Beyond the sporting legend, Raymond Poulidor has enjoyed a huge popularity rating among the French public. Guest of the debrief of Christophe Hondelatte who devoted one of his stories to the myth Raymond Poulidor, Europe 1, Christian Laborde, author of "Duel on the volcano" evokes the popularity of Poulidor, which, according to him, comes first of all from his name : "We must listen to this name, he speaks to us a lot."
"In Poulidor, there is 'hen', that is both the hen of the farmyard, but the hen becomes 'pou-poule', songs 'popu'". In Poulidor, there is also 'Pulley', the pulley above a well, the well's lip. All that, if you like, is gold. This is Poulidor's gold. There is something wonderful. The name sounds and what do you want ... We fell in love, we became attached to this extraordinary name of Poulidor. It is already legendary by name, "adds the writer.
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And it fits perfectly with the very rural origins of Raymond Poulidor. "Raymond Poulidor is the child of France of kitchens and oilcloth (...) France steeple, school, town hall, village festival, the village ball and July 14 He is the child of that, Raymond Poulidor And so rural France, which is a majority France in the sixties and seventies, will obviously find in Raymond Poulidor, someone who has represented. the child of the city, one could say, he is an urban champion, Raymond Poulidor is the land, "he retorted.
Christian Laborde compares Raymond Poulidor with another runner, from a small village in the Landes ... "This is a common point with André Darrigade, son of sharecropper.In fact, he told me 'it takes everything I became a champion of cycling so as not to remain the son of a farmer. "So he left the world, he made the career that we know André Darrigade by being the world champion, and they are two identical roads: and this new life is going to fill Raymond Poulidor ", even beyond the fact of winning, which he had masterfully done in 1961 during Milan-San Remo for his first big win. But also like during the 1964 Tour de France, an edition marked by the duel between Raymond Poulidor and Jacques Anquetil.