Jean Stablinski

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medal record
Competitor for  France
Road bicycle racing
World Championships
Gold	1962 Salò di Garda	Elite Men's Road Race

Jean Stablinski (May 21, 1932 in Thun-Saint-Amand - July 22, 2007 in Lille) was a French racing cyclist of Polish origin. He was born in the French village of Thun-Saint-Amand as a son of Marcin and Pelagia Laskowski, Polish immigrants. After death of his father, still being a child, worked in a coal mine. In 1947 began his cyclist trainings.

Stablinski was a professional cyclist from 1953 to 1968. He won many races, including the Vuelta a España, the world championship, four French national titles and several classics. Stablinski participated in 12 Tours de France and won stages in all three Great Tours. He was nicknamed Le Polak (the Pole).

In retirement he became a member of Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix, enthusiasts and workers for the spring classic. It was Stablinski who suggested the viciously cobbled path through the Arendberg forest. His qualifications for knowing it were impeccable: as a miner he had worked beneath the road and as a cyclist he had ridden along it.

Stablinski never stopped riding a bike until the illness that led to his death. He said he never put a drinks bottle on his bike when he rode for pleasure. He had spent too many years racing as a professional with no chance to stop and look around or to meet people, he told the historian Jean-Paul Ollivier on French television. If he had no water on his bike but a few euros in his pocket, he could stop and buy a drink at any bar he fancied and get into conversation with whomever he met.

[edit] Important victories

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jesus Loroño	Winner of the Vuelta a España 1958	Succeeded by Antonio Suarez
Preceded by Rik Van Looy	World Road Racing Champion 1962	Succeeded by Benoni Beheyt

[edit] Reference

• Judycki, Zbigniew. "Jean Stabliński (1932-2007)". Forum Polonijne 3 (2007): 30. ISSN 1234-2807.