skil became main team sponsors (making the Skil–Sem team) and Éric showed that he had potential to be more than just Kelly's helper in the mountains, he started the season by taking the

Tour du Haut Var The Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, formerly known as the Tour du Haut Var, () is an early-season two-day road bicycle race in the Var department region in the south of France. Until 2008 it was run as a one-day race, part of the UCI Europe Tour. In 20 ...

, a tough hilly one day race in the south of France and then won the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

to Mont Ventoux stage of

Paris–Nice Paris–Nice is a professional road bicycle racing, cycling stage race in France, held annually since 1933. Raced over eight days, the race usually starts with a prologue in the Paris region and ends with a final stage either in Nice or on the ...

. He was then given a short break in early April by his manager as the team concentrated on the spring classics for Sean Kelly, races which did not suit Caritoux.

1984 Vuelta a España victory

The story of Caritoux's victory in the 1984 Vuelta a España is quite extraordinary in that he won a Grand Tour as a second year professional which is quite unusual. However, even more unusual is that, one week before the start, neither Caritoux or his team had any intention of actually riding the race. At that time the Vuelta started in the second half of April and the Skil manager Jean de Gribaldy had made a promise at the start of the year to the Vuelta organisers that his team would be on the start line. A promise he had forgotten about but the organisers had not, de Gribaldy was threatened with a £50,000 fine if the team did not ride, he had to scrape together a squad for the Vuelta at the last minute, this included the holidaying Caritoux, who was told to get to Geneva and then fly to

Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Sp ...

in the south of Spain where the Vuelta was starting. Caritoux rode himself into form and won the race's first mountain stage which finished on top of the Rassos de Peguera in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

, he then rode admirably on stage 12 which finished at the Lagos de

Covadonga Covadonga ( Asturian: ''Cuadonga'', from ''cova domnica'' "Cave of Our Lady") is one of 11 parishes in Cangas de Onís, a municipality within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in Northwestern Spain. It is situated in the Picos de ...

summit and took over the leaders Gold Jersey from

Pedro Delgado Pedro Delgado Robledo (; born 15 April 1960), also known as Perico (), is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 Tour de France, as well as the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1989. He finished in the top 10 of eighteen ...

. Nobody, including Caritoux himself, thought he could hold the lead until the race finish a week later, his team was weak and he had no support in the mountains. However, Caritoux did hold the lead and went into the final day with a 37 seconds lead, the final stage was a

time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

, Caritoux was no time trialler and nearest rival Alberto Fernandez was. Caritoux rode the time trial knowing this might be his only chance to win a major race, his determination came through and won the 1984 Vuelta a España by a mere six seconds.

Latter years

Impressively, Caritoux showed his performance in the 1984 Vuelta was real by returning the following year and once again competing with the elite General Classification riders. He finished in 6th place overall, but then joined the poorly organised Fagor team for the 1986 season and had two years of modest results. He rejoined Sean Kelly in 1988 at the Kas squad and had more success, taking the French road race championships. In 1989 he joined RMO to work with team leader

Charly Mottet Charly Mottet (born 16 December 1962 in Valence, Drôme) is a French former professional Bicycle, cyclist (1983 to 1994). He was one of the best French road cyclists of his era. Career Mottet won a total of 67 races, including the Tour de Roman ...

and repeated his French championship win. He stayed with RMO until the team folded in 1992 and then switched to the small Chazal team run by manager Vincent Lavenu for the final two years of his career, Éric was team leader at Chazal and mentor for the team's younger professionals of which the team was mostly composed of. During the

1993 Tour de France The 1993 Tour de France was the 80th edition of the Tour de France, taking place between July 3-25, 1993. It consisted of 20 stages, over a distance of . The winner of the previous two years, Miguel Induráin, successfully defended his title. Th ...

his team was chosen by the Tour as a wildcard invitation and he was their highest placed rider in 37th place. Most of their riders finished around 100th place but also on this team was a young

Jaan Kirsipuu Jaan Kirsipuu (born 17 July 1969) is an Estonian former road bicycle racer, who currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team . He spent the majority of his career riding under the management of Vincent Lavenu, initially joini ...

who later in his career would win several sprint stages in the Tour de France. In 1994 the Tour de France's 15th stage finished in Eric's home town of Carpentras and he was hoping to grab glory in his final year as a pro, however he was foiled by lone breakaway Eros Poli, Caritoux finished in a group with race leader

Miguel Induráin Miguel Induráin Larraya (; born 16 July 1964) is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. Induráin won five Tours de France from 1991 Tour de France, 1991 to 1995 Tour de France, 1995, the fourth, and last, to win five times, and the only five- ...

at two minutes behind Poli. Between 1983 and 1994 Caritoux was a remarkably consistent rider in the Tour de France finishing in the top 40 ten times and breaking into the top 20 on five occasions. Éric Caritoux retired from professional cycling at the end of the 1994 season at the age of 34. He today owns his own vineyard and holiday business in the Carpentras area and has recently worked on the Tour de France as a courtesy driver for the guests of

France Telecom Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. ''Orange'' has been the corporation's main brand for mobile, ...

