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.
Richard Virenque is a retired French professional road racing cyclist. He was one of the most popular French riders with fans for his boyish personality and his long, lone attacks. He was a climber, best remembered for winning the King of the Mountains competition of the Tour de France a record seven times, but he is best known from the general French public as one of the central figures in a widespread doping scandal in 1998, the Festina Affair, and for repeatedly denying his involvement despite damning evidence.
Christophe Moreau is a French former professional road racing cyclist. For many years Moreau was the primary French contender for the general classification in the Tour de France: he finished in the top 12 in the GC five times and finished the race as best Frenchman in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005. He also enjoyed success in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, winning the race overall in 2001 and 2007.
Crédit Agricole was a French professional cycling team managed by Roger Legeay. From 1998 to 2008, the team was sponsored by the French bank Crédit Agricole. Prior to 1997, the team was known as Vêtements Z–Peugeot (1987), Z–Peugeot (1988–89), Z (1990–92) and GAN (1993–98). In 1990, the team's leading cyclist, the American Greg LeMond, won the Tour de France. The team also won the team title at the Tour de France that year. Crédit Agricole announced that they would cease to sponsor the team after 2008, and the team was subsequently disbanded.
Team TotalEnergies is a professional road bicycle racing team that competes as a UCI ProTeam in UCI Continental Circuits races, and UCI World Tour races when invited as a wild card entry. In previous years, the team was known as Brioches La Boulangère, Bonjour, Bouygues Télécom, and Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Europcar. The 2015 season was the last under the sponsorship of Europcar. The team has been sponsored by Direct Énergie since 2016.
Sylvain Chavanel is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2000 and 2018 for the Cofidis, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step, IAM Cycling and two spells with the Brioches La Boulangère/Direct Énergie team. His brother Sébastien Chavanel also rode as a professional cyclist. Sylvain Chavanel was noted as a strong all-rounder who won both sprints and time-trials, and was a good northern classics rider, taking 45 wins during his professional career.
Luc Leblanc is a retired French professional road cyclist. He was World Road Champion in 1994.
Laurent Brochard is a retired professional road racing cyclist from France. In 1997 he won a stage of the Tour de France and became world road champion in San Sebastián, Spain.
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.
Ludovic Turpin is a French professional road racing cyclist, who most recently competed for amateur team Vélo Club Grand Case.
Pierrick Fédrigo is a French former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2016 for the Crédit Agricole, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, FDJ.fr and Fortuneo–Vital Concept teams. He was the winner of the French National Road Race Championships in 2005, and won four stages at the Tour de France.
Charly Mottet is a French former professional cyclist. He was one of the best French road cyclists of his era.
Patrice Halgand is a French former professional road racing cyclist. He was one of only three Festina team riders who were named as clean during the Festina doping scandal during the 1998 Tour de France.
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.
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.
Festina was a former professional cycling team that was active in the professional peloton from 1989 to 2001. The team was sponsored by the Swiss watch manufacturer of the same name.
