Le Vicomte
In this extract from the Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche Cycling Legends Big Read series author Chris Sidwells profiles Sean Kelly’s enterprising first team manager. The man credited with discovering SeanKelly was Jean deGribaldy, an ex pro racer turned businessman with an aristocratic background who hailed from Besançon in eastern Franc e AUGUST 2016 | CYCLE SPORT MAGAZINE DeGribaldy was known in French cycling as le Vicomte , the Viscount. He didn’t actually hold a title, but hewas descended from the aristocratic Italian Broglia family. The Broglias moved to the Savoie region of France during the 16th Century, with De Gribaldy’s forefathers taking the name Di Gribaldi, and the rest calling themselves DeBroglie. A distant relative, Louis de Broglie won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1929. No money camewith the De Gribaldy name. The son of a farmer, Jean qualified as a clock repairer, but his heart lay in cycling. At the age of nine De Gribaldy saw Antonin Magne pass through h...