In 1959 he was closest to winning the Tour de France, when he won a stage and finished second, 4:01 behind Federico Bahamontes.

Henry Anglade was born in Thionville, in the Lorraine region of France close to the German border, the son of a soldier.

In 1959, he won the Dauphiné Libéré, a mountainous stage race over a week; then the national road championship.

They preferred to see Bahamontes take the Tour de France rather than Anglade, who was unpopular among French riders and, had he won the Tour de France, would have earned more than Anquetil and Rivière in the post-Tour criteriums that were then an important part of riders' incomes.

[6] At the stage finish in Grenoble, Dousset was there to meet Fausto Coppi, who was Bahamontes' sponsor, and the riders in the national team whom he represented.

Émile Besson wrote in L'Humanité: "Dousset offered contracts for criteriums by the shovel load for after the Tour of Spain.

"[6][7] Fans worked out what was going on and Anquetil was whistled and jeered as he entered the Parc des Princes on the last day.

Anglade joined the Pelforth-Sauvage-Lejeune in 1963 and finished the next year's Tour de France in fourth place, behind Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor and Bahamontes.

He had barely crossed the line when he was passed by Jean Forestier and René Privat, who had also broken away and were sprinting for second place.

He said: Anglade was in the French national jersey when the race stopped unexpectedly at Colombey-les-deux-Églises to greet Charles de Gaulle, the president, in his village.

[citation needed] Anglade's downhill race with Gastone Nencini has become part of the legend of cycling.

It was in trying to follow Nencini down a mountain that Roger Rivière missed a bend, crashed over a wall and broke his spine.

In 1967, in the concern about doping that followed the death of Tom Simpson in the Tour four months earlier, Anglade said: "I've driven 4,000km in three days, I've ridden 400km of race with only six hours in bed.

He said: Anglade left cycling on 13 September to work for the Olympia-Werke typewriter company with one of his cousins.

He wanted no more to do with cycling until, in 1975, the Lejeune brothers who ran a bike factory in Paris and sponsored a team invited him to join.