Jesús Luis Ocaña Pernía was a Spanish road bicycle racer who won the 1973 Tour de France and the 1970 Vuelta a España. During the 1971 Tour de France he launched an amazing solo breakaway that put him into the Yellow Jersey and stunned the rest of the main field, including back to back Tour champion Eddy Merckx, but abandoned in the fourteenth stage after a crash on the descent of the Col de Menté. Ocaña would abandon many Tours, but he finished every Vuelta a España he entered except for his first, and finished in the top 5 seven times in a row.
Raymond Poulidor, nicknamed "Pou-Pou", was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for Mercier his entire career.
Stephen Roche is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only three cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the others being Eddy Merckx and Tadej Pogačar. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH was a Portuguese professional bicycle racer. He was champion of Portugal in six successive years. He rode the Tour de France 13 times and finished all but once, winning on Alpe d'Huez in 1979, and finishing third twice. All total he finished in the top 10 of a Grand Tour eleven times, made three podiums and won a total of seven stages between the Vuelta and Tour.
Christopher Miles Boardman, is an English former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics, broke the world hour record three times, and won three prologue stages at the Tour de France.
Luc Leblanc is a retired French professional road cyclist. He was World Road Champion in 1994.
Laurent Dufaux is a former professional road cyclist from 1991 to 2004. He was the Swiss National Road Race champion in 1991. Despite being a climber, he also won the hilly Züri-Metzgete one-day classic in 2000, outsprinting Jan Ullrich and Francesco Casagrande in a flat three-man group sprint finish. Notable results in the Grand Tours include a 4th place overall finish in both the 1996 and 1999 Tour de France and 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the 1996 and 1997 Vuelta a España, respectively. He also won the 1998 edition of his home region race, the Tour de Romandie, the 1993 and 1994 editions of the Dauphine Libere, and finished in the top 5 of the Tour de Suisse twice.
Roger Pingeon was a professional road bicycle racer from France.
Hendrikus Andreas "Hennie" Kuiper is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist. His career includes a gold medal in the Olympic road race at Munich in 1972, becoming world professional road race champion in 1975, as well as winning four of the five "Monument" classics. He rode the Tour de France 12 times, finishing second twice and winning the stage to Alpe d'Huez on two occasions. Kuiper, Ercole Baldini, Paolo Bettini and Remco Evenepoel are the only riders to have won both the Olympic road race and the world professional road race.
Charly Mottet is a French former professional cyclist. He was one of the best French road cyclists of his era.
Ferdinand Bracke is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist who is most famous for holding the World Hour Record (48.093 km) and winning the overall title at the 1971 Vuelta a España in front of Wilfried David of Belgium and Luis Ocaña of Spain. He also became world pursuit champion on the track in 1964 and 1969.
Udo Bölts is a retired German racing cyclist, the brother of Hartmut Bölts. Bölts confessed publicly in 2007 to having used EPO and growth hormones in 1996 and 1997.
Thierry Marie is a French former cyclist. Marie often performed well in prologue stages: he won the Tour de France prologue three times in his career, and because of that he wore the yellow jersey in those three years, for seven days in total. He also competed in the team time trial event at the 1984 Summer Olympics. On stage six of the 1991 Tour de France Marie rode alone for six hours and 234 km to win the stage and set the record for the longest post-war successful breakaway.
Laurent Desbiens is a French former road cyclist, who competed professionally between 1992 and 2001. He won the 1993 Four Days of Dunkirk and won a stage in the 1997 Tour de France and wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for two days in the 1998 Tour.
Stéphane Heulot is a French former road racing cyclist. Born in Rennes, Heulot wore the yellow jersey in the 1996 Tour de France during three stages. He also won the French National Road Race Championships in 1996. He was the manager of French cycling team Sojasun between 2009 and 2013. He joined Cannondale in February 2014 as the team's Performance Development Director. From 2019 to 2021, he worked as a directeur sportif for Rally UHC Cycling. In 2023, he became the general manager of UCI ProTeam Lotto–Dstny.
François Simon is a French former professional road bicycle racer. He was professional from 1991 to 2002. He is the brother of Régis, Pascal and Jérôme, all professional cyclists. In the 2001 Tour de France, Simon wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for three days and finished as best French finisher in that Tour. Other career highlights include a stage win in the 1992 Giro d'Italia, two stage wins in the Tour de l'Avenir, stage wins in Circuit de la Sarthe, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and Paris–Nice as well as being road race champion of France in 1999.
Jean-Cyril Robin is a French former professional road racing cyclist.
Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke is a Belgian former road bicycle racer, track cyclist and directeur sportif. He is an uncle of Frank Vandenbroucke. He was a prologue specialist, winning 19 prologues throughout his career.
Mariano Martínez is a Spanish-French former professional road racing cyclist. He won the King of the Mountains competition in 1978 Tour de France. Born in Spain, Martínez became a naturalized French citizen in 1963. He is the father of former racing cyclists Miguel and Yannick Martinez, the brother of Martin, and the grandfather of Lenny Martinez.
Luis Otaño Arcelus is a former Spanish Basque professional road bicycle racer. In 1964, Otaño lost the 1964 Vuelta a España to Raymond Poulidor by only 33 seconds.
