Jean Robic - Personality and Appearance

Personality and Appearance

Pierre Chany said:
He had a face that was speckled like a bitter apple, large ears and a little nervous and muscular body. At the same time proud and stubborn, he detested all those whom nature had made better proportioned and those whom nature had given what he considered a more handsome body. He hated Louison Bobet, accusing of him of being a false Breton because he was born in Ille-et-Vilaine!

Robic was one of the shortest riders; 1m 61 in 1947 and 1m 59 in 1959. He weighed 60 kg. He rode a 19-inch (480 mm) frame but with 172 mm cranks when the norm was 170 mm. Robic was often bitter with the world.

One writer said: He was five-foot nothing so light in weight that he ballasted his water bottles with lead to increase his momentum on the downhills. Tiny guy, blond curls crimped under a string-of-sausages helmet, gnarled face and Mr Punch hooked chin and nose... He wore a ring inscribed kenbeo kenmaro, 'to life, to death' in Breton.

Robic won few friends with his bad language and easy temper. He was at war with everyone, said the journalist Jacques Augendre. In 1959, Robic finished the Tour de France stage to Chalon-sur-Saône outside the time limit. The stage was won by the British rider, Brian Robinson, with an unusually large lead of 20 minutes. Other riders were required to finish the day within a set percentage of the winner's time and Robic didn't make it. Normally the judges would make an exception for a former winner but Robic's personality is said to have gone against him and he was put out of the race.

He was astute at exploiting rules. He collected lead filled drinking bottles at the top of major climbs because his lightness led to his descending mountains slower than he wanted. When the organisers forbade filling bottles with solids, he filled his with mercury instead. He bragged of his talent, once dismissing Gino Bartali and saying of the other leading Italian that he had " a Fausto Coppi in each leg"—meaning he was twice as good.

A fellow professional, André Mahé, said in Procycling in 2007 that Robic's personality and self-importance was such that he would stand in the doorway of a restaurant until all the diners had noticed him and then announce: