Laurent Fignon, French Cyclist, Dies at 50 - Obituary
Laurent Fignon, French Cyclist, Dies at 50 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com
PARIS — Laurent Fignon, one of France’s greatest and most enigmatic cyclists, who won the Tour de France in back-to-back years before losing the event in 1989 to the American Greg LeMond in the race’s closest finish, died here on Tuesday. He was 50.
His death was confirmed by the French cycling federation. In April 2009, Fignon, who lived in Paris, learned that he had advanced cancer of the digestive tract and that it had spread to his lungs.
From 1982 to 1993, Fignon won more than 75 races and earned as much as $900,000 a year. His victories included the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) in 1989 and the Milan to San Remo Classic in 1988 and 1989. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and ’84. But as he said years after the 1989 race, “Nobody talks about the two Tours I won, only about the one I lost.”