Jacques Brel used to sing about Vesoul and it is the national anthem that Arthur Vichot sang last summer when he won the French championship in the road race while Thibaut Pinot was crowned in the time trial. Vesoul was actually the town of Vichot's uncle Frederic, who won two Tour de France stages in 1984 and 1985 and was famous for his downhill prowess. Another Vesoul-born rider, Laurent Mangel, took part in the 2011 Tour de France.
The prefecture of Haute-Saone is unlikely to revive fond memories for Cyrille Guimard. In 1972, two knee injuries forced him to call it quits on the road to Auxerre in the penultimate stage of the edition. Second overall behind Eddy Merckx, the Breton could only ride for 13 km before stopping in the village of Raze and bursting into tears in the arms of Gan-Mercier team manager Claude Sudres. On the eve of the finish in Paris, Merckx was hardly feeling better, suffering from lower back pains.
