Eric Caritoux at the start of the 1990 season in his French champions jersey.

SKIL Team, managed by Jean de Gribaldy, 1984

Eric Caritoux (born 1960, August 16) was a French professional cyclist who raced between 1983 and 1994. He had 22 victories in his career, the highlights of which were winning the Vuelta a España in 1984 and taking the French road race championships in 1988 and 1989. He rode the Tour de France on 11 occasions, his best finish was 12th in 1989. Image File history File links Eric_Caritoux_Postcard. ... Image File history File links Eric_Caritoux_Postcard. ... Image File history File links Caritoux. ... Image File history File links Caritoux. ... Jean de GRIBALDY (July 18, 1922, January 2 1987) with Sean Kelly, 1986 Born in Besançon, former professional racing cyclist from 1946 to 1954, Jean de Gribaldy began in the middle of the sixties a successfull directeur sportif career. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... The Vuelta a España bicycle race is one of the three Grand Tours of Europe and, after the Tour de France and the Giro dItalia, the third most important road cycling stage race in the world. ... The Tour de France (French for Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is the most famous and prestigious road bicycle race in the world. ...

Early Years

Caritoux was born in Carpentras in Provence at the foot of Mont Ventoux. He first started cycle racing as a junior with the local club in Carpentras, he developed into a strong climber riding in the hilly Vaucluse region and often using Mont Ventoux in his training rides. As an amateur Caritoux won the 1982 edition of the Tour du Vaucluse Open beating future Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon into second place, he clinched that victory by winning the 15 kilometre mountain time trial up Mont Ventoux between Bédoin and Chalet Reynard. That win persuaded Jean de Gribaldy manager of the SEM professional squad to sign Caritoux for the 1983 season. Carpentras is a city and commune in the département of Vaucluse in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur région of France. ... Provence is a former Roman province and is now a region of southeastern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to Frances border with Italy. ... Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse at coordinates . ... The Vaucluse is a département in the southeast of France. ... Laurent Fignon (born August 12, 1960 in Paris) is a French cyclist, who won the Tour de France twice in 1983 and 1984, and missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by a very narrow margin. ... Located at the base of Mt. ... Jean de GRIBALDY (July 18, 1922, January 2 1987) with Sean Kelly, 1986 Born in Besançon, former professional racing cyclist from 1946 to 1954, Jean de Gribaldy began in the middle of the sixties a successfull directeur sportif career. ...

The 1983 SEM team had Sean Kelly as team leader and Caritoux soon fitted into the role of Kelly’s main helper in stage races. In 1984, Skil became main team sponsors and Eric showed that he had potential to be more than just Kelly’s helper in the mountains, he started the season by taking the Tour du Haut Var, a tough hilly one day race in the south of France and then won the Orange to Mont Ventoux stage of Paris-Nice. He was then given a short break in early April by his manager as the team concentrated on the spring classics for Sean Kelly, races which did not suit Caritoux. Sean Kelly, or John James Kelly (born May 21, 1956, in the townland of Curraghduff near Carrick-on-Suir Waterford, Republic of Ireland, is a former professional cyclist and arguably the greatest of his generation. ... Var is a département of southern France. ... Orange (Arenjo in Provençal) is a town and commune in the département of Vaucluse, in the south of France. ... Paris-Nice, nicknamed the race to the sun, is an annual professional cycling stage race held annually each March. ...

Caritoux’s 1984 Vuelta a España Victory

The story of Eric Caritoux’s victory in the 1984 Vuelta a España is quite extraordinary in that he won a Grand Tour as a second year professional which is quite unusual. However, even more unusual is that, one week before the start, neither Caritoux or his team had any intention of actually riding the race. At that time the Vuelta started in the second half of April and the Skil manager Jean de Gribaldy had made a promise at the start of the year to the Vuelta organisers that his team would be on the start line. A promise he had forgotten about but the organisers had not, de Gribaldy was threatened with a £50,000 fine if the team did not ride, he had to scrape together a squad for the Vuelta at the last minute, this included the holidaying Caritoux, who was told to get to Geneva and then fly to Jerez de la Frontera in the south of Spain where the Vuelta was starting. In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Tour de France - Tour of France Giro dItalia - Tour of Italy Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain Collectively they are termed the Grand Tours, and all three are similar... Jerez de la Frontera (in former times also known as Xerex or Xeres) is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. ...

