Britain’s Barry Hoban handed away on Saturday the nineteenth of April 2025. Our late Ed Hood spoke to Barry about his teammate Raymond Poulidor on his passing. Right here is that interview in remembrance of Barry, considered one of Britain’s greatest professional riders. RIP.
A little bit of a sing-song!
‘Poupou’ Remembered: Britain’s Barry Hoban rode alongside the late Raymond Poulidor for a few years, so who higher for Ed Hood to ask all concerning the French hero ‘Poupou’. From 1972 to Poulidor’s retirement in 1977 the Frenchman and the Yorkshireman battled collectively within the Excursions and Classics – Barry remembers.
Sure, I noticed Raymond Poulidor race a time or two again within the 70’s; latterly I noticed his yellow polo shirt-ed avuncular determine within the Tour village many occasions; I’ve learn a whole lot of column inches about him through the years and I’ve good reference books which function him, in my archive. However I by no means shared a room with him on a stage race, ate on the similar desk or skilled and raced with him – I used to be by no means his, ‘associate in crime’. Barry Hoban was. England’s eight occasions Tour de France stage winner and Merckx-beating Gent-Wevelgem winner kindly gave me his insights into the person he had as a crew mate for a decade and extra.
Hoban wins in Wevelgem’74
I began with the largest query first: “Was Raymond Poulidor able to profitable the Tour de France?”
Barry Hoban: Sure, in fact! He may climb nicely – it’s not everybody who may beat Merckx in a mountain time trial as Raymond did in Paris-Good – and he may time trial on a technical parcours, he gained the Grand Prix des Nations, which was the equal of the World Time Trial Championship again then. However he lacked what I’d name ‘biking intelligence’ – that’s nothing to do with education or data, it’s about having a really feel, an intuition for what’s taking place in a race. Take a look at Jean Stablinski, he wasn’t a fantastic sprinter, climber or time trial rider however he gained loads of races, together with The Worlds as a result of he may learn a race, he was artful and had that intuition for what was happening.
In the event you don’t have that you then want somebody within the crew automobile who does. Our supervisor within the 60’s was Antonin Magne; he’d been a fantastic rider within the 30’s profitable the Tour de France twice and The Worlds; he thought he was a fantastic supervisor – however he wasn’t. He wasn’t in synch with how biking was in that period and infrequently didn’t make the precise choices, he simply wasn’t astute sufficient. It’s my perception that if Raymond had somebody like Rapha Geminiani (a powerful rider in his day, French Champion and Tour de France podium finisher – and Jacques Anquetil’s crew boss, ed.) or Raymond Louviot within the automobile throughout his greatest years then he may have gained the Tour.
Poulidor and Hoban at GAN
PEZ: Then the competition that Poulidor was tactically inept is legitimate?
He wasn’t artful, he wanted somebody to inform him what to do; the skilled guys in our crew must inform him to observe his positioning within the peloton – whereas Merckx was sharp, all the time within the high 15, the place it’s important to be. However for all that, bear in mind we’re speaking a few man who gained the Vuelta, Milan-Sanremo, Flèche Wallonne, the Dauphine twice, Paris-Good twice, the Criterium Worldwide 5 occasions and was eight occasions on the rostrum on the Tour with 14 years between the primary and final look – that’s outstanding longevity, unmatched that I can consider. The highest riders’ eras final possibly seven or eight years – Raymond was aggressive by means of two eras, these of Anquetil and Merckx.
Hoban and a younger Merckx
PEZ: You’re saying that his strengths had been as a climber and time trial rider however he had a very good document in Paris-Roubaix?
Nowadays a rider like him would by no means go close to that race, even again then, take a look at Anquetil, he solely rode it as soon as, simply to see what it was like. However the hassle again then was that groups had been a lot smaller and also you needed to experience every thing – riders in that period, De Vlaeminck, Merckx, Gimondi, they rode every thing, from Het Volk (now Het Nieuwsblad) proper by means of to the Tour of Lombardy; there wasn’t the specialisation there’s now with ‘cobbled classics riders’ and ‘Ardennes classics riders’ – Tom Boonen by no means rode Liege-Bastogne-Liege. . .
