Daniel Morelon

Daniel Morelon (born 24 July 1944) is a retired French racing cyclist who was active between 1963 and 1980. He is a triple Olympic champion, eight times world champion, Morelon was a police officer before becoming a cycling coach.

Cycling career

Morelon came into cycling after going to races with his two brothers. He said:

My father was mad about cycling but he didn't have the chance to race, except a couple of times in secret. It was he who gave the vuris to my elder brothers. At 10, I went to see them racing and I rode 100 km on my mother's bike.

He joined the Vélo Club Bressan at 15. He won 11 races in the youth class and came second nine times out of 25 races. He came third in the national youth championship on the road and moved to the track after a training session in Paris.

I discovered the track by chance, during the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. I saw Gaiardoni win. I said to myself 'I like that.' My first race on the track was the Rustine kilometre in Paris, in 1962. That was on the Cipale track. I'd never ridden on a track. It was Toto Gérardin who taught me, over a week. I finished second behind Pierre Trentin I remember that I rode all the sprints out of the saddle in the straight. And I fell off. I'd forgotten that you can't freewheel with a fixed gear. I rode the track again the following year and I was contacted for a tournament between France and Germany... in the team pursuit. That wasn't surprising because I was still considered a roadman at that time.

The opposition between Trentin and Morelon continued until 1966. Trentin specialised in the kilometre, taking the world championship in 1966. Morelon took the sprint championship. The two then combined to ride the tandem sprint. Trentin said: "I'm the second fastest in the sprint and the fastest in the kilometre. Who's going to beat us on a tandem?"

Morelon took the world title the following year, again ahead of Trentin, but despite Trentin's confidence they failed in the tandem final. In 1966, 1968, 1971 and 1973 he won the International Champion of Champions sprint at Herne Hill velodrome.

The 1968 Olympic Games were at altitude in Mexico. Trentin, suffering from the height, saw Morelon record the best kilometre time in training. The team manager, Louis Gérardin, nevertheless named Trentin for the event and he won in a world record. Two days later, Morelon easily won the sprint against Giordano Turrini. Two days later, Trentin and Morelon won the tandem.

Retirement and coaching

Morelon stopped racing in 1977 and succeeded Gérardin as national coach. In 1980, though, he returned as a professional and took the bronze medal in the sprint and silver in the keirin, as well as winning the European sprint championship. He had previously said: "If I turn professional, I would no longer be able to devote myself exclusively to the sprint, because international matches are rare. Well, I want to stay a sprinter." He was given time off by the sports ministry, his employer as national coach, to train. He told journalists: "Look, you mustn't go away and write that Daniel Morelon, the old champion, is going to fall out of the clouds and run off with all the big prizes. But you can say that, provided I can prepare properly, I will play a more than prominent role in the way the races develop."

In 1990, he became head of the training centre at Hyères, on a new track. A rivalry started between Hyères and the northern training centre in Paris. There, Florian Rousseau was coached by Gérard Quintyn while Morelon trained Laurent Gané at Hyères. The result was a golden age of French sprinting, with all the world championships from 1997 to 2001 and the Olympic Games in 2000.

The revival started with the arrival of Frédéric Magné, Colas and Denys Lemyre, who had been world sprint champion with the juniors. Setting up two centres of training brought a rivalry. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gérard went to Germany to find papers on training. "We worked more on muscle-building, made our sessions more methodical, so we had training sessions for speed and others for strength and endurance. But we also worked out our own programme, both Gérard and I adding our personal touches. We also had the luck to fall on an exceptional generation" Magné, Florian Rousseau, Félicia Ballanger Gané. "It was a golden generation for French track racing." He said it would be his last competition.

Achievements as trainer Trainer to Félicia Ballanger at Olympic Games in sprint, 1996 and 2000 Trainer to Félicia Ballanger at Olympic Games in 500 m, 2000 Trainer to Nathalie Even-Lancien at Olympic Games in Points race, 1996 15 World Champion titles 7 Silver World Championship medals 6 Bronze World Championship medals