Raphaël Géminiani
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Géminiani at the 1954 Tour de France
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Raphaël Géminiani |
| Nickname | Le Grand Fusil |
| Born |
12 June 1925 Clermont-Ferrand, France |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1946 | Metropole-Dunlop |
| 1946 | Cycles Central |
| 1947-1949 | Metropole-Dunlop |
| 1949 | Stucchi |
| 1950 | Metropole-Dunlop |
| 1950 | Bottecchia-Pirelli |
| 1951 | Bottecchia |
| 1951 | Metropole-Dunlop |
| 1952 | Bianchi-Pirelli |
| 1952 | Metropole-Dunlop |
| 1953 | Rochet-Dunlop |
| 1953 | Bianchi-Pirelli |
| 1954 | Ideor |
| 1954-1957 | Saint-Raphael-Geminiani |
| 1957 | Cilo |
| 1958-1959 | Saint-Raphael-Geminiani |
| 1960 | Saint-Raphael-Geminiani |
| Major wins | |
| King of Mountains Tour de France 1951, King of the mountains Giro d'Italia 1951, National championship 1953 |
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Raphaël Géminiani (born Clermont-Ferrand, France, 12 June 1925) is a French former road bicycle racer. He had six podium finishes in the Grand Tours. He is one of four children of Italian immigrants who moved to Clermont-Ferrand. He worked in a cycle shop and started racing as a boy. He became a professional and then a directeur sportif, notably of Jacques Anquetil and the St-Raphaël team.
His professional career ran from 1946 to 1960. He won the mountains competition in the Tour de France in 1951. His best overall place was second in 1951 behind Hugo Koblet. He won seven stages of the Tour between 1949 and 1955 and wore the maillot jaune of leader for four days. He won the national championship in 1953, the mountain competition of the Giro d'Italia in 1951 and third place in the Vuelta a España 1955. In 1955, Géminiani finished in the top 10 of the three big tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España), equalled by Gastone Nencini only in 1957.
In 1977 he called doping checks the "cancer of cycling". He recognised that he had used drugs during his career. His strong personality earned him the nickname of Le Grand Fusil, which translates roughly as "Top Gun".
Géminiani's father, Giovanni, brought his family to France in 1920 to escape fascism in Italy. He had run a bicycle factory in Lugo. It burned down. He established a bike shop in Clermont-Ferrand and insisted that his family speak French from then on.
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Wikipedia