Jean Alavoine

Jean Alavoine

Jan Alavoine was born in Roubaix on April 1, 1988. In his professional career from 1908  to 1925, he won 29 races, including 17 Tour de France stages. While he never won an edition of the Tour , he finished second twice and third three times. His stage victories places him eighth for total stages won, but the truly amazing thing is the 14-year spread between his first and last stage victories. Alavoine is another rider whose career was limited by the four years from 1915-1918 in which the Tour was interrupted by WWI. In the 1922 Tour, he won stages 5-6-7 at the age of 34 and led until the 11th stage, when a mechanical issue dropped him 37 minutes back. In 1943 he died from injuries sustained while competing in a veteran's category race.