Jacky Durand (born 10 February 1967) is a French former professional

road bicycle racer 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 com ...

. Durand had an attacking style, winning the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders () may refer to the following cycle races: * Tour of Flanders (men's race) The Tour of Flanders (), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road bicycle racing, road cycling race held in Belgium every spri ...

in 1992 after a breakaway, and three stages in 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 ...

. Durand turned professional in 1990. He was national road champion in 1993 and 1994 and won

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 ...

in 1998, the first French winner in 42 years. Durand rode seven Tours de France, finishing last in the 1999 race. In

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

he was the surprise winner of the prologue, starting before it began raining. He wore the

yellow jersey The general classification of the Tour de France is the most important classification of the race and determines the winner of the race. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification has worn the yellow jersey ( ). History For the first t ...

for two days. Durand won the combativity award in the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and

1999 Tour de France The 1999 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 86th edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Ant ...

; the latter year he also took the Lanterne Rouge. He retired at the end of 2004. He has since worked for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

as a commentator.

Amateur career

Durand was born to a poor farming family in the Mayenne region of northern France. He started racing in the ''minime'' class, the very youngest, but never won a race there or in the older ''cadet'' category. "It's difficult to win as a kid when you're neither a climber nor a sprinter", he said. "For me, the most beautiful jersey in the world is the French champion's. Yes, when they play the

Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. It was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by the First French Republic against Austria, and was originally titled "". The French Nati ...

for you after a championship and then you go and show it off for three weeks in the Tour de France, the national flag on your shoulders, it's emotion and pleasure every day." As a senior, however, he won the national amateur team time-trial championship in 1988 with Laurent Bezault, Pascal Lino and Thierry Laurent. He turned professional in 1991.

Lone breaks

Durand became celebrated for long, lone attacks which sometimes succeeded but usually didn't. The French magazine, ''Vélo'', printed a monthly ''Jackymètre'' to log the kilometres ridden at the head of races during the course of the season. Durand said: "Fortunately, in cycling, it's not always the best who wins, otherwise we wouldn't win so often." His riding style was encouraged by his first

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' (, ) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows t ...

Cyrille Guimard Cyrille Guimard (born 20 January 1947) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe, won the Tour de F ...

. It brought him a seemingly suicidal win in the

(''see below''). Guimard told him to attack early in the national championship at Châtellerault in 1993, to try his chance and to spoil those of

Laurent Brochard Laurent Brochard (; born 26 March 1968) is a retired professional road racing cyclist from France. In 1997 he won a stage of the Tour de France and became world road champion in San Sebastián, Spain. Brochard was a runner and started cycling ...

and Luc Leblanc. The writer, Jean-François Quénet, said Guimard told Durand to attack far from the finish "because he didn't want to see Laurent Brochard in blue, white and red and even less did he want a second consecutive title for Luc Leblanc, who was in disgrace in the Castorama team.". Of the way he rode, Durand said: :I'm not a revolutionary of any sort, but on the bike, I've always refused to come out of a mould. It astonishes me that most riders are followers, even sheep. A lot of them, the only people who know they're in the Tour are their ''directeurs sportifs''. I couldn't do the job like that. They finish the Tour without having attacked once, maybe the whole of the season, even the whole of their career. I'd rather finish shattered and last having attacked a hundred times than finish 25th without having tried. Yes, I get ragged about it, but it's always in a friendly way. In the bunch, the guys know that ''Dudu'' is as likely to finish a long way behind them as first.

Tour of Flanders

Durand won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, or

, in 1992, 36 years after the last French winner, Jean Forestier, in 1956. He broke away from the field with Thomas Wegmüller after a quarter of the race, with 217 km still to ride. His success as an outsider, and after such a long lone ride, stayed in the memory of Belgian fans. Years later, Durand was stopped for speeding. The Belgian policeman who came to his car said, "''Vous avez gagné le Tour des Flandres en nonante-deux"'' ("You won the Tour of Flanders in '92''"'') – and let him drive on. Durand finished his career with Belgian teams. "Winning the Ronde made me a bit of a naturalised Belgian", he said.

Doping and disqualification

Durand took drugs during the Tour de la Côte Picarde in 1996 and was given a one-month probationary suspension. He was disqualified during the Tour de France in 2002 for holding on to a car during the mountainous stage to the Plateau de Beille in the Pyrenees. There had been complaints from riders, including the Czech,

Ján Svorada Ján Svorada (born 28 August 1968 in Trenčín) is a retired Slovak and Czech road racing cyclist. He was born in Czechoslovakia; when that country split up in 1993, he raced for Slovakia until 1996, when he started racing for the Czech Repub ...

, that he had done the same the previous year. His name was on the list of doping tests published by the

French Senate The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

on 24 July 2013 that were collected during the

1998 Tour de France The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. The race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route t ...

and found positive for EPO when retested in 2004.

Retirement

Durand retired from racing in 2005 after receiving no team offers. He followed that year's Tour de France as representative of the supermarket chain, Champion. He is now a television commentator for Eurosport.

Private life

Durand stayed loyal to his first club, CC Renazé (53), throughout his career. He lives in

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. On 25 November 2017, Durand's 80-year-old father, Henri Durand, was reported missing by his wife, Colette, after he went out for his usual bicycle ride and never returned. His body was found in a lake on 2 January 2018, in between Ballots and Saint-Michel-de-la-Roë. An autopsy confirmed he had died from drowning.

