Icons of cycling
nown for its chequerboard
patterned jersey, the origins
of the Peugeot cycling team
can be traced back to the 1700s when
Jean-Pierre Peugeot opened a grain mill
in Montbéliard, eastern France. In 1810
the mill passed into the hands of his sons,
Jean-Pierre II and Jean-Frédéric, who
transformed it into a foundry.
After decades spent manufacturing
various products, the company turned
its attention to building bicycles,
introducing the high-wheeled Grand Bi in- Four years later the company was
making mass-produced safety bicycles
and by the early 1890s was reportedly
turning out nearly 10,000 units a year.
Racing success
It wasn’t long before those riding Peugeot
bicycles tasted success in the burgeoning
racing scene. In 1891 three of the top-10One of the sport’s most successful marques,
for over 90 years Peugeot riders regularly
claimed cycling’s important races
The Peugeot Team
riders in the inaugural 1,200km Paris-
Brest-Paris rode Peugeots and the
following year all the top-five riders in
the 1,000km Paris-Nantes-Paris race
were men perched on a Peugeot.
While the company sponsored Italian
track specialists Giuseppe Ghezzi and
Federico Momo in 1901, it wasn’t until
1904 that a Peugeot-sponsored road
team entered the peloton. Included in
that squad was the magnificently
named Hippolyte Aucouturier who
won the team its first race, claiming
Paris-Roubaix in April.
It was the start of a history of huge
success for the brand. In the 10 years
before the outbreak of war, Peugeot
claimed six Tour wins and 13 victories
in major one-day Classics. The team
boasted many of the period’s top riders
with the likes of Louis Trousselier, Lucien
Petit-Breton, René Pottier and PhilippeThys among its ranks. In the decades
that followed, Rik Van Steenbergen, Tom
Simpson, Eddy Merckx, Pino Cerami and
Bernard Thévenet would all take major
victories for the team.
During the 1980s Peugeot was the first
team of many English-speaking neo-pros
thanks to its relationship with the famous
Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt
(ACBB), its amateur feeder-outfit. Robert
Millar, Stephen Roche and Sean Yates
entered the pro ranks with Peugeot. The
team continued as a primary sponsor
until the 1986 season when Bruno
Wojtinek took their final win, claiming
stage five of the Tour de l’Avenir. The
company remained involved in cycling,
co-sponsoring the Z-team, but really
1986 was the end of the true Peugeot era.
Peugeot’s directeur sportifs over the
years included Maurice de Muer, known
as “little Napoleon”. Jean-Marie Leblanc
once wrote: “It was an education to see
De Muer at the start of a race with his
team huddled around a Michelin map, on
which he had marked the day’s route, the
wind direction and the points to attack,
Words: Giles Belbin / Photo: like a general directing an army.”
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Tom Simpson and team in
their iconic Peugeot
apparel at the 1965 Tour62 | January 11, 2018 | Cycling Weekly