Icons of cycling: Saint Raphaël

The almighty Saint Raphaël team swept all before them during the 1950s and 1960s and their legacy casts a long sartorial shadow today, writes Giles Belbin

Rudi Altig (left) and Jacques Anquetil at the 1962 Tour de France. Photo: Roger Viollet/REX/Shutterstock

The story of the Saint Raphaël cycling team starts late at night in a medical laboratory in 1830’s France. Of course it does. What could be more obvious?

It was there that the Saint Raphaël drink, an aperitif with medicinal qualities, was invented by a Doctor Juppet. The story goes that Juppet’s sight was failing as he was working on a herbal tonic late at night.

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