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Thierry Claveyrolat
	Claveyrolat at the 1988 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Thierry Claveyrolat
Nickname	Clavette
Born	31 March 1959; La Tronche, France
Died	7 September 1999 (aged 40); Notre-Dame-de-Mésage, France
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Professional teams
1983	U.C. Pélussin
1984	Système U
1985	La Redoute
1986–1991	R.M.O.
1991–1992	Z
1993–1994	Gan
Major wins
	Grand Tours Tour de France Mountains classification (1990) 2 individual stages (1990, 1991)

Thierry Claveyrolat (31 March 1959 – 7 September 1999) was a French road bicycle racer. He was King of the Mountains in the 1990 Tour de France.

Racing career

Claveyrolat grew up in the shadow of the Alps in the Isère region near Grenoble. He showed early talent as an amateur cyclist, especially in the hills. He turned professional in 1983 for the St-Étienne-Pélussin team and came to notice that year when he came second on the sixth stage of the Dauphiné Libéré.^[1] It became a race in which he succeeded regularly, winning five stages and finishing highly placed.^[1] St-Étienne was a small team and Claveyrolat's pay was so low that he worked for a construction company at Alpe d'Huez to make up the difference.^[2] His showing in the Dauphiné Libéré brought him a move to Système U in 1984, after which he changed sponsors frequently. It was with RMO, sponsored by an employment agency, that he won his first race as a professional: a stage of the Dauphiné Libéré in 1987.^[2] He went on to win the Tour du Limousin in 1989, and the Tour du Haut-Var and the Coupe de France in 1993.

The peak of his career was the Tour de France in 1990, when he won the stage at St-Gervais in the shadow of Mont Blanc. He finished the race in the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification. He won a stage at nearby Morzine the following year.

Claveyrolat was a classic, lightly built climber. His slim build and short height brought him the nickname Clavette, a play on his name meaning "cotter pin"^[3] His weakness was time-trialling, when his lightness made it hard to ride at sustained speed.

There is a small memorial to him on the Chemin de la Bastille in Grenoble.^[4]

Retirement

Claveyrolat rode for Z (a children's clothing company) and GAN (an insurance company) before retiring in May 1994.^[2] He bought a bar, the Café de la Gare, at Vizille, south of Grenoble, and turned it into a bar-brasserie called L'Étape. It had a neon polkadot sign to represent the climber's jersey he had won in the Tour. The interior was a museum of his jerseys, cups, medals and other cycling artefacts. His former team-mate, Paul Kimmage, wrote:

It was the perfect investment, the redeployment he had dreamed of. After 12 happy and successful years as a racer, he had left the sport on his own terms, with no regrets. Over the next four years, he worked hard to make his new life a success. On new year's day 1998, he bought a scratch-card from the newsagent, shortly after opening up, and won a trip to Paris for the French edition of The Winning Streak where he was invited to spin the wheel and won a million French francs. Among his former team-mates, the perception was that Claveyrolat could do no wrong. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. But the reality was different.^[2]

Kimmage said Claveyrolat had enjoyed the atmosphere of the Café de la Gare, which is why he had bought it. But in converting it, and then turning it into a night-spot with music, he drove away the locals who had made it a success. He said:

There were so many things that he hadn't noticed about the place [the Café de la Gare]. The scum who threw up and urinated, regularly, all over the toilet floor. The early starts, late finishes, the guys who had never had enough. Seven nights a week. Fifty-two weeks of the year. But there was no turning back. He would make it work. It was sink or swim.^[2]

The lottery win couldn't have come at a better time. He sold a share of the business, used his winnings to plug the black hole in his bank account and determined to make a fresh start. But, within a year, the problems were exactly as before. A bouncer was hired, and paid under the counter, to patrol the undesirables. After a disturbance one evening, the police called and asked the bouncer to produce his carte d'identité. The bouncer didn't have one. He had entered the country illegally from Zaire. Thierry was brought before the authorities and asked to explain himself. Informed that they intended to prosecute, the problem was a drop in the ocean compared to the horror of what was waiting round the corner.^[2]

Death

On 13 August 1999 Claveyrolat drove down the Côte de Laffrey, a mountain he had ridden many times by bike. A Renault 19 came the other way as Claveyrolat cut a corner and the two crashed. The other driver suffered multiple fractures, and his 14 year old son (who was sitting in the passenger seat) was seriously injured and lost an eye. Claveyrolat was arrested and had also been drinking.

Claveyrolat committed suicide by shooting himself with a rifle at 3am on 7 September 1999. He was found dead in his cellar. He left a widow, Myriam, and two children.^[5]

Major results

1982

9th Overall Tour de l'Avenir

1984

10th Overall Tour du Limousin

1986

6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st

Mountains classification

1st Stages 3 & 6

1987

4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st

Points classification

1st

Combination classification

1st Stage 7

4th Grand Prix de Cannes

1988

3rd A Travers le Morbihan

1989

1st

Overall Tour du Limousin

1st Stage 1

1st Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise

2nd Overall Euskal Bizikleta

1st Stages 3 & 5

3rd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st

Points classification

1st

Combination classification

1st Stage 5

5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

6th Overall Volta a Catalunya

1st

Mountains classification

1st Stages 2a & 5

8th GP Ouest–France

1990

1st

Overall Euskal Bizikleta

1st Stages 4 & 5

1st Polynormande

1st

Mountains classification Volta a Catalunya

Tour de France

1st

Mountains classification

1st Stage 10

2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st

Points classification

1st

Mountains classification

1st Stage 6

6th A Travers le Morbihan

1991

1st Stage 18 Tour de France

1st

Mountains classification Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

2nd Road race, National Road Championships

4th Overall Euskal Bizikleta

7th Overall Tour du Limousin

1992

1st

Mountains classification Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

2nd Polynormande

3rd GP Ouest–France

4th Grand Prix de Rennes

5th Overall Tour du Limousin

9th Classique des Alpes

1993

1st GP Ouest–France

1st Tour du Haut Var

1st Trophée des Grimpeurs

2nd Classique des Alpes

3rd Grand Prix de Rennes

4th Overall Tour du Limousin

5th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre

6th Overall Étoile de Bessèges

7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st

Mountains classification

10th Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour de France	29	17	DNF	23	DNF	21	27	33	28
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	65	—	DNF	—	—

Legend
—	Did not compete
DNF	Did not finish

References

^ ^a ^b Velo Club, profile of Thierry Claveyrolat
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Procycling, UK, October 1999
^ The cranks on bicycles used to be held in place by a pin driven through their head to stop their sliding round the axle. The pins were known as cotter pins.
^ Google Maps Streetview
^ "The fatal attraction of Claveyrolat". Irish Independent. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.