经济学人逝者 || 职业自行车手雷蒙德·普利多

Gloriously second

荣耀的第二名

Obituary: Raymond Poulidor

讣告：雷蒙德·普利多

Gloriously second

荣耀的第二名

Raymond Poulidor, cyclist, died on November 13th, aged 83

职业自行车手雷蒙德·普利多，于11月13日去世，享年83岁。

Eight times Raymond Poulidor stood on the podium at the end of the Tour de France, soaked in sweat, exhausted and smiling his big gap-toothed smile. He was just never on the top step. In 14 Tours someone else always pipped him or, to be honest, passed him by quite a lot. He came second three times, third five times (including in his last tour, not bad for a 40-year-old), but never put on the treasured yellow jersey, the greatest prize in cycling. The closest he came to that was when winners offered to let him wear it at dinner parties, and he would shrug his big frame into it with no bitterness at all. Because, with or without it, “L’Eternel Second” was by far the most popular racing cyclist ever known in France.

雷蒙德·普利多曾八次站上环法自行车赛终点的领奖台——大汗淋漓、精疲力尽，咧嘴大笑露出大牙缝。他只是从未站到最高领奖台。在他参与的14次环法赛里，总有人以微弱优势战胜他，又或者——坦白说——远远领先于他。他获得过3次亚军、5次季军（其中包括他的最后一次环赛，对40岁的选手来说这个成绩不赖），但却从未披上象征自行车赛事至上荣誉的黄色领骑衫。他离黄色领骑衫最近的时候，是在赛后庆功宴上冠军让他穿上它。这时他会不在意地将自己壮硕的身体套进衣服里，没有丝毫埋怨。因为，无论有没有黄色领骑衫，这位“永远的第二名（千年老二）”都是迄今为止在法国最受欢迎的自行车手。

His catalogue of mishaps in the Tour was long. In 1962, when he came third, he had a broken finger. In 1964, when he came second, he lost time at Monaco and had a puncture in the Pyrenees. In 1965, Italian riders ganged up on him. In 1967 he fell badly in the Vosges, and in 1968 he was hit by a motorbike. The race in 1973 began with his nearest chance, when he was behind by a mere 0.8 seconds in the Prologue, but he later fell down a ravine. In 1975, his worst Tour, when he came 19th, he had bronchitis. Something always came between him and the glory of the maillot jaune. And all Frenchmen and women who had ever repeatedly tried, and failed, to achieve some goal took him to their hearts accordingly. He was “Pouli” and “Poupou” (a stupid name, but he put up with it), carried aloft on a sea of poupoularité.

在环法赛场上，他厄运不断。1962年，他获得了季军，期间断了一根手指。1964年，他获得了亚军，途中在摩纳哥赛段耽误了时间，在比利牛斯山扎破了轮胎。1965年，意大利车手联合对抗他。1967年，他在佛日山严重摔伤。1968年，他被摩托车撞倒。1973年的开局是他夺冠的最佳机会，序幕赛他仅落后第一名0.8秒，但他后来跌入山谷。1975年是他最糟糕的一次环法，最终获得19名，那次他患上了支气管炎。冥冥之中总有一种力量挡在他和黄色领骑衫荣耀之间。而所有那些曾为达成某个目标数次尝试又数次失败的法国男男女女因此非常喜欢他。他是“普利”和“普普”（是个幼稚的名字，但他能够忍受）。他的“普普拥趸（poupoularité）”众多，风光无两。

They called him unlucky. He did not agree. He thought he had had a lot of luck, in fact. Over a 18-year career he had chalked up 189 victories in other races, including the Vuelta a España, his only Grand Tour, La Flèche Wallonne, the French national championship and the Paris-Nice (twice) against the great Belgian Eddy Merckx. He also won the Milan-San Remo, though true to form it almost slipped away when he got a puncture 125km from the finish and, on the final corner, was sent the wrong way by a policeman. Yet he held off the chasing field and won, by three seconds.

