David Moncoutié had no familial connection to cycling – he was raised in a football loving family in which nobody had raced a bike. Moncoutié played football until he was 16 before being introduced to cycling by a friend. He gained his baccalauréat in biology. His father, mother and two sisters worked for the post office and wanted him to work there as well. Friends suggested he join them for a ride. He said: "They all had beautiful racing bikes, I had a sports bike that was nothing to talk about... and I dropped them right from the start. I said to myself,' Tiens, you're not going to be too bad!' and I joined the Entente Vélocipédique Bretenous-Bars, my village in the Lot. I won from my second race." He continued playing football but abandoned it when cycling took over at 19. He had dreamed of winning a mountain stage in the Tour de France after watching the Colombian rider, Luis Herrera outride Europeans in the Tour in the 1980s. Moncoutié was a boy and thought anybody could turn up and ride the Tour. In 1995 he joined the club at Blagnac, the airport district of Toulouse where Airbus builds aircraft, and took his exams to join the rest of his family in the post office.
Personality
He is known as a humble person, and many have compared his mentality to that of a recreational cyclist who enjoys riding his bicycle. In the past he has been criticised for lacking aggressiveness and for haplessness. For a while he was not able to put on a rain cape without having to put his feet on the ground. The magazine Vélo said he had a "calm and a lucidity, a way of talking openly, something too of a rage hidden behind a smile, for him, a little painful." He is known as a clean cyclist who relies on homeopathy. François Migraine of Cofidis said: "Everyone is more or less unanimous that David Moncoutié doesn't dabble . I would have 10 of him in the team if I could. He wins three races a year and he still manages to finish in the UCI's top 50. It goes to show that you don't have to dabble in drugs to have a career in cycling." When Cofidis was at the centre of a doping scandal in 2004, one of those at the centre of events, Philippe Gaumont, wrote that Moncoutie did not follow most riders in taking drugs. His team