A puncture for Poulidor in Paris-Roubaix
And typically it was fairly ‘final gasp’ – not like at this time the place riders’ programmes are mapped out for them weeks upfront. I can recall getting a cellphone name at dwelling in Belgium at 08:00 am from Magne telling me that he was a person quick for the 4 Days of Dunkirk and will I be in Dunkirk for the 11:00 am begin?
Poulidor with Fagor
PEZ: Whenever you joined Mercier BP Hutchinson in 1964, he was already a ‘large’ rider with wins within the French Nationwide Championships and Milan-Sanremo – did he take you beneath his wing?
No, he was nonetheless studying himself, it was the older riders within the crew who helped and suggested me. Some riders are like that and a few aren’t, some riders develop and be taught rapidly and go that data on – once I was a extra skilled rider I suggested the brand new guys and handed on data to up and coming guys like Gerrie Knetemann, Cees Bal and Sven-Ake Nilsson.
Begin of one other race
PEZ: In my obituary for him I quoted from a supply which maintained that Poulidor was on higher contract charges than Anquetil on the criterium circuit – would you agree?
No, not possible. There have been two rider brokers, Daniel Dousett who had Jacques Anquetil, Fausto Coppi, Louison Bobet, Roger Rivière, André Darrigade, Rudi Altig and Tom Simpson. Then there was Roger Piel who had Raymond, me and a lot of the Mercier crew – however Dousset was the principle man. (In 2007, revered biking historian, Le Woodland wrote of the 2 males: “The distinction between Dousset and Piel, aside from their lack and abundance of allure respectively, was that Dousset grew to become the godfather that he regarded. With most of the best riders beneath contract his world went past securing criterium contracts and negotiating crew salaries. He had the ability to dictate who would experience through which crew, which groups would experience which races. It was Dousset who determined groups for the Dauphiné Libéré and the Baracchi Trophy, which he may do by merely refusing to have interaction his riders if he didn’t care to.” ed.)
Poulidor and Anquetil – Who received the cash?
On condition that, I feel it’s extremely unlikely that Raymond can be on higher contracts than Jacques.
However that’s to not say Raymond wasn’t shrewd, it’s important to bear in mind he got here from humble origins, as soon as he advised me a narrative; His brother and him had been larking about in the home and broke their bed room window, their dad mentioned; “you already know that tumbler is dear so we’ll have to attend till spring earlier than we get it repaired.” So Raymond and his brother needed to dwell with the wind whistling by means of a damaged window all by means of a chilly Auvergne winter – he knew the worth of a franc.
Raymond invested his winnings correctly, he purchased land on the outskirts of Limoges and had outlets and flats constructed on it. As Limoges expanded so his improvement grew to become a part of town and elevated in worth.
Poulidor and Thevenet on the Tour
PEZ: It’s been mentioned that the Tour parcours had been weighted for Anquetil reasonably than Poulidor when their rivalry was at its peak?
In fact, Goddet and Lévitan, the Tour organisers wished a French winner and everybody knew about Anquetil’s skills in opposition to the watch – so there have been very long time trials to swimsuit him and few mountain high finishes which weren’t his forte. Had there been extra mountain high finishes, then it will have been higher for Raymond, however Bahamontes would in all probability have gained extra Excursions in that occasion.
Rik van Looy – The person who beat Poulidor for the rainbow jersey
PEZ: Once I used to see him on the Tour he appeared a pleasant, approachable man?
Within the early days he was an introvert, he wouldn’t say ‘boo!’ to a goose however in his latter days he grew to become extrovert. After he retired from racing there was a spread of Raymond Poulidor ‘sports activities’ bikes marketed. If a brilliant market purchased say 150 of them then Raymond would go alongside and current the vary – and he’d become a salesman; “that is simply the precise bike for you, sir!”
Puncture for Hoban
PEZ: Did you keep up a correspondence?
In fact! After Jacques died, then when Roger Pingeon then Felice Gimondi handed I used to joke with him; ‘the peloton is getting smaller, Raymond – we could must go to the entrance!’ However in fact, now he’s gone too. . .
‘Goodbye Poupou’
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