French cyclist

Sylvain Chavanel (born 30 June 1979) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2000 and 2018 for the Cofidis, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step, IAM Cycling and two spells with the Brioches La Boulangère/Direct Énergie team. His brother Sébastien Chavanel also rode as a professional cyclist. Sylvain Chavanel was noted as a strong all-rounder who won both sprints and time-trials, and was a good northern cl*ics rider, taking 45 wins during his professional career.

Contents

• 1 Background
• 2 Racing career
  • 2.1 Bonjour (2000–2004)
  • 2.2 Cofidis (2005–2008)
  • 2.3 Quick Step (2009–2013)
  • 2.4 IAM (2014–2015)
  • 2.5 Direct Énergie (2016–2018)
• 3 Nickname
• 4 Major results
  • 4.1 Grand Tour general cl*ification results timeline
  • 4.2 Cl*ics results timeline
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Background

Chavanel was born in Châtellerault, France, although his family roots are in Spain. His great-grandparents were from Huesca, in the Aragon region. His grandfather was born in Barcelona and moved to Châtellerault during the Spanish Civil War. Other members of the family still live in Aragon. He said: "Last year , when the Vuelta was in Zaragoza, I got to know the cousin of mine using a journalist as the translator and she gave me a picture of my grandfather when he was young. Despite my origins, I hardly know a word of Spanish:– just swear words".

As a child he played in the garden with models of racing cyclists. He said:

We've got quite a big family and we're all into cycling. I remember playing out in the garden with my three brothers and sister with little figures that we gave names to. I was usually Greg LeMond, then later I went on to be Miguel Indurain then eventually Laurent Jalabert. I remember LeMond's accent. I liked the way he spoke French. I just thought he was a nice guy and I liked his style of riding.

Chavanel began cycling at Châtellerault school when he was eight. He gave up to try football, then went back.

I started cycling again at 12 and from then on I improved every year. I was a fragile little thing, immature physically. I used to finish races halfway down the girls' field and at the back of the boys'. Everything changed the day that I beat my elder brother, Frédéric, in the cadet category, although he was better than me at the time.

Racing career

He began racing when he was 13. He won 29 races on the road as a schoolboy and a junior. He won the national junior individual pursuit championship in 1997. His uncle, Philippe Raby, a former rider in the Vendée region, recommended him to Jean-René Bernaudeau who was building a professional team based there. Bernardeau saw Chavanel race for the first time at Montreveau, in Maine-et-Loire, when he was racing against riders from Bernardeau's Vendée U junior team.

Bonjour (2000–2004)

Bernardeau and Chavanel agreed that Chavanel would spend another year with his club, AC Châtellerault, which had spent time and money on his training. Bernardeau's *istant, Thierry Bricau, was given the job of providing Chavanel with a training programme. Chavanel rode the Tour de l'Avenir in 1999 and then in 2000, aged 21, he turned professional for Bernardeau's Bonjour team, sponsored by a chain of local newspapers. He won the first stage of the Circuit Franco-Belge and lost his leader's jersey only on the last day. He also won the climbers' jersey in the Tour de l'Avenir by breaking clear in the Pyrenees and rode 217 kilometres (135 miles) alone at the front of Paris–Tours.

Bernardeau said:

Sylvain has some of the faults I had as a young rider. He's always working at the front of the race:– you have to rein him in for his own good. At his age, life is beautiful and risks are there to be taken. But he's acquiring self-knowledge and his days of gratuitous long-range sorties and suicide attacks are coming to an end.

Chavanel rode his first Tour de France at 22, finishing 65th, later coming third in the Tour de l'Avenir behind Denis Menchov and Florent Brard. In 2002 he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and finished third in the Tour of Belgium. He later won both of those races in 2005.

Cofidis (2005–2008)

On 25 July 2008 Chavanel won the 19th stage of the Tour de France by outsprinting Jérémy Roy at Montluçon. That and other performances brought him election as the most combative rider of the race.

On 3 September 2008, he came second in the individual time trial stage of the Vuelta a España at Ciudad Real. His ride brought him to second place overall, two seconds slower than the American, Levi Leipheimer. His team worked for him next day from Ciudad Real to Toledo to make sure he won time bonuses offered along the route. The six seconds he collected were enough to give him the leader's jersey on 4 September.

