put a drinks bottle on his bike when he rode for pleasure. He had spent too many years racing as a professional with no chance to stop and look around or to meet people, he told the historian Jean-Paul Ollivier on French television. If he had no water on his bike but a few euros in his pocket, he could stop and buy a drink at any bar he fancied and get into conversation with whomever he met. He became a member of Les Amis de Paris–Roubaix, enthusiasts and workers for the spring classic. It was Stablinski who suggested the cobbled path through the Arenberg forest. His qualifications were impeccable: as a miner he had worked beneath the road and as a cyclist he had ridden along it. He died after a long illness. On 7 April 2008 he was remembered by a memorial beside the Wallers-Arenberg road he had introduced to Paris–Roubaix. The memorial was made in blue limestone from Soignies by the sculptor Michel Karpovitch. The Velodrome Couvert Regional Jean-Stablinski in Roubaix is named after him. Major results 1954 1st Paris–Bourges 1956 1st Tour du Sud-Est 1957 1st Stage 12 Tour de France 1958 1st Overall Vuelta a España 1st Stages 5a (TTT) & 8 1960 1st Road race, National Road Championships 1st Stage 13 Giro d'Italia 1961 1st Stage 7 Tour de France 1962 1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships 1st Road race, National Road Championships 1st Stage 14 Tour de France 1st Stage 11 Vuelta a España 1963 1st Road race, National Road Championships 1st Paris–Brussels 1st Stage 10 Vuelta a España 1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1964 1st Road race, National Road Championships 1st Stage 21 Tour de France 1965 1st Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Rund um den Henninger-Turm 1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Jacques Anquetil) 1st Stage 4 Grand Prix du Midi Libre 1966 1st Amstel Gold Race 1967 1st Stage 19 Tour de France 1st Stage 8 Giro d'Italia 1968 1st Grand Prix de Denain References External links Official Tour de France results for Jean Stablinski 1932 births 2007 deaths French male cyclists French Tour de France stage winners French people of Polish descent Vuelta a España winners French Vuelta a España stage winners French Giro d'Italia stage winners UCI Road World Champions (elite men) Sportspeople from Valenciennes Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite Cyclists from Hauts-de-France