(pictured at the 1966 Tour de France) spent his whole professional career with Mercier. was the main sponsor of the team from at least 1935 on until 1969. From 1946 on, the team wore a purple jersey which in 1950 became the characteristic purple jersey with yellow neck and cuff lining which was to stay with the team until Mercier was no longer the main sponsor of the team in 1969. From 1935 the team had as second sponsor Hutchinson and was the Mercier-Hutchinson team. From 1956 the team was known as Mercier-BP-Hutchinson which it would continue as until 1969 after which the sponsor Mercier became the second sponsor of the team. Two-time
Tour de France champion and 1936 World Champion
Antonin Magne finished his career with the Mercier-Hutchinson team in 1941. Around ten years later in 1953, Magne was the main
directeur sportif of the team and he would guide the team up until 1970 when the name of the team changed to Fagor-Mercier. Magne guided the team during many successful years. Frenchman
Louison Bobet was part of the team in 1955 when he won
Tour of Flanders but at this time the
Tour de France was disputed by national teams so Mercier did not have the opportunity to ride the Tour as a team. Nevertheless, riders of the team won the Tour in 1937 and 1955. Despite being on the team, it appears that Louison Bobet did not wear the
Mercier-BP-Hutchinson jersey but a
Bobet-BP-Hutchinson jersey. This happened during several races and was common practice at the time as can be seen with other sponsors names that took the place of Mercier for example-
A. Leducq,
A, Magne,
F.Pelissier,
Le Greves and
M.Archambaud. Examples of the different jerseys can be found on the French website memoire du cyclisme. In this way Bobet was part of the Magne directed Mercier team but he rode his own mark of racing bicycles –
Louison Bobet bicycles and his teams are listed as from 1955 to 1960 as
Bobet-BP-Hutchinson. After Bobet had left the team, Magne directed Frenchman
Raymond Poulidor who challenged
Jacques Anquetil in the
Tour de France but also won many other races including
Milan–San Remo and the 1964
Vuelta a España. After his Vuelta win, Poulidor famously battled Anquetil during the
1964 Tour de France and ended the race second overall, 55 seconds behind Anquetil. It was in the purple Mercier jersey with the yellow sleeves that Poulidor battled Anquetil elbow to elbow on the
Puy-de-Dôme mountain. Although Poulidor did not win the
Tour de France he was more popular than Anquetil with the fans. Poulidor stayed with the Mercier cycling team for his whole career. After 1969, Mercier became the second sponsor of the team with the Spanish appliances manufacturer
Fagor became the main sponsor of the team for two years making the Fagor-Mercier-Hutchinson team. Gan became the main sponsor of the team in 1973 making the Gan-Mercier-Hutchinson team which continued until 1976. During this time,
Cyrille Guimard emerged as a contender for
stage races, winning the
Points classification in the
Vuelta a España and leading the competition and sitting second overall in the
1972 Tour de France until the second last day when he was forced to retire with an injury. In that race, Guimard's teammate and the ever-consistent Poulidor finished the race third overall. Guimard's persistent injury affected his career and lead him to early retirement whereas Poulidor continued to perform at the top winning
Paris–Nice in 1972 ahead of
Merckx and in 1973 ahead of
Joop Zoetemelk and Merckx. Poulidor finished the
1974 Tour de France second overall and his final Tour, the
1976 Tour de France in third place.
Joop Zoetemelk joined the team in 1974 and stayed with the team until 1980, winning
Paris–Nice in 1974, 1975 and 1979 as well as the 1979
Vuelta a España. Zoetemelk challenged
Bernard Hinault in the
Tour de France in 1978 and 1979, wearing the yellow jersey as leader of the
general classification in both editions. In 1980, Zoetemelk changed teams to the
TI–Raleigh squad where he won the
Tour, and then returned to Mercier in 1982. From 1977 until 1982, Miko were the main sponsor making them the Miko-Mercier-Vivagel team, and for the final two years of the team, during 1982 and 1983, COOP was the other major sponsor making them the COOP-Mercier team. ==Major wins==