The Eternal Second was - among grand tours, classics, and races - 189 times first. And first also in the Vuelta. It was 1964. Raymond Poulidor was 28 years old.

From April 30 to May 16, 17 stages, approximately 2900 km, eight club teams, 80 riders (49 would finish), Poupou (copyright for the nickname to Emile Besson, a journalist from L'Humanité, who had unsuccessfully proposed he join the Communist Party), race number 22, led the Mercier-BP. "At the start of this Vuelta - he recounted in his autobiography "Poulidor par Raymond Poulidor" (Editions Jacob-Duvernet, 2004, edited by Jean-Paul Brouchon and with a preface by Eddy Merckx) - a Poulidor-Van Looy duel was anticipated. A duel that would prove short, because Van Looy abandoned on the sixth day, after a terrible crash".

Antonin Magne, Poulidor's sports director, suggested a cautious race strategy. Perhaps too cautious. Three days before the final arrival in Madrid in the enormous public park called Casa de Campo, Poulidor had to recover 3'27" from the general classification leader, the Spanish rider Julio Jimenez. "It was time for the time trial on a difficult route, from Vilalon de Campos to Valladolid, 65 km". Here he triumphed. And in the standings, he surpassed the Spaniards Gabica, Perez-Frances, and Jimenez himself, the "watchmaker from Avila", a great climber (who won the mountain classification) but poor time trialist (in this case, he suffered almost seven minutes of delay). And on the podium, it was no coincidence, he succeeded his great rival, Jacques Anquetil. Mercier-BP had also won three stages with Belgian Franz Melckenbeeck and two with Englishman Barry Hoban.

"This victory - Poulidor recounted - delighted me. I had gained endurance. I could better tame the heat. I knew exactly what I could ask of my body. Gradually, I let my thoughts fly peacefully towards the Tour de France". That was the most important objective of the season, and Anquetil was the strongest opponent, the most direct rival. This was the time Poulidor came closest to happiness: second, behind Anquetil, by 55 seconds (nothing, at that time), after incredible misadventures ("A sprint launched too early in the ninth stage, in Monaco, forgetting - wrote Pierre Carrey in "Libération" - that he still had a lap to go, he could not benefit from the one-minute bonus") and bitter disappointments (on the last day, during the time trial from Versailles to Paris, which he seemed to dominate, "a television journalist made a calculation error - again Carrey - and announced that he had set the best time, and therefore would win the yellow jersey. In a few seconds, Poulidor saw his life change before discovering the actual verdict of the stopwatch and returning to being Poulidor").

Poor Poulidor. So attached to second place that he even made Anquetil finish second at the Baracchi Trophy, team time trial, in 1966.