The family of French cyclist Guy Lapébie has confirmed his death at the age of 93 today. The Olympic champion, who won two gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Games, had been battling illness since last November. He died in southwest France at Saint-Gaudens hospital.
Lapébie took gold in the team pursuit and the team road race in Berlin, but was bitterly disappointed when he had to settle for silver behind compatriot Robert Charpentier in the individual road race.
"It was a drama, I was inconsolable," he told AFP in 2006. "I always carried the disappointment with me." Charpentier's victory came as a shock to Lapébie, as he was a man that he had regularly beaten.
The team road race in the Olympics was run similar to the teams classification in a stage race. The event consisted of adding up team placements or times from the individual road race. It was dropped from the program in 1960 and replaced by the 100 kilometer team time trial, which was then replaced by the individual time trial after the 1992 Games.
Lapébie was an accomplished six-day racer winning six times with three different partners. On the road his biggest years were in 1948 and 1949, where he finished third overall in the Tour de France (1948) and won a stage in the race both years. His brother Roger was the Tour de France champion in 1937.