Major results

;1988 : 1st Stage 4a ( ITT) Circuit Franco-Belge ;1990 : 4th Chrono des Herbiers ;1991 : 1st

Grand Prix d'Isbergues Grand Prix d'Isbergues is a professional cycle road race held in Isbergues, Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which ...

;1992 : 1st

;1993 : 1st MaillotFra

Road race, National Road Championships : 1st Jersey green

Points classification Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ;1994 : 1st MaillotFra

Road race, National Road Championships : 1st Stage 10

Tour du Limousin Tour du Limousin is a 4-day road bicycle race held annually in Limousin, France. It was first held in 1968 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle raci ...

::1st Stages 2 & 4 : 3rd Polynormande : 7th Overall

Tour de l'Oise The Tour de Picardie was a professional multi-stage cycle road race that was held between 1936 and 2016 in Picardy, France. In its last twelve editions, it was organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a se ...

;1995 :

::1st Prologue ::Held Jersey yellow

after Prologue & Stage 1 ::Held Jersey green

after Prologue : 1st Stage 4

Grand Prix du Midi Libre The Grand Prix du Midi Libre (referred to as just Midi Libre) was a multiple-stage road cycling course in the south of France. The race, named after the newspaper that organized it, was first organized in 1949 and was an important preparation co ...

: 3rd Overall

: 8th Cholet-Pays de Loire ;1996 : 2nd Overall Tour du Poitou Charentes : 2nd Overall Tour de Normandie : 2nd

GP de la Ville de Rennes Grand Prix Cycliste de la Ville de Rennes was a professional cycle road race held in Rennes, France until 2008 when it was last organised, with the organisers citing financial difficulties as the reason. Since 2005 the race was organized as a 1.1 ...

: 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 ...

: 9th Overall Route du Sud ;1997 : 2nd

A Travers le Morbihan Grand Prix du Morbihan is a single-day men's road bicycle race held annually in May around Plumelec, in the region of Brittany, France. Since 2020, the race is organised as a 1.Pro event on the UCI ProSeries, also being part of the French Road C ...

: 5th

Paris–Bourges Paris–Bourges is a French road bicycle race. The race originally started in Paris and ran to the town of Bourges in the Région Centre. However, in recent year with the length of races shortened it has become impossible to link the two cities a ...

: 5th Chrono des Herbiers ;1998 : 1st

::1st Stage 8 :: Jersey red number

Combativity award : 1st Stage 2

Tour de Luxembourg The Tour de Luxembourg is an annual stage race in professional road bicycle racing held in Luxembourg. The Tour de Luxembourg is classified as a UCI race classifications, 2.Pro race, the highest rating below the UCI World Tour, World Tour, by the ...

: 2nd Overall

Tour de Pologne The Tour de Pologne (; ), officially abbreviated TdP, is an annual, professional men's Race stage, multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race primarily held in Poland. It consists of seven or eight stages and is usually around 1,200 km ...

::1st Stage 7 : 2nd Châteauroux Classic : 3rd Overall

: 4th Chrono des Herbiers : 4th Grand Prix des Nations : 7th

Grand Prix Eddy Merckx Grand Prix Eddy Merckx was a cycle race around Brussels, where Eddy Merckx was born. It was held between 1980 and 2004, disappearing after the creation of the UCI ProTour in 2005. The race was initially an individual time trial, becoming a Team ti ...

(with

Marc Streel Marc Streel (born 12 August 1971) is a Belgian former racing cyclist. Major results ;1993 :2nd Overall Tour de Liège ;1994 :3rd Duo Normand (with Peter Verbeken) ;1996 :1st Flèche Hesbignonne :1st Stage 3 Tour de Picardie :2nd Boucle de l'Arto ...

) ;1999 : 1st Stage 5

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 ...

: 3rd Châteauroux Classic :

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 ...

::Held

after Stages 1–2 :

Combativity award ;2000 : National Road Championships ::2nd Road race ::7th

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 ...

: 5th Overall Bayern Rundfahrt ;2001 : 1st

Tro-Bro Léon Tro-Bro Léon ( or ''The'' ''Hipsters’ Paris—Roubaix''; ) is a professional cycle road race held in Finistère, Brittany. The event was first run in 1984 as an amateur race before becoming a professional race since 2000. The race was establi ...

: 2nd Overall Circuit Franco-Belge : 7th GP de Fourmies : 10th Chrono des Herbiers : 10th

(with

Bradley McGee Bradley John McGee (born 24 February 1976) is an Australian former professional racing cyclist. He is currently the head coach of the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS). He started cycling in 1986 at the age of ten. He lives in Sydney ...

) ;2002 : 1st Stage 1 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré : 2nd Overall

Tour de Picardie The Tour de Picardie was a professional multi-stage cycle road race that was held between 1936 and 2016 in Picardy, France. In its last twelve editions, it was organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a se ...

: 2nd

: 5th Tartu Tänavasóit : 5th GP Rudy Dhaenens : 7th E.O.S. Tallinn GP ;2003 : 3rd Châteauroux Classic : 8th Tartu Tänavasóit : 8th E.O.S. Tallinn GP

References

External links

Jacky Durand fan web site
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durand, Jacky French male cyclists French Tour de France stage winners Doping cases in cycling French sportspeople in doping cases Tour de France prologue winners 1967 births Living people Cycling announcers Sportspeople from Laval, Mayenne Cyclists from Mayenne 20th-century French sportsmen