他们称他不走运，他不同意。他认为其实他好运多多。在18年的职业生涯中，他虽未能称雄环法，却在其他赛事里斩获189项桂冠，包括环西班牙自行车赛（他唯一的环赛冠军）、瓦隆之箭、法国国家锦标赛和巴黎-尼斯自行车赛（他曾战胜伟大的比利时车手艾迪·莫克斯两获冠军）。他也赢下过米兰-圣雷莫赛，尽管一如既往地差点和冠军失之交臂：他在距离终点125公里处扎破了轮胎，又在最后一个转弯处被警察指错了方向。然而，他击败了所有追赶的选手，最终以3秒的优势赢得了比赛。

He was also lucky, to his mind, to be cycling at all. The alternative was to be labouring, like his parents, on the rocky hills of Creuse, trying to make the bad soil yield enough to get bread for the table and rent in the landlord’s wallet. He had left school at 14, like his three brothers, prepared to toil, but also aware that his best times were when he was racing his bike between the villages on fair-days or speeding round the hills with his brothers, for all the world like one of the grim sleek riders in Miroir-Sprint magazine. He could never be called sleek, more cuddly, and after his service militairein Algeria pretty fat, but he shook off the weight and became a professional cyclist in 1960, when he was 24.

在雷蒙德·普利多看来，他能骑自行车本身就是一种幸运。另一种选择是像他的父母一样，在克勒兹岩石林立的山间艰苦劳动，努力使贫瘠的土壤产出足够的粮食，来填饱肚子、填塞土地租主的钱包。他在14岁辍学——跟他的三个兄弟一样，打算日后去田地里劳作，但他也意识到，自己最快乐的时光是在赶集的日子里，骑着自行车在村子间飞快穿行，或者与兄弟们一起在山间飞驰，完全就像是《疾速通鉴（Miroir-Sprint）》杂志上冷酷又线条优美的车手。他无论如何都谈不上线条优美，更应该说柔软好抱，并且在阿尔及利亚服完兵役后更是胖了不少。但他后来甩掉体重，在1960年他24岁时成为了职业自行车手。

What he did not shake off, but made much of, were his peasant roots. Between races he went back to help on the farm, and his style of cycling—dogged and determined on hills, a bit too leisurely on the time trials—owed something to farm work, too. With his lined, wind-burned face and slow Limousin drawl, he reminded his followers of the old ways, la France profonde and all kinds of comforting verities that had been pushed aside by modern life. He kept a peasant’s innocence, and in 1966 got into deep merde with his colleagues for agreeing to a newfangled drugs test which they were all refusing. But he also kept a shrewd business head on his shoulders. He knew the value of a franc, ever since he and his brothers had broken their bedroom window and been told, by their father, that there would be no money to mend it until the spring.

他没有甩掉的——相反还善加运用的——是他的农民出身。比赛间隙，他会回到农田里帮忙。他在山地赛中果决顽强，在计时赛中又有点过于悠闲，这种骑车风格也是农田劳作对他的影响。他那沟壑纵横、历经风霜的脸庞，慢吞吞的利穆赞腔说话风格，都让追随者想起昔日的时光、“法国深乡（la France profonde）”和各式各样被现代生活推至一旁的抚慰人心的生活真谛。他保持着农民的质朴纯良，在1966年与同事产生嫌隙，因为他同意进行新型药品测试，而其他人都拒绝。然而他肩膀上的脑袋也相当精明。自从他和兄弟打破卧室窗户，而父亲说要来年春天才有钱修理，他就理解了一法郎的价值。

It was therefore oddly satisfying that his great rival, Jacques Anquetil, was everything he was not: a well-off, pale-faced, blond-quiffed, almost ghostly Norman, withdrawn and unflamboyant. Anquetil won the Tour five times, yet to his fury the French still loved Poupou more. The depth of their duelling was witnessed by half a million spectators when, in 1964, they battled up the Puy de Dôme in Auvergne side by side, Anquetil on the mountain side and Poupou on the precipice edge, so close that their elbows knocked and Poupou could feel the hot breath of “Maître Jacques” on his arms. He gained 42 seconds over him; it was not enough to win the Tour. But he did not mind too much, as he never did.

