Gitane History: A Timeline of Key Racing and Corporate Events

Gitane took its name from founder Marcel Bruneliere’s own nickname, given to him by his wife for his constant continent-spanning dealmaking, and applied it to bicycles beginning in 1930. The marque built its reputation on the Tour de France, its bikes carrying winners including Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond, before a string of corporate reorganizations under Renault and later Cycleurope reduced Gitane to a licensed name on generic Taiwanese-made bicycles sold outside France.

Here is a chronological timeline of key racing and corporate events at Gitane, spanning from 1925 to today, based on the sources used for an accompanying Ebykr article on its history, “Gitane: The Dark-Eyed Wanderer.”

17 events

1925

Company Founding

Marcel Bruneliere began selling spare parts for farm equipment in Machecoul, a small horse-racing town in the Loire-Atlantique department of western France. The venture, based out of an abandoned stable on Rue des Redoux, would become the root of the Gitane marque.

1926

Product Diversification

Within a year of his start in farm parts, Bruneliere began selling bicycle components and assembling complete bicycles for other marques such as G.M.B. and Marbru, producing two or three machines per day.

1930

Brand Identity

Bruneliere’s factory had grown to employ ten workers. That year, he first applied his own nickname, Gitane, given to him by his wife for his constant continent-spanning dealmaking, to the bicycles he sold.

c. 1940

Manufacturing Shift

According to Gitane USA, the company began producing its own complete bicycle frames for the first time, having previously assembled machines from parts under other names.

1960–1961

Racing Victory

Gitane began building its racing reputation by sponsoring near-great talent alongside its Tour stars, including cyclocross rider Rolf Wolfshohl in 1960 and 1961.

1960

Corporate Reorganization

Gitane became officially known as Micmo, a corporate name that would remain attached to the marque through its years of peak export growth.

1962

Racing Victory

Jean Stablinski carried the Gitane banner to dominance of the World Championship circuit, further building the marque’s competitive palmares outside the Tour de France.

1972

Production Peak

Gitane, officially Micmo since 1960, exported 185,000 bicycles that year, more than its entire cumulative production run of the 1960s, driven largely by the attention its racing successes brought to the showroom.

1974

Acquisition

The automaker Renault purchased a 30 percent interest in Gitane, the first step toward full corporate absorption of the bicycle marque.

1976

Acquisition

Renault abruptly absorbed Gitane entirely. The former Gitane racing teams subsequently carried the Renault-Gitane name forward for years, continuing to scout and develop talented riders.

1983

Racing Victory

A banner season for the Renault-Gitane squad: Bernard Hinault won the Vuelta a España before an injury sidelined him, Laurent Fignon won the Tour de France and Greg LeMond won the World Championship, all aboard Gitanes.

1984

Racing Legend Signed

Businessman Bernard Tapie assembled a new team and approached Hinault, whose irritation that Fignon was rising as the Gitane squad’s new star had already prompted Fignon to sign elsewhere with La Vie Claire. Tapie and Hinault then offered Greg LeMond one million dollars to join their team, and LeMond accepted, drawing Gitane’s greatest stars away within a single season.

c. mid-1980s

Market Contraction

With its marquee riders departed, Renault-Gitane’s teams continued to compete but could no longer win the Tour de France, even as worldwide economic difficulties dragged down both car and bicycle sales, prompting Renault to put Gitane up for sale.

late 1980s

Production Milestone

Facing dwindling sales, Gitane initiated production efficiencies in an effort to keep the marque viable ahead of its eventual merger into a larger corporate structure.

1992

Corporate Reorganization

Gitane merged with Peugeot and BH Cycles to form Cycleurope. Under the new arrangement Gitane found itself building bicycles branded as Peugeots and even Raleighs for the domestic French market.

2000

Acquisition

A Swedish company bought both Cycleurope and Bianchi, assigning Bianchi the continuing role of building the group’s race bicycles and further diminishing Gitane’s competitive identity.

today

Strategic Pivot

Gitane once again makes Gitanes under its current ownership, but is permitted to sell them only within France. Gitanes sold elsewhere in the world are competent but generic Taiwanese road-sport bicycles, a much diminished successor to the marque that once nearly dominated the Tour de France.

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