Former Festina rider wins national championship
Pascal Hervé takes masters road race in Quebec
Photo by:
Pascal Hervé/Facebook
This has to be a first: a former French national champion and Tour de France rider won a masters maple leaf jersey on Sunday. Hervé won the masters C (ages 55-64) road race in Victoriaville, beating Uli Mayer (United Velo) and Miguel Sanchez of Sports Maguire. Hervé won the 109 km in just over three hours.
Hervé was one of the star riders in the 90s, winning a stage of the Tour of Italy, placing 12th in the Tour de France, and winning the Trophée des grimpeurs, the Grand Prix de Plouay and a stage of the Tour de Suisse. In 1992, he won the French national championships on the road as an amateur.
His career ended abruptly following a positive test at the 2001 Tour of Italy and was part of the infamous Festina doping scandal in 1998, for which he was suspended for two months.
Hervé has already done three races this year, and may jump into a few more to show off his new national championship jersey.
Although Hervé was born in Tours, France, the former pro recently became a Canadian citizen, which is why he could do his first Canadian championship. The former pro remained in the cycling world after his retirement, first as a directeur sportif of the Garneau-Québecor team and then teaming up with Pierre Hutsebaut as a coach and director of the performance lab at PeakCentre in Montreal.
