David Lappartient announced last week that he will not seek reelection for a third term at the head of the French Cycling Federation (FFC) in order to focus on his international duties as president of the European Cycling Union (UEC), president of the Professional Cycling Council (CCP) and vice-president of the UCI. Though he’s yet to decide or announce that he’ll challenge Brian Cookson for the presidency of the UCI in Bergen, Norway, on September 2017, many observers of the cycling world see him as a UCI president in the making. Who is he really?
Born in the hotbed of French cycling
Aged 43, Lappartient hails from Brittany, the hotbed of French cycling that has produced four Tour de France winners (Lucien Petit-Breton, Jean Robic, Louison Bobet and Bernard Hinault) but, interestingly, no president of the FFC before him. He comes from a cycling family of riders, race organisers, and referees. His younger brother Jérôme is a UCI commissaire. He himself raced, became a Tour de France time keeper at the age of 24 when he represented the young cyclists (U26) on the board of the FFC and presided over the cycling club Vélo Club de Rhuys from 1997 to 2007. Since 2006, he has organised the UCI 1.1 Grand Prix de Plumelec. He’s a land surveyor engineer who founded his own company before entering politics as a member of liberal party UMP. He has been the mayor of Sarzeau since 2008, provincial councillor of the Morbihan since 2011, and president of the natural park of the gulf of Morbihan since 2015. He’s married with three children.
Never lost an election
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Lappartient is a political machine. Every time he has been a candidate for an election, he has won, whether for the Breton cycling committee, the FFC, or local politics. His first run to the municipality of Sarzeau was a tight victory, but six years later he collected 71.31 per cent of the vote for his reelection. In February 2009, he became the FFC president, beating Michel Callot and legendary sports director Cyrille Guimard with 56.1 per cent of the vote, but four years later he was reappointed with 86.89 per cent in his favour and no one to challenge him. In March 2013, he was opposed for the presidency of the UEC by Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix winner Andreï Tchmil, who was the president of the Moldovan cycling federation. He won with 73.91 per cent of the vote. That year, he was touted to challenge Pat McQuaid as UCI president but convinced Brian Cookson to run instead. He has since become an opponent to the Englishman but he might not go against him until he’s sure to have enough supporters among the voters.
What has he done for French cycling?
He led the project of the Centre National du Cyclisme in the south west of Paris, which includes the FFC headquarters, a BMX track, and the velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines that was built between 2011 and 2014 and that hosted the 2015 Track World Championships. Under his presidency, France collected 169 World and European titles across all disciplines, as well as 385 medals. In road cycling, France went from fourteenth in the UCI rankings in 2008 to return as the number one nation this year. In the same period, the number of licensees increased by 15.08 per cent. He reduced the financial deficit of the FFC from 1,597,000 euros when he succeeded Jean Pitallier to 147,000 euros last year. He also modified the governance of the FFC with a parliament for large debates and an executive committee for urgent decisions.
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