Desire Letort (1967)

With riders in the 1967 Tour being grouped by nationality as opposed to trade teams or commercial sponsors, the French found themselves in a position of having so much talent that it warranted being broken into three wholly separate teams. The first of these teams notably included defending Tour de France champion Lucien Aimar, perennial contender, national favorite, and “eternal second” Raymond Poulidor, and the immensely gifted but decidedly idiosyncratic eventual winner that year Roger Pingeon. Accordingly, Deserie Letort, who at the time would have been a teammate of Pingeon’s were they riding for Peugeot-BP-Michelin, found himself relegated to the secondary national team of France-Bluets. With the benefit of hindsight, this arrangement ended up working to the personal advantage of Letort who was effectively promoted from the role of domestique to that of a designated team leader having others riding in support of him. The net result was that Desire Letort posted a career Tour best in 1967 finishing fourth place overall at 8 minutes and 18 seconds back of Roger Pingeon and just ahead of such contemporary talents as Jan Janssen (...second in the 1966 Tour by a mere 67 seconds), Lucien Aimar (...winner of the 1966 Tour), Felice Gimondi (...winner of the 1965 Tour), and Raymond Poulidor.