lit a candle 14h agoRead that 2024 interview where he said they finished only a few tenths behind Italy's gold. That's the whole story of a life right there, so close and still enough.
Their story
René Bianchi was a French track and road cyclist who won silver in the team pursuit at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and later became a familiar figure in Champagne cycling circles. Born on 20 May 1934 in Conflans-sur-Seine in the Marne, he died on 13 September 2026 in Romilly-sur-Seine…
René Bianchi was a French track and road cyclist who won silver in the team pursuit at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and later became a familiar figure in Champagne cycling circles. Born on 20 May 1934 in Conflans-sur-Seine in the Marne, he died on 13 September 2026 in Romilly-sur-Seine in the Aube, aged 92.
Bianchi raced for Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt and later for Union Vélocycliste de l'Aube. As an amateur he collected regional titles on the track, finishing second in the Île-de-France pursuit championship in 1958 and winning the French amateur individual pursuit title in 1959. On the road he won Paris-Rouen and the French SNCF championship in 1955, and in 1957 he was runner-up in the French military road championship. Those results marked him as one of the stronger pursuit specialists of his generation in eastern France.
His Olympic selection for Melbourne in 1956 arrived, he later recalled, by radio. With teammates Michel Vermeulin, Jean Graczyk and Jean-Claude Lecante he rode the men's team pursuit, taking silver behind Italy by only a few tenths of a second. In a 2024 interview with L'Est éclair he remembered the long journey to Australia, Vermeulin's fatigue after also contesting the road race, and Lecante dropping near the finish as France settled for second. The silver-medal quartet was later received by President René Coty, a moment Bianchi's hometown papers still cited decades afterward as the high point of a career rooted in club racing rather than Grand Tour celebrity.
In 1960 Bianchi joined the professional Peugeot-BP-Dunlop team alongside riders such as Stéphane Lach and Raymond Plaza. Balancing training with his work as an SNCF train driver proved difficult, and he left competition at 27 with a strong amateur and Olympic record behind him. Locally he remained part of the sporting fabric of Romilly-sur-Seine; the municipal sports office awarded him an honour trophy at its 2014 ceremony, recognising a life that had linked Olympic glory to everyday regional sport.
A death notice published by L'Est éclair named his children, grandchildren and brother among the mourners and confirmed cremation at Romilly-sur-Seine on 18 September 2026, with burial the same day at the cemetery in Conflans-sur-Seine. The same paper's tribute remembered an Olympic medallist who had learned of his Melbourne call-up on the radio and who never lost his place in Champagne cycling memory.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (EN/FR, CC BY-SA 4.0); Olympedia; L'Est éclair tribute and death notice (Sep 2026). Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“Le temps était pris sur le troisième. Vermeulin était un peu fatigué parce qu'il avait disputé, lors de la même olympiade, la course sur route. Lecante avait lâché en fin de poursuite. On avait terminé à la deuxième place, à quelques dixièmes seulement de la médaille d'or, remportée par l'Italie.”
René Bianchi recalling the Melbourne 1956 team pursuit, interview with L'Est éclair, 2024 (quoted in 2026 tribute)
Photos
2René Bianchi
by People Forever
French team pursuit silver medallists at Melbourne 1956: Michel Vermeulin, Jean Graczyk, Jean-Claude Lecante and René Bianchi
by People Forever
From social media
3Posts by René, and posts about them, kept here so they are not lost.