Let's try to remember the context here, folks. OP said
when posting this photo in the Retro Thread that "people were making a fuss of him".
No disrespect to Martin Earley or any of the other guys we tried out for size here, but none of our suggestions except perhaps for Caritoux at an outside bet would be known widely enough for people to get excited about.
That's why I threw it open to a non-cyclist Frenchman, to ask him if he recognised the guy as some sort of known figure in French culture and/or society who would be at the Tour on a VIP ticket and recognised by a fairly broad public. My colleague didn't know him and he's obviously very much
au fait with Frenchness, so our man
is probably from cycling.
So whoever he is, and he's still nagging at me, let's remember that he must be relatively famous.
