Sylvain Chavanel

Sylvain Chavanel (born 30 June 1979) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2000 and 2018 for the , , and two spells with the / team. His brother Sébastien Chavanel also rode as a professional cyclist. Sylvain Chavanel was noted as a strong all-rounder who won both sprints and time-trials, and was a good northern classics rider, taking 45 wins during his professional career. Chavanel began cycling at Châtellerault school when he was eight. He gave up to try football, then went back.

I started cycling again at 12 and from then on I improved every year. I was a fragile little thing, immature physically. I used to finish races halfway down the girls' field and at the back of the boys'. Everything changed the day that I beat my elder brother, Frédéric, in the cadet category, although he was better than me at the time.

Chavanel rode his first Tour de France at 22, finishing 65th, later coming third in the Tour de l'Avenir behind Denis Menchov and Florent Brard. In 2002 he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and finished third in the Tour of Belgium. He later won both of those races in 2005.

Cofidis (2005–2008) On 25 July 2008 Chavanel won the 19th stage of the Tour de France by outsprinting Jérémy Roy at Montluçon. That and other performances brought him election as the most combative rider of the race.

On 3 September 2008, he came second in the individual time trial stage of the Vuelta a España at Ciudad Real. His ride brought him to second place overall, two seconds slower than the American, Levi Leipheimer. His team worked for him next day from Ciudad Real to Toledo to make sure he won time bonuses offered along the route. The six seconds he collected were enough to give him the leader's jersey on 4 September.

Quick Step (2009–2013) Chavanel said in 2007 that he had had offers from foreign teams but was discouraged from joining them because he was unsure of his pension payments outside France. In July 2008 he said he had agreed with Patrick Lefevere the directeur sportif to join the team in Belgium for 2009. Chavanel said he made his decision to move after riding well in classic races in Belgium at the start of the year. He won Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Brabantse Pijl. He said:

I had other options as well. Professionally, it's an experience that can only do me good. I had the chance to sign for three years with AG2R-La Mondiale but I had the feeling that I wasn't going to develop enough. I have always raced in France and, in my heart, some experience abroad has excited me for some time. I therefore decided to take the step and Patrick Lefévère's advances completely persuaded me. The following stage was not so good for Chavanel as two punctures on the cobbled roads meant Fabian Cancellara re-took the yellow jersey, however on the Tour's first mountain stage from Tournus to Station des Rousses Chavanel bridged the gap to an early breakaway and rode away to take a famous win and inherit the yellow jersey for the second time.

In the 2011 Vuelta a España Chavanel held the red leader's jersey for four stages. On stage three, as part of a breakaway, he finished second behind Pablo Lastras which left him second in general classification, 20 seconds behind Lastras. However, on the next stage Chavanel finished just 57 seconds behind the stage winner while Lastras lost over 18 minutes, thereby making Chavanel the overall leader of the Vuelta. He held this jersey until stage 8 where it was taken by Joaquim Rodríguez.

In 2012, Chavanel won the Three Days of De Panne and won the French National Time Trial Championships for the fourth time.

In 2013, after strong appearances in the Tour de San Luis and the Volta ao Algarve, Chavanel won stage six of Paris–Nice, taking the points classification at the race. Chavanel also won the overall classification at the Three Days of De Panne for the second year in a row, winning the final time trial stage.

After five years with the team, Chavanel left the squad at the end of the 2013 season, and joined for the 2014 season.

IAM (2014–2015) After winning the National Time trial title, Chavanel went on to win the 2014 Tour du Poitou-Charentes thanks to a great performance in the stage 4 time trial. A couple of days later, Chavanel prevailed in the World Tour race GP Ouest-France winning the sprint out of a small group ahead of Arthur Vichot. In 2015 he also accomplished the impressive feat of starting and finishing each Grand Tour.

Direct Énergie (2016–2018) In September 2015 announced that Chavanel would join them for the 2016 season. In 2018, Chavanel participated in the Tour de France for the 18th time to take the record outright from Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt for the most Tour de France participations and was given the most combative rider award for the second stage. On 26 July 2018, Chavanel finished Stage 18 of the race to break the record for most number of stages completed – overtaking Joop Zoetemelk's 365. Three days later, he tied Zoetemelk's record of finishing the Tour de France 16 times and set the new record stages completed number at 369. On the last day of the race, 29 July, he announced he would retire after Tour de Vendée on 6 October 2018. He extended his career to the following week's Chrono des Nations before retiring.