Career achievements

Major results

;1982 : 1st Overall Tour du Vaucluse ::1st Stage 4 ;1983 : 1st Grand Prix d'Aix-en-Provence : 1st Stage 4 Tour du Vaucluse ;1984 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stage 7 : 1st Tour du Haut-Var : 1st Bol d'Or des Monédières : 2nd

Polynormande The Polynormande is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in August in the region of Normandy, France. Between 1980 and 2002 it was a criterium. Since 2003, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour, also being part of t ...

: 3rd GP Ouest France–Plouay : 4th Overall

Tour Méditerranéen Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

: 6th Overall

Tour of the Basque Country The Tour of the Basque Country (Officially: ''Itzulia Basque Country'') is an annual road cycling stage race held in the Spanish Basque Country in April. It is one of the races that make up the UCI World Tour calendar. As the Basque Country is ...

: 7th Road race,

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...

: 8th Overall

::1st Stage 4a : 8th

Paris–Tours Paris–Tours is a French one-day classic road cycling race held every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours. It is a predominantly flat course through the Chevreuse and Loire valleys; the highest point is 200 m ...

;1985 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Flèche du Sud The Flèche du Sud, is a road bicycle race held annually in Luxembourg. It is currently organised as a 2.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 b ...

: 2nd Overall Tour Méditérranéen ::1st Stage 2 : 2nd Overall Grand Prix du Midi-Libre : 6th Overall

: 6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 6th

Subida a Arrate The Subida a Arrate was a road bicycle race held annually in the Basque Country, Spain from 1941 until 1986. It then merged with the Gran Premio de la Bicicleta Eibarresa, which became the Euskal Bizikleta Euskal Bizikleta (Spanish: ''Bicicleta ...

: 7th Overall

Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme The Catalan Cycling Week (''Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme'' in Catalan language, Catalan) was a stage race, multi-stage road bicycle race held in Catalonia, Spain. Held annually from 1963 until 2005, it was run as a 2.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour ...

: 7th Overall

;1986 : 1st

Trophée des Grimpeurs The Trophée des Grimpeurs, called Polymultipliée until 1970, was a single-day road bicycle race held annually in August in the region of Val-d'Oise, France, between Argenteuil and Sannois. Between 1980 and 2002 it was a criterium. Since 2005, t ...

: 3rd

Tour de Vendée Tour of Vendée is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in October (Previously May) in the region of Vendée, France, finishing in a circuit inside La Roche-sur-Yon town. From 2005 until 2009, the race was organized as a 1.1 event on the ...

: 4th Overall Grand Prix du Midi-Libre : 5th Overall 4 Jours de Dunkerque : 5th Overall

: 5th Overall

Étoile de Bessèges The Étoile de Bessèges () is an early-season five-day road bicycle racing stage race held annually around Bessèges, in the Gard department of the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. First organized in 1971 as a one-day race, it became a ...

;1988 : 1st MaillotFra

Road race, National Road Championships : 5th Overall

: 7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ;1989 : 1st MaillotFra

Road race, National Road Championships : 1st Bol d'Or des Monédières : 2nd

: 3rd

Critérium des As The ''Critérium des As'' (''Race of the Aces'') was a cycle race that was generally held at the end of the season, with entry by invitation only, for the leading riders of the season. Competitors rode behind pacers on tandems or motorcycles. It w ...

: 3rd Overall Tour du Vaucluse : 7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 8th Overall

: 8th Overall

;1990 : 1st Stage 3b Grand Prix du Midi-Libre : 2nd Grand Prix de la Ville de Rennes : 3rd Overall Tour d'Armorique ;1991 : 1st Tour du Haut-Var : 1st Prix d'Aix-en-Provence : 3rd

Coppa Placci The Coppa Placci is a semi-classic European bicycle race held between Imola, Italy and San Marino. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 1.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. The race is named after Antonio Placci, a cyclist born in Imola ...

: 8th Overall

: 10th Overall

;1992 : 4th Rund um den Henninger Turm : 9th GP Ouest France–Plouay : 10th Overall

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. It ...

;1993 : 1st Stage 2

Tour de l'Ain Tour de l'Ain, also known as the Prix de l'Amitié, is an annual professional cycling stage race held in eastern France. G.P. de l'Amitié The first edition of the race was in 1970, as the G.P. de l'Amitié (Friendship G.P.). It was held over f ...

: 2nd Tour de Berne : 3rd

: 6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ;1994 : 7th Overall Grand Prix du Midi-Libre : 8th Classique des Alpes : 9th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

External links

*
Complete French site about Jean de Gribaldy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caritoux, Eric 1960 births Living people Sportspeople from Carpentras French male cyclists Vuelta a España winners French Vuelta a España stage winners Cyclists from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 20th-century French sportsmen