Armand De Las Cuevas dies aged 50

Former Critérium du Dauphiné and French road champion Armand De Las Cuevas has died at the age of 50, the National Union of Professional Cyclists (UNCP) announced on Friday.

De Las Cuevas died on the French island of Reunion, where he had lived for more than a decade following his retirement from professional cycling.

Originally from Troyes in Northeast France, De Las Cuevas grew up on the Bordeaux region. He began his professional racing career with the Spanish Reynolds team (now Movistar) and spent five seasons with them, racing under the name Banesto for much of that period.

During that time, he won the French national road race title in 1991, beating Thierry Claveyrolat, and won the GP Ouest-France and stages of the Tour de Romandie and Paris-Nice. He rode the 1992 Tour de France, which was won by his teammate Miguel Indurain.

He left Banesto midway through the 1993 season and moved to the French Castorama squad, where he would subsequently stay for two full seasons. With Castorama, De Las Cuevas would enjoy some of the biggest wins of his career with victory in the Giro d'Italia prologue and the Clásica San Sebastián title, plus Paris-Camembert and a prologue win at the Tour de Romandie.

A year at the Casino team followed before he returned to Banesto for the 1997 and 1998 seasons. His final season came in 1999 and rode for Amica Chips-Costa de Almeria. De Las Cuevas’ final major win came at the 1998 Critérium du Dauphiné. He retired at the age of 30.

Cyclingnews extends its condolences to his friends and family.