因此，他那伟大的竞争对手雅克·安克蒂尔和他完全不同，这一点令人感到异常顺意合理。安克蒂尔是一个家境富裕、脸色苍白、金发飞机头、像鬼魄一样的诺曼人，沉默寡言、不喜浮夸。安克蒂尔曾5次赢得环法自行车赛冠军，然而令他愤怒的是，法国人仍然更爱普普。有50万名观众目睹了他俩在1964年的那场深度对决。当时他们在奥弗涅的多姆山赛段紧追不舍，山峰一侧的安克蒂尔和悬崖边缘的普普挨得如此之近，以至于彼此肘部相撞。普普胳膊上可以感受到这位“雅克师傅（Maître Jacques）”呼出的热气。他在这一赛段赢了安克蒂尔42秒，但还不足以赢下整个环赛。不过他也不太在意，他从来都不在意。

注释：

Maître Jacques：原为莫里哀喜剧《吝啬鬼》中厨师兼马车夫的角色。

One reason to be relaxed was that he was making a lot of money—more even than Anquetil, some said. From the start he had been astonished at what cyclists earned. His first prize, 80,000 old francs for coming second, would have taken him six years to get by farming (or substantially less time at the poker table, where he was a skilled bluffer). The more Tours he lost, the more the crowds liked him and the more he earned. At the height of his celebrity, in the mid-1970s, almost half of respondents to one poll made him their first choice as a dinner guest. In 1974 alone more than 4,000 articles were written about him, besides university theses and sociological studies. He lent his name to sports bikes, and given half a chance would stand in supermarkets shouting “Just the right bike for you, sir!” Later, as a national treasure, he had a rose named after him, and appeared along the route of the Tour in yellow outfits and with trinkets in his hands, cheered by all who saw him.

他心态放松的一个原因是他收入不菲，有说甚至比安克蒂尔都多。从一开始他就惊讶于自行车手丰厚的收入。他的第一笔奖金——夺得第二名获得的8万旧法郎，是他种田6年才能挣到的收入（又或者，在牌桌上他可以大大缩短这个时间，毕竟他打牌很牛）。他输掉的环法赛事越多，人们越喜欢他，而他挣得也越多。上个世纪70年代中期他名气最大的时候，在一项民意调查中，几乎半数的受访者都把他列为晚餐座上宾的第一选择。单单1974这一年就有4000多篇文章是关于他的，这还不包括大学论文和社会研究。他把自己的名字借给运动自行车命名使用，只要有机会就会站在超市里面大喊：“先生，这台车，你值得拥有！”后来，作为法国国宝的他，有了以他名字命名的玫瑰，也会穿着一身黄、手里拿着些小物件出现在环法赛道沿线，他所到之处，人们无不为他欢呼。

This adulation came not simply because he failed, but because of the manner of his failing. He did not get up each morning with the thought of winning. He did not think of winning at all. His manager complained that he was always in a daydream, and it was true. Everything that was happening to him was marvellous enough. His memoir was called “La gloire sans maillot jaune”, glory without the jersey, which in the end he didn’t need. Eight times he had got within touching distance, and lost them all. But he could still say, as he often did, “Look how close I came!”

这份厚爱并不仅仅因为他失败了，而是因为他失败的姿态。他并不会每天早上起床满脑子想着赢。他压根不去想我要赢这回事。他的经纪人抱怨说，他天天就跟做白日梦似的。也确实如此。发生在他身上的一切真的有够不可思议。他的自传叫做《没有黄色领骑衫的荣耀》。而最终，他也不需要黄色领骑衫了。他曾经八次和冠军仅仅一步之遥，但他全都输了。而他仍会说，就像他经常说的那样：“看呀，我离冠军多近！”

翻译组：

Alex，不务正业的理工男