How to Wear a Cycling Cap: Charly Mottet

Mottet wore his cycling caps in classic, confident style - perched atop his head.

Charly Mottet, of France, started his professional career with the Renault team in 1983, at the age of twenty-one years, and began winning almost immediately. In 1984 he won both the Tour de l'Avenir and the Young Rider Classification at the Giro d'Italia. His eleven years as a pro included three stage wins in the Tour de France, two at the Vuelta a Espana, and one at the Giro. The Criterium du Dauphine Libere, which he won three times (1987, 1989 and 1992), Tour du Haut Var (1985), the Giro di Lombardia (1988), Giro del Lazio (1988), Four Days of Dunkirk (1989), Zuri- Metzgete (1990), the Tour de Romandie (1990),  Classique des Alpes (1991), Tour de Mediterraneen, Route de Sud are among the creme of his extensive palmares. Mottet was concurrently successful on the track as well, taking wins at the Six Days of Grenoble (1987 with Bernard Vallet, 1988 with Roman Hermann) and the Six Days of Paris (1989) with Etienne de Wilde). I still like watching Mottet race on some of my Tour de France videos, from the late 80s / early 90s, when he was especially active on the mountain stages.

Mottet is widely regarded as being amongst the few racers at the top of the sport who raced clean during that era. The now infamous Willy Voegt, caught with a car full of PEDs during the 1998 Tour, said of Mottet - "Charly never had the career that he deserved", the implication being that had the playing field been level Mottet's palmares would have been even more stellar that it already is.