Yesterday marked the passing of cycling legend Laurent Fignon from cancer. He sprang to prominence in the early 1980s as one of the youngest winners of the Tour de France and went on to become famous for losing the three week-long, 3,000km+ event by just 8 seconds to Gred Lemond in 1989.
![Laurent Fignon.jpg](http://assets.markallengroup.com/article-images/image-library/147/uploads/mt/opticianonlineweb/blogs/big-optometry-blog/Laurent%20Fignon.jpg")
He was a private person who wore glasses and this may well have helped him win the nickname of the professor " Le prof". However this was at odds with his less than glittering academic career.
The quiet Frenchman was a superb cyclist and perhaps one of the very few internationally-renowned sportsmen to wear glasses. This not only brought a new level of cool to spec wearers around the globe but gave TV commentators something to mention when filling in the long spells during the classic races. This affectation also made him instantly recognisable to millions of fans.