Made in Britain, raced to victory in France: Laurent Fignon's iconic Raleigh

Laurent Fignon’s nickname Le Professeur was both a reference to the Parsian’s bespectacled appearance and his brief stint at the University of Villetaneuse where he studied Structural and Material Science.

The Frenchman however was destined for the peloton and went on to win the Tour de France on two occasions. So it’s perhaps fitting that his most famous bike, the Raleigh he rode at the Castorama-Raleigh team, is full of technical wizardry that pushed the boundaries of bicycle frame construction.

This bike, part of Dave Marsh’s collection, was one of Fignon’s, proven by his initials stamped under the bottom bracket shell. The fork steerer is stamped with ‘L. Fignon’.

The frameset was built under the leadership of Gerald O’Donovan, who lead the Special Development Unit of the Lightweight Division at Raleigh HQ in Nottingham. Made using Reynolds 753 tubing, it eschewed brazing, instead relying on adhesives with the tubes bonded together using alloy lugs.

Built to the specification of Castorama’s Team Principal Cyrille Guimard, Raleigh would eventually name the process Dyna Tech. These frames gained a reputation for being stiff but ultimately unreliable, with the bonded lugs, at times, coming apart.

The accompanying groupset, Campagnolo C-Record, is rather apt. Like the Dyna Tech frame the featured Delta brakes were also short lived, cutting edge tech that burned brightly then quickly fizzled out due to reliability issues. The Record groupset extends to the small flange quick release hubs that are laced to Wolber 20mm Sprint rims shod with the French brand’s ‘Tubeless 22’ tubular tyres.

Other components of note include the ITM Super Italia Pro 260 Racing bars and stem and the Selle Italia Turbo saddle. When it came to pedals however Fignon relied on clipless models from his home country; here it’s a pair from Look, although later in his career he moved to using Time models.