Saluting Jeannie Longo
Jun 26, 2006 · 08:43 AM · permalink
France's Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, the winningest female bicycle racer of all time, extended her legend over the weekend, taking both the French elite women's road championship and women's time trial championship, at 47!
They're her 50th and 51st national titles. Can't find any stories about it in English, but the French blogosphere took notice: La Flamme Rouge: Absolument incroyable. Le Blog de Sohra: ...au fait, bravo à Jeannie Longo qui a 47 ans a signé le doublé (course - contre la montre) au championnat de France de Cyclisme. Belle preuve de longévité!
Above is Longo taking time trial gold at the Atlanta Olympics, where she also took silver in the women's road race.
You can say what you like about the old bird (she’s got more enemies than friends it seems), but she can ride a bike really fast! I can remember doing a race and she was racing with us men and she dropped most of us on the climbs. It was really impressive.
I think she’d probably show up at our local crit and lap us.
We welcome your comments, however all comments are moderated. Offensive or off-topic comments will be deleted and not displayed. Also, please note that comments are owned by the commenter and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bike Hugger or its affiliates.