Robert Chapatte

National Championships 1944: French Champion in the Team Pursuit of amateurs, Roger Rioland, Jean and André Guégen Chassang.

Robert Chapatte ( born October 14, 1921 in Neuilly -sur -Seine, † January 19, 1997 in Paris) was a French bicycle racer and TV commentator. He is the inventor of Chapatte theory.

Sports career

Before the Second World War Robert Chapatte was active in several sports, including basketball, football and especially in athletics. As a student he became French champion in the 10,000 -meter run and won a popular cross-country race, which was organized by the newspaper L'Auto. Through his friend Louis Caput, a cyclist, he came to cycling.

1944 Chapatte French Champion in the Team Pursuit of amateurs, with Roger Rioland, Jean and André Guégen Chassang. Subsequently, he was professional and went as such initially mainly two - team movement on the path. As a " local hero " he was in Paris very popular and won the 1944 Prix Dupré - Lapize 1945 and the Prix Goullet - Fogler, in each case together with Emile Ignat. Between 1948 and 1952 he started five times in the Tour de France; his best finish was a 16th place in the Tour in 1949. On this occasion he was in 1949 the first cyclist who gave a live interview on television.

Otherwise won Robert Chapatte only minor race in France, he also competed in five six-day race. He was known that he infected himself by race immediately a Gauloise.

Journalistic career

After his retirement from cycling the end of 1954 Robert Chapatte was a sports journalist. He wrote for several newspapers and cycling could be heard on the radio until he also worked for the state television from 1959. 1955 was due to a technical error causes Chapatte was heard on the competing channels RTF, while Georges Briquet was sent by RTF mistake on Radio Monte Carlo, actually Chapatte worked as a commentator for. Thus, the two men were friends, and Briquet prompted Chapatte to switch to RTF. Through this radio reports Chapatte is considered a pioneer of modern coverage of the Tour de France.

In 1968, Chapatte as a result of student protests in France, the state television, but returned in 1975 as head of the sports department of antenna 2 on TV back and was until 1994 active as a journalist. From 1975 to 1985 he presented the mission he developed Stade 2, which is still there today. During the Tour de France in 1994 fell ill Chapatte whose alcohol abuse was common knowledge seriously; be followed by saying: Je me suis à Lourdes endormi et je me suis reveille à la Pitié. ( Eng.: I lay in Lourdes sleep and woke up at Hôpital de la Salpêtrière. ) Three years later, he died after a long illness.

Also the son of Robert Chapatte, Dominique Chapatte, is a sports journalist.

The " Chapatte Theory"

Developed from his experience as a driver and commentator Chapatte the theory that a group of cyclists while chasing an outlier to ten kilometers one minutes doing well ( theorems de Chapatte ). This "law " is still quoted by journalists when it is not necessarily accurate in recent times, since bringing teams specifically their sprinters to the front.

Honors

1966 Robert was awarded with the medal Chapatte Legion of Honour and in 1978 with the award and Prix Henri Desgrange de l' Académie des sports.

Publications

• With Jacques Augendre: Cyclisme. Technique, entraînement, compétition. Amphora. Paris 1964
• Robert Chapatte: Mes tours de France: Le cyclisme, la télé et moi. 1967
• With Jean -Marie Pinçon: Quand les portes claquent. Robert Laffont. Paris 1987. ISBN 978-2221053430