Raymond Riotte has died at the age of 86. He had a career in two parts, a blazing debut and then seven years of more patient work as domestique to many top names.Born in 1940 to parents who were farm workers near Chablis in Frances Yonne department, Riotte was one of eight children. He wasnt interested in cycling at first, preferring football where he was a goalscorer for FC Chtel-Grard. France had compulsory military service and at the age of 19 Riotte was sent to Algeria, then a French colony, where he spent 28 months. Not knowing anyone on his arrival at camp, he found an ally from Le Creusot, a town the other side of the Morvan hills. This friend lent him his bike he told his local newspaper Le Journal du Centre and he got a taste for cycling.On return from Algeria, at the age of 22 he took out a racing licence and thrived. Starting out as a fourth category rider he moved up a level each year and by 1965 he was the amateur champion of Burgundy and earning good prize money most weekends. Sometimes professionals raced the local criteriums but there was a clash, the pros wanting to top-up meagre wages while for locals these were our Worlds, we wanted to impress the pros Riotte told Le Journal du Centre.During the Ronde de Seignelay in 1966, Riottes local race but also staged as a post-Tour de France criterium, Jean Stablinksi, captain of the Ford team that had just won the Tour de France pleaded to Riotte to stop showing up the pros. Accounts of this from Riotte vary across outlets but the synthesis is Stab noted Riotte might be earning cash but he was having to pay his own expenses when it came to kit and the Ford captain said something mid-race to the effect of leave us alone and youll get your own material. Riotte said he thought the remark would be forgotten once the race was over but he was suddenly offered a pro contract. Only it was 500 Francs [NB: per month, 725 in todays money] and I could get that in my local races in two weekends he told LEquipe in 2015. He turned down the offer.In the following spring Riotte won another local race in Nevers against pros and while the Ford team had become Bic that year it still wanted to recruit Riotte. Team manager Raphal Geminiani gave him an ultimatum: sign or we wont ask a third time. Riotte agreed and turned pro in the spring of 1967 for Bic team, joining the likes of Jacques Anquetil, Lucian Aimar, Julio Jiminez, Jean Graczyk, Vic Denson and especially Jean Stablinski. The two became good friends, one the son of miners, the other from farming. He may only have earned 500 Francs to start with but everything would change soon.He proved helpful in the classics, rode the Vuelta and come the summer won a stage of the GP du Midi-Libre, a now-defunct stage race before the Tour de France that was as important as the Dauphin. That summers Tour de France changed format and was ridden by national teams. Jacques Anquetil opted not to ride but team manager Marcel Bidot was still spoilt for choice with the likes of 1966 Tour winner Lucien Aimar, Raymond Poulidor and Roger Pingeon. Bidot had Stablinski as a road captain and he lobbied to bring Riotte. It may not have been an easy conversation to pick a rider who had turned pro just three months ago but Riotte had impressed in a short time and was hired to work as a domestique.On Stage 5 of the Tour de France the Tour was racing on the roads near Roubaix that were home to Stablinski and mid-stage he spotted Riotte and Pingeon lurking at the back of the peloton. Take Pingeon to the front right away ordered Stablinski and as they moved up a breakaway was going clear so Riotte sprinted to join it, towing Pingeon across. It was the right move and Pingeon was in yellow that evening and Riotte in green. Things were only going to get better.On Stage 7 to Strasbourg Riotte got in the breakaway only to get beaten in the finish by Michael Wright, a British rider but whod grown up in Lige and barely spoke English, he was seemingly in cahoots with Belgian rider Georges Van den Berghe who had grabbed Riottes jersey before the final corner to slow Riotte. This act of European co-operation in Strasbourg enraged Riotte who was fuming at the finish. Only for TV reporter Robert Chapatte to stun him by telling him hed got the yellow jersey.It was only for a day because the next stage was in the Vosges mountains and Riotte was adrift to the point of being worried about being eliminated from the race while wearing yellow. He finished and saw team mate Aimar take the race lead, as LEquipe said at the time it was impressive for a neo-pro who three weeks before did not dream of wearing the French tricolore jersey, let alone yellow.If only for a day it was special as Riotte made a name for himself, he even got a telegram from his local member of parliament, Franois Mitterand. This made him the darling of that years race, a feat heightened when he won the stage to Marseille. As the conclusion team mate Roger Pingeon won the race overall.The Tour over, Riotte went back the series of criteriums and exhibition races to earn his fill, the decision to take an effective pay cut to turn pro paying for itself many times over now as he earned enough in a few months to build a large home in Noyers-sur-Serein close to where he was born. The team tripled his pay too.The article above headlines that theres a lot to expect from Riottes return to the Tour de France in 1968 but as dramatic as Riottes first Tour proved, he was picked by Bidot to be a helper. It was this role that he took on for the rest of his career, riding in the service of Raymond Poulidor and Bernard Thvenet but just as Eddy Merckx was monopolising the scene. He rode the Tour de France seven more times. In his own words he was a model team mate rather than a winner and this self-description did not come across as a boast either.Riotte proved to be as much a roublard as a rouleur, a crafty type. He was adept at brokering alliances on the road between teams when there was a shared interest in the moment to chase or block others. Coming from Chablis, he would give out cases of white wine to the moto riders in the Tour de France, notionally to promote his home region but hoping they might repay the favour if he ever needed it on the road.He was a fixture at local races in retirement, on hand to hand out prizes and even design courses.In retirement hed keep up with former team mates, especially Poulidor, the eternal second who had never worn yellow. It meant if Poulidor visited then he had to see Riottes yellow jersey each time as had it framed and mounted inside a rim which hung in the hallway at home. At times it was as if Riotte had changed names because he was Riotte maillot jaune this and maillot jaune Riotte that. If he only wore yellow for a day it was also for a lifetime and will always be so.The post Raymond Riotte Obituary first appeared on The Inner Ring.