Grand Tours
He won several stages of the Tour de France, as a sprinter winning the green jersey twice and as a climber winning the polka dot jersey twice. His wins on Bastille Day in Tour de France in 1995 and 2001 ensured him a place in the hearts of French fans.
In the 1990s he dominated Spanish stage races. Jalabert and Alex Zülle were a constant threat to other teams in the Vuelta a España, taking turns winning stages, the overall classification and the points jersey. The strength of ONCE, with domestiques such as Johan Bruyneel and Neil Stephens, meant they were able to keep a rein from start to finish.
Besides Eddy Merckx and Tony Rominger, Jalabert is the only cyclist who has accomplished the trifecta at the grand tour level in the 1995 Vuelta a España, where he won the general, sprinters' and climbers' classifications.
Jalabert is known for sporting generosity. In the 1995 Vuelta he allowed Bert Dietz of Telekom - who had been in a solo breakaway for many kilometers - to take the mountaintop stage win at Sierra Nevada even though he had caught Dietz in the final kilometers. "I never thought we'd catch him, and when I saw he was ready to drop I felt sorry for him. I wanted to show it's not true I'm trying to win it all. My goal is the Tour of Spain," Jalabert said.
When the Vuelta was moved to September, Jalabert was finally able to compete in the spring classics and stage races such as Paris–Nice, winning many stages and the overall classification many times.
Read more about this topic: Laurent Jalabert
Famous quotes containing the word grand:
“The grand style is available now only in old poems, museums, and parodies.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)