Roger Walkowiak

Roger Walkowiak (2 March 1927 – 6 February 2017) was a French professional road cyclist, active from 1950 to 1960, who won the Tour de France in 1956. He was born and raised in Montluçon, central France; his father had emigrated from Lublin, Poland. After World War II, unable to find work as a metalworker, he turned to racing.

Walkowiak’s 1956 Tour victory came as a surprise. At the time, the race used national and regional teams. He was a late addition to the Nord-Est-Centre regional squad, replacing Gilbert Bauvin, who had been moved to the main French team. On stage 7, from Lorient to Angers, Walkowiak joined a 31-rider breakaway that gained more than 18 minutes, putting him in the yellow jersey.

The race favourites dismissed him as insignificant. He lost the lead to Gerrit Voorting after stage 10, then to Jan Adriaensens in the Pyrenees, and later to Wout Wagtmans at Aix-en-Provence on stage 15. In the Alps, on stage 18 from Turin to Grenoble, Charly Gaul attacked to secure the King of the Mountains title. Wagtmans lost 16 minutes, while Walkowiak conceded only 8 to Gaul, reclaiming the yellow jersey.

He held it through the final four stages, finishing at the Parc des Princes on 28 July just over a minute ahead of Bauvin, at a then-record average speed of 36.268 km/h.

The win was poorly received. Organiser Jacques Goddet wrote in L’Équipe that “the applause sounded like a lamentation.” The public and peloton were disappointed that an unknown had beaten the rising star Jacques Anquetil, who had skipped the race. Walkowiak became only the second rider to win the Tour without winning a single stage. Goddet later called him his favourite winner, praising him as an all-rounder who used both legs and head. But France remained unimpressed; for years, doing something “à la Walko” meant succeeding unexpectedly or without flair.

The reaction depressed Walkowiak. He rode the 1957 Tour but fell from near the top to near the bottom. That year he also won a stage in the Vuelta a España. After two more seasons, he retired and ran a bar near his hometown. Even customers teased him about his Tour win, shaking his confidence further. He returned to working a lathe at the car factory in Montluçon where he had been employed as a young man. Eventually, he came to accept the merit of his achievement, though he lived quietly in southwestern France. After Ferdi Kübler died on 29 December 2016, Walkowiak briefly became the oldest living Tour winner. When he died on 6 February 2017 at age 89, Federico Bahamontes, the 1959 champion, took that title.