Desire Letort (1969)

A photograph which Desire Letort carefully preserves in his personal archives depicts him wearing the Maillot Jaune while leading out perennial contender and longtime French favorite Raymond Poulidor during an early portion of stage 6 (Mulhouse - Ballon d’Alsace) in the 1969 Tour de France. Letort would hold the lead in the overall classification for but a single day before relinquishing same to the ultimate race winner, Eddy Merckx (...Poulidor, "the eternal second", would finish in third place while Letort would come in a more than respectable ninth).