Markeologist

I know I’m not the only classic bike guy who is also a classic car guy. My love of both goes back to the 1970s … I so wanting a blue Gitane for my 12th birthday in 1972 (and getting from my parents a Belgian-made Elite out of Montgomery Wards catalog instead)…and then as a 16 year old replacing that bike with a 1965 2+2 Mustang (though I continued riding). A couple years later my dad and I found a 1967 Shelby which we fixed up … the Elite and the Mustang are long gone but I still have the Shelby. My love of Fords/Shelbys and Gitanes has remained, and I have collected and studied the cars and bicycles of the1960s for decades.

I’m sure many of you saw “Ford v. Ferrari” a few years back, the story of Ford’s 1966 dominance at LeMans under the guidance of Carroll Shelby … what many bikies don’t know is that Ford won the Tour de France in 1966 with the Ford France cycling team as well.

The team emerged in 1965 as Ford France - Gitane with Jacques Anquetil as star rider and Raphael Geminiani as director sportif. Best I can tell, Ford was really wanting to break into the European Market with American cars. The 1965 team photo placed a brand new Mustang into the line up:


The team did not win the Tour in 1965, maybe because Anquetil did not participate, instead focusing on his historic Dauphiné / Bordeaux-Paris double win. Interestingly, Ford also entered Anquetil and Geminiani together in the 1965 Monte Carlo rally in a brand new Mustang:



In 1966, the team evolved into the Ford France - Hutchinson team, now mounted on both “Anquetil” and “Geminiani” branded bicycles (both built by Cizeron):







It is with this team and on these bikes that Ford won the Tour de France in 1966, Lucien Aimar on a Geminiani taking yellow (with the support of Anquetil on one of “his” bikes) and Julio Jimenez also on a Geminiani taking the King of the Mountain (all three were actually riding Bernard Carre-built frames):




Winning either the Tour de France or LeMans is difficult enough, to win both in the same year is a truly remarkable feat!

52telecaster

Very cool, I didn't know ford ever had a bike racing interest. My dad and I watched the stateside coverage of lemans every year in the 60s that I can remember. It wasn't much but my dad had been a small time racer and was a die hard ford guy. Thank you!

Robert Harold Miller
Btw dad brazed the frame of the car he is sitting in.

bikingshearer 

As noted, in 1966, Lucien Aimar won the TdF. When Anquetil realized he couldn't win, he became the super-domestique for Aimar in order to keep Poulidor from winning.

Anquetil had nothing against Poulidor personally - it was all about money. So long as Anquetil was a current or ex-TdF champ and Poulidor was not, Anquetil's appearance fees at the post-Tour criteriums (then a major source of a rider's income) went up and Poulidor's stayed relatively low. Anquetil liked having the glory, but he was fanatical about the money.

A similar piece of reasoning happened in the late 1950s when Henry Anglade was riding for the French regional team and looked like he might win. Anquetil, Geminiani and (possibly) Bobet, all on the main French national team, hated the thought of being upstaged by a regional team rider but especially hated the idea of having another rider to split the post-tour criterium appearance fees, and thus combined to help Bahamontes or Gaul (again, I don't remember which year it was and I'm too lazy to look it up right now) beat Anglade.

randyjawa 

Perhaps inappropriate for this thread but just the other day, I found a Devinci in full team livery and sponsored or something by Ford. My newest find from the dump...

Road Fan

This is great, I came to Dearborn, MI in 1994 to work for Ford Electronics Division - no hint of Ford bike racing was in the breeze back then!

Any nice side elevations of the bikes built for 1965 and 1966, and notes on the geometry and components?

Markeologist

@Road Fan, you can find many photos of the Ford France teams and their bikes on the internet…if you search for Jacques Anquetil and Ford you will see many. A look at the BiC team in 1967 is also worthwhile (same team and bikes as 1966, different sponsor). Jacques is well known to have ridden frames built by Bernard Carre…in 1965 these were badged as “Gitanes” and were painted in that classic Gitane blue.




In 1966, he was mounted on a Carre badged under his own “Jauques Anquetil” brand and painted in a darker purplish blue:



As mentioned in OP, some of the 1966 team rode “Raphael Geminiani” badged bikes. These bikes were painted in a silvery blue. From my research, TdF winner Lucien Aimar and KoM winner Julio Jimenez were also mounted Carre built frames. Jimenez wore pink for a bit in 1966 Giro:





The best source of profiles and component details of the bikes ridden by both Aimar and Jimenez in the 1966 TdF are found in the Rebour book…the 1964 Gitane of Anquetil’s is also in there (pretty much identical to his 1965 “Gitane”). The Carre frames with their tell-tale willow leafed seat stay caps are evident including Jacques with his initials stamped into cap…you get geometry on the “Gitane” as well as components which in the mid-60s time period was Campagnolo Record with Mafac Dural Forge brakes:




The Ford France team was short-lived but had a big impact in France where the Mustang became (and remains) extremely popular. The contemporaneous French movie “Un Homme et une Femme” (A Man and a Women) also features Ford race vehicles with a rally prepped 1965 Mustang being particularly prominent…Ford was really getting the Mustang out in front of the French public … Jacques and a team shot from 1966 with another rally-prepped Mustang:



…and this interesting one from best I can tell a ski vacation Jacques took in 1965. This 1963 Falcon Sprint appears to be one of the cars used by Ford in the 1963 Monte Carlo rally … did Ford provide Jacques with a car for personal use too???

repechage

best source will be any LeCycle drawings. Other than DR’s drawings of the significant bikes, the coverage was definitely rider focused. In the mid 1970’s, my co-workers would take a magnifying glass to the images in International Cycle Sport to figure out who was on what and things like drillium. If lucky one could divine the rims used, Heavy Super Champion 400 gr pro rim was pretty popular, often the Tour took place over unpaved sections.

repechage

The 24 hour race ended on 19th of June
the tour started June 21, and went to July 14.

Ford went into the Tour a Winner.

wonder if Henry went to the start of the tour, or just flew home.

rccardr 

Ford has been messing around with e-bikes for a while, showing various prototypes at events. We saw one of those show displays I think NC a few years ago. Had heard that they were one of the suppliers for SFO’s citybike program but not sure whether that came to fruition.

repechage

“have you Ridden a Ford lately?”
could be the new tag line.

Markeologist

For a couple years, pre-pandemic, Ford was the sponsor for San Francisco’s bike-share program and they could be seen all over the City:




I’ve annually attended the Monterey Reunion (nee Historics) for decades and in last few years Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, has raced some of his cars including a Cobra and a Lola. My wife and I “met” him in the pits a year or two ago and ended up striking up a conversation … I wanted to talk vintage cars but somehow he and my wife ended up talking alternative energy … Ford is in good hands IMHO!

repechage

Farley is ex Toyota-Lexus. Tough road ahead. He did acknowledge that a huge heavy battery in a full sized pick-up was not the smartest move. But they did it.