Major results Road

1999 7th Overall Circuit des Mines 2000

3rd Overall Circuit Franco-Belge 1st Stage 1 6th Overall Tour de l'Ain 6th Grand Prix de Villers-Cotterêts 8th Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers 2001 2nd Châteauroux Classic 3rd Overall Tour de l'Avenir 3rd Polynormande 4th Overall Tour de l'Ain 6th Overall Tour de Picardie 7th Overall Circuit Franco-Belge 9th Le Samyn 2002

1st Trophée des Grimpeurs 2nd Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes 3rd Overall Tour of Belgium 3rd Châteauroux Classic 9th Overall Danmark Rundt 2003 1st Tour du Haut Var 2nd Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes 2nd Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan 3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen 5th Overall Paris–Nice 5th Overall Critérium International 5th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe 1st Stage 3b (ITT) 5th Paris–Bourges 9th Overall Paris–Corrèze 9th Tro-Bro Léon 2004

1st Polynormande Tour du Poitou-Charentes 1st Stages 3 & 4 (ITT) 5th Paris–Camembert 5th Trophée des Grimpeurs 6th Grand Prix de Fourmies 9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen 10th Overall Critérium International 2005

1st Stage 5

1st Duo Normand (with Thierry Marichal) 9th Overall Tour de Pologne 2006

7th Overall Paris–Corrèze 7th Paris–Bourges 8th Gran Premio di Lugano 2007 3rd Trophée des Grimpeurs 4th Overall Critérium International 9th Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan 10th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 2008

1st Dwars door Vlaanderen 1st Brabantse Pijl Tour de France 1st Stage 19

1st Stage 5 Tour Méditerranéen 1st Stage 4 Volta a Catalunya 2nd Overall Volta ao Algarve 8th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stage 6 10th Time trial, UCI World Championships 2009 2nd Time trial, National Championships 2nd Overall Eneco Tour 1st Prologue 2nd Overall Volta ao Algarve 3rd Overall Paris–Nice

1st Stage 3 4th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 5th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 7th Paris–Roubaix 7th Dwars door Vlaanderen 9th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne 2010 Tour de France 1st Stages 2 & 7

2nd Time trial, National Championships 7th Overall Tour du Limousin 2011

2nd Tour of Flanders 4th Overall Three Days of De Panne Vuelta a España

2012

1st Stage 3b (ITT) 2nd Overall Eneco Tour 2nd Dwars door Vlaanderen 2nd Chrono des Nations 8th Overall Paris–Nice 8th Overall Tour de San Luis 10th Tour of Flanders 2013

National Championships

2nd Road race

1st Stage 3b (ITT) 3rd Chrono des Nations 4th Milan–San Remo 4th Brabantse Pijl 5th Overall Paris–Nice

1st Stage 6 6th Overall Eneco Tour 1st Stage 5 (ITT) 6th E3 Harelbeke 7th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 8th Grand Prix de Wallonie 2014

1st Stage 4 (ITT) 1st GP Ouest–France 1st Chrono des Nations 2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 1st Stage 3 3rd Overall Tour of Belgium 5th Dwars door Vlaanderen 7th Overall Tour Méditerranéen 7th Overall Tour of Britain 2015 National Championships 3rd Time trial 3rd Road race 9th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía 2016

1st Stage 4 (ITT) 4th Overall Étoile de Bessèges 1st Stage 3 5th Overall Three Days of De Panne 2017 4th Time trial, National Championships 4th Overall Three Days of De Panne 5th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 1st Stage 4 5th Overall Étoile de Bessèges 9th Tour of Flanders 9th Tro-Bro Léon 10th Chrono des Nations

2018 2nd Overall Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle-Aquitaine 4th Overall Étoile de Bessèges 4th Overall Tour La Provence 5th Cholet-Pays de Loire 5th Chrono des Nations 6th La Roue Tourangelle 6th Paris–Chauny

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Classics results timeline Monument 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Milan–San Remo — — — — 52 — 71 — 59 37 21 20 —4 21 23 — — — Tour of Flanders — — — — — — — — 29 31 24210 13 19 45 339 — Paris–Roubaix DNF 52 — DNF — — — — —7 — 38 27 19 — 94 DNF 19 80 Liège–Bastogne–Liège — — DNF DNF 89 48 46 57 — — DNF 69 DNF — — — — — — Giro di Lombardia — — — — — 84 — — — — DNF DNF DNF DNF — — — — — Classic 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad — — — — — — — — 36 17 20 25 217 26 28 34 53 — Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne — — — — — — — — — 9 22 91 125NH — — — 60 — E3 Harelbeke — — — — — — — — —5 28 — 336 29 20 — 61 29 Gent–Wevelgem — 71 — — — — — — — — 22 47 — — — 20 72 — — Dwars door Vlaanderen — — — — — — — —17 66 272 —5 — — 85 72 Brabantse Pijl — — — — — — — —1 — 24 — —4 — 23 — — — Amstel Gold Race — — — 119 — 60 60 109 57 24 16 16 37 — DNF 79 — — — Clásica de San Sebastián — — — — — 106 91 70 14 32 — 17 DNF 11 — — — — — GP Ouest–France — — — — — 58 12 — 59 — 33 — 91 481 — 34 — — Paris–Tours 85 84 — — — 87 — — — 36 51 35 83 12 31 — — — 45

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish NH Not held

Track

2015

2016

UCI World Cup, Glasgow 1st Individual pursuit 2nd Team pursuit 2017 National Championships

2nd Individual pursuit 2018 National Championships 2nd Individual pursuit 2nd Madison (with Thomas Boudat) 3rd Team pursuit