Sad news less than two weeks before the Tour de France. François Migraine, at the origin of the Cofidis team, died at the age of 79.
French cycling mourns one of its own. According to the Cyclism’Actu website, François Migraine, founding father of the Cofidis team, died after being urgently hospitalized last week. The former manager of Cofidis was 79 years old.
The man who was the CEO of the Cofidis company for a long time was at the origin of the creation of the eponymous team in 1996, indirectly heir to the Castorama, Super U and Renault-Gitane teams. The French team had hit hard from the start since it had managed to attract renowned runners including Tony Rominger, Maurizio Fondriest and… Lance Armstrong, who quickly fell victim to testicular cancer.
“Our relationship, for medical reasons, very quickly aborted. Our company, Cofidis, entered professional cycling in January 1997. Four months earlier, everything was still to be built. As we were looking for a leader, our sports director at the time, Cyrille Guimard, put us on the trail of Lance Armstrong. So I went to see him in Spain. We quickly came to an agreement. We signed together in mid-September,” he told Le Monde about the Texan, mentioning a two-year contract and a salary of 6 million francs per year.
A true lover of cycling despite doping cases
Subsequently, Cyrille Guimard would leave and make way for Bernard Quilfen. Philippe Gaumont, Bobby Julich, third in Tour 98, Christophe Rinero and Frank Vandenbroucke, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, David Moncoutié or Stuart O’Grady. But several doping scandals would break out. “We know that there are cheaters in the Tour de France. They must be eliminated”then dares François Migraine.
However, the boss of Cofidis, still present at the team’s presentation last fall even though he left office more than a decade ago, never wanted to leave cycling, emphasizing that the notoriety of the brand went from 2% to 34% in ten years.
But François Migraine was a true cycling enthusiast. So much so that after his departure from Cofidis, he did not hesitate to take care of track events for young people.