Caritoux rode himself into form and won the race’s first mountain stage which finished on top of the Rassos de Peguera in the Pyrenees, he then rode admirably on stage 12 which finished at the Lagos de Covadonga summit and took over the leaders yellow jersey from Pedro Delgado. Nobody, including Caritoux himself, thought he could hold the lead until the race finish a week later, his team was weak and he had no support in the mountains. However, Caritoux did hold the lead and went into the final day with a 37 seconds lead, the final stage was a time trial, Caritoux was no time trialler and nearest rival Alberto Fernandez was. Caritoux rode the time trial knowing this might be his only chance to win a major race, his determination came through and won the 1984 Vuelta a España by a mere six seconds. Central Pyrenees. ... Covadonga (Asturian: Cuadonga), from Latin Cova dominica, Cavern of the Lady, is a village in Asturias, northwestern Spain, among the Picos de Europa mountains where Spanish Christians won a battle over the Muslim Moors around 718 and 725. ... Perico on the front cover of his book A Golpe de Pedal. ...

Latter Years

Caritoux joined the poorly organised Fagor team in 1986 and had two years of modest results, he rejoined Sean Kelly in 1988 at the Kas squad and had more success, taking the French road race championships. In 1989 he joined RMO to work with team leader Charly Mottet and repeated his French championship win. He stayed with RMO until the team folded in 1992 and then switched to the small Chazal team run by manager Vincent Lavenu for the final two years of his career, Eric was team leader at Chazal and mentor for the team’s younger professionals of which the team was mostly composed of. In 1994 the Tour de France’s 15th stage finished in Eric’s home town of Carpentras and he was hoping to grab glory in his final year as a pro, however he was foiled by lone breakaway Eros Poli, Caritoux finished in a group with race leader Miguel Indurain at two minutes behind Poli. Eros Poli was a popular Italian cyclist of the 1990s, notably employed as Mario Cipollinis lead-out man in bunch sprints. ... Miguel Ángel Induráin Larraya (born July 16, 1964, Villava, Navarre) is a Spanish cyclist. ...

Eric Caritoux retired from professional cycling at the end of the 1994 season at the age of 34. He today owns his own vineyard and holiday business in the Carpentras area and has recently worked on the Tour de France as a courtesy driver for the guests of France Telecom.

Career Victories

• 1983: Grand Prix d'Aix-en-Provence, Stage 4 Tour du Vaucluse.
• 1984: Overall Vuelta a Espana and Stage 7, Tour du Haut-Var, Stage 4 Paris-Nice, Bol d'Or des Monédières.
• 1985: Overall Flèche du Sud, Stage 2 Tour Méditérranéen.
• 1986: Trophée des Grimpeurs-Polymultipliée
• 1987:
• 1988: French Road Race Championships, Prix de Toulouse. Prix de Riom. Prix d'Aulnat. Prix de Lamballe.
• 1989: French Road Race Championships, Bol d'Or des Monédières, Prix de Sadirac.
• 1990: Stage 3B Midi-Libre.
• 1991: Tour du Haut-Var, Prix d'Aix-en-Provence.
• 1992:
• 1993: Stage 2 Tour de l'Ain.
• 1994:

Teams

• 1983: SEM-France Loire-Reydel
• 1984: Skil-Reydel-SEM-Mavic
• 1985: Skil-SEM-Kas-Miko
• 1986: Fagor
• 1987: Fagor
• 1988: Kas-Canal
• 1989: RMO-Libéria-Mavic
• 1990: RMO-Libéria-Mavic
• 1991: RMO-Libéria-Mavic
• 1992: RMO-Gitane-Mavic
• 1993: Chazal
• 1994: Chazal-MBK-Konig

Image File history File links Sem82. ... Image File history File links New_2. ...