Professional Career
Denson's club recommended him to Maurice de Muer, manager of the Pelforth-Sauvage Lejeune professional team. De Muer promised him a contract if he won a stage of the Circuit d'Aquitaine and rode well in the Grand Prix des Nations. Denson signed with Pelforth in October 1963, when he was 27, riding in the yellow, white and blue of the French brewery and its cosponsor, a bicycle factory. He was the second Englishman in the team, with Alan Ramsbottom.
It can be really disastrous for a pro in a big team to miss the Tour, for it means no after-Tour criteriums, where a lot of money is made. Instead, he is a forgotten man, his only hope the end-of-season classics and semi-classics, like the Nations, Paris–Tours, Giro di Lombardia, the GP Fourmies and others, but what a fight it is to do a ride in these hotly-disputed rat-races!
He came 10th in Milan – San Remo and in Paris–Nice but didn't make Pelforth's Tour team. Denson was already unhappy with Pelforth, where the policy was to pay riders' salaries at the end and not during the season. He was already reduced to eating carrots found in fields while training. Not riding the Tour was a further financial blow.
He left Troyes in 1964, hoping for a place with Tom Simpson in the Peugeot team. When the place didn't become free, he moved to Ghent, in Belgium. There, if he couldn't ride for Simpson he could at least train with him. In races, however, they would be rivals; Denson was to ride for Rik van Looy in the Solo team, sponsored by a margarine company. He was the only foreigner in the team and never did master the Dutch that the rest of team spoke.
| “ | When we were all together the others had to translate for me, but on the road it was not such a handicap as it might have been, for the group was aptly named - everyone rode solo! There was no teamwork as such, no plans made at the start of a race, the only standing order being that we all rode for van Looy, who was the real power behind the team as well as in it. | ” |
The team won six stages of that year's Tour de France.
| “ | Denson said: "I was leading out sprints for Edward Sels. I pulled my guys out for Sels and almost got a stage win at Toulon behind Jan Janssen and Willy Bocklandt. | ” |
That autumn, at the world championship at Sallanches, France, Jacques Anquetil and his directeur-sportif, Raphaël Géminiani, said they had been watching Denson and wanted him for a team they were creating, sponsored by Ford-France. Denson stayed with Anquetil when the sponsor changed to Bic, opened a bar in Ghent, and had what he called the happiest years of his racing life.
Read more about this topic: Vin Denson
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