Quick Step (2009–2013)

Chavanel said in 2007 that he had had offers from foreign teams but was discouraged from joining them because he was unsure of his pension payments outside France. In July 2008 he said he had agreed with Patrick Lefevere the directeur sportif to join the Quick-Step team in Belgium for 2009. Chavanel said he made his decision to move after riding well in cl*ic races in Belgium at the start of the year. He won Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Brabantse Pijl. He said:

I had other options as well. Professionally, it's an experience that can only do me good. I had the chance to sign for three years with AG2R-La Mondiale but I had the feeling that I wasn't going to develop enough. I have always raced in France and, in my heart, some experience abroad has excited me for some time. I therefore decided to take the step and Patrick Lefévère's advances completely persuaded me.

During the 2010 Tour de France, Chavanel took over the yellow jersey after attacking at the 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) mark on stage 2. Following a series of crashes affecting the General Cl*ification contenders on the descent into Spa, the race was neutralized for every rider except Chavanel, who was the lone escapee at that time. He capitalized on that, opening up enough of a gap to win the stage and capture the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank). The following stage was not so good for Chavanel as two punctures on the cobbled roads meant Fabian Cancellara re-took the yellow jersey, however on the Tour's first mountain stage from Tournus to Station des Rousses Chavanel bridged the gap to an early breakaway and rode away to take a famous win and inherit the yellow jersey for the second time.

In the 2011 Vuelta a España Chavanel held the red leader's jersey for four stages. On stage three, as part of a breakaway, he finished second behind Pablo Lastras which left him second in general cl*ification, 20 seconds behind Lastras.However, on the next stage Chavanel finished just 57 seconds behind the stage winner while Lastras lost over 18 minutes, thereby making Chavanel the overall leader of the Vuelta. He held this jersey until stage 8 where it was taken by Joaquim Rodríguez.

Chavanel competing in the 2012 Olympics time trial in London

In 2012, Chavanel won the Three Days of De Panne and won the French National Time Trial Championships for the fourth time.

In 2013, after strong appearances in the Tour de San Luis and the Volta ao Algarve, Chavanel won stage six of Paris–Nice, taking the points cl*ification at the race. Chavanel also won the overall cl*ification at the Three Days of De Panne for the second year in a row, winning the final time trial stage.

After five years with the team, Chavanel left the squad at the end of the 2013 season, and joined IAM Cycling for the 2014 season.

IAM (2014–2015)

After winning the National Time trial *le, Chavanel went on to win the 2014 Tour du Poitou-Charentes thanks to a great performance in the stage 4 time trial. A couple of days later, Chavanel topped a very successful week as he prevailed in the World Tour race GP Ouest-France by winning the sprint out of a small group ahead of Arthur Vichot. In 2015 he also accomplished the impressive feat of starting and finishing each Grand Tour.

Direct Énergie (2016–2018)

In September 2015 Direct Énergie announced that Chavanel would join them for the 2016 season. In 2018, Chavanel participated in the Tour de France for the 18th time to take the record outright from Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt for the most Tour de France participations and was given the most combative rider award for the second stage. On 26 July 2018, Chavanel finished Stage 18 of the race to become the man with the biggest number of stages completed - overtaking Joop Zoetemelk's 365. 3 days later, he tied Zoetemelk's record of finishing the Tour de France 16 times. On the last day of the race, 29 July, he announced he would retire after Tour de Vendée on 6 October 2018. He extended his career to the following week's Chrono des Nations before retiring.

Nickname

Chavanel was known as Chava, Mimosa or Mimo, after a French film character he imitated. In the Dutch-speaking Belgian media, he was nicknamed 'La Machine' for his outstanding stamina and determination.

Major results

19997th Overall Circuit des Mines20001st Mountains cl*ification Tour de l'Avenir3rd Overall Circuit Franco-Belge1st Stage 16th Overall Tour de l'Ain6th Grand Prix de Villers-Cotterêts8th Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers20012nd Châteauroux Cl*ic3rd Overall Tour de l'Avenir3rd Polynormande4th Overall Tour de l'Ain6th Overall Tour de Picardie7th Overall Circuit Franco-Belge9th Le Samyn20021st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk1st Trophée des Grimpeurs2nd Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes3rd Overall Tour of Belgium3rd Châteauroux Cl*ic9th Overall Danmark Rundt20031st Tour du Haut Var2nd Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes2nd Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen5th Overall Paris–Nice5th Overall Critérium International5th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe1st Stage 3b (ITT)5th Paris–Bourges9th Overall Paris–Corrèze9th Tro-Bro Léon20041st Overall Tour of Belgium1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk1st PolynormandeTour du Poitou-Charentes1st Stages 3 & 4 (ITT)5th Paris–Camembert5th Trophée des Grimpeurs6th Grand Prix de Fourmies9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen10th Overall Critérium International20051st Time trial, National Road Championships1st Overall Circuit de la Sarthe1st Stage 51st Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes1st Duo Normand (with Thierry Marichal)9th Overall Tour de Pologne20061st Time trial, National Road Championships1st Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes7th Overall Paris–Corrèze7th Paris–Bourges8th Gran Premio di Lugano20073rd Trophée des Grimpeurs4th Overall Critérium International9th Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan10th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré20081st Time trial, National Road Championships1st Dwars door Vlaanderen1st Brabantse PijlTour de France1st Stage 19 Combativity award Stages 2, 6 & 19 Winner Super Combativity award1st Stage 5 Tour Méditerranéen1st Stage 4 Volta a Catalunya2nd Overall Volta ao Algarve8th Overall Paris–Nice1st Stage 610th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships20092nd Time trial, National Road Championships2nd Overall Eneco Tour1st Prologue2nd Overall Volta ao Algarve3rd Overall Paris–Nice1st Points cl*ification1st Stage 34th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens5th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen7th Paris–Roubaix7th Dwars door Vlaanderen9th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne2010Tour de France1st Stages 2 & 7Held after Stages 2 & 7Held after Stage 2 Combativity award Stage 2 & Overall2nd Time trial, National Road Championships7th Overall Tour du Limousin20111st Road race, National Road Championships2nd Tour of Flanders4th Overall Three Days of De PanneVuelta a EspañaHeld after Stages 4–720121st Team time trial, UCI Road World Championships1st Time trial, National Road Championships1st Overall Three Days of De Panne1st Stage 3b (ITT)2nd Overall Eneco Tour2nd Dwars door Vlaanderen2nd Chrono des Nations8th Overall Paris–Nice8th Overall Tour de San Luis10th Tour of Flanders20131st Team time trial, UCI Road World ChampionshipsNational Road Championships1st Time trial2nd Road race1st Overall Three Days of De Panne1st Stage 3b (ITT)3rd Chrono des Nations4th Milan–San Remo4th Brabantse Pijl5th Overall Paris–Nice1st Points cl*ification1st Stage 66th Overall Eneco Tour1st Stage 5 (ITT)6th E3 Harelbeke7th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad8th Grand Prix de Wallonie20141st Time trial, National Road Championships1st Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes1st Stage 4 (ITT)1st GP Ouest–France1st Chrono des Nations2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk1st Stage 33rd Overall Tour of Belgium5th Dwars door Vlaanderen7th Overall Tour Méditerranéen7th Overall Tour of Britain20151st Individual pursuit, National Track ChampionshipsNational Road Championships3rd Time trial3rd Road race9th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía20162016–17 UCI Track Cycling World Cup, Glasgow1st Individual pursuit2nd Team pursuit1st Team pursuit, UEC European Track Championships1st Individual pursuit, National Track Championships1st Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes1st Stage 4 (ITT)4th Overall Étoile de Bessèges1st Stage 35th Overall Three Days of De Panne20174th Time trial, National Road Championships4th Overall Three Days of De Panne5th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk1st Stage 45th Overall Étoile de Bessèges9th Tour of Flanders9th Tro-Bro Léon10th Chrono des Nations Combativity award Stage 16 Tour de France20182nd Overall Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle-Aquitaine4th Overall Étoile de Bessèges4th Overall Tour La Provence5th Cholet-Pays de Loire5th Chrono des Nations6th La Roue Tourangelle6th Paris–Chauny Combativity award Stage 2 Tour de France

Grand Tour general cl*ification results timeline

Cl*ics results timeline

References

External links

• Sylvain Chavanel at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Sylvain Chavanel at the International Olympic Committee
• Sylvain Chavanel at Cycling Archives
• Sylvain Chavanel at CQ Ranking
• Sylvain Chavanel at ProCyclingStats
• Tour de France results
• Palmares at Cycling Base
• Chavanel pakt eindzege Driedaagse na winst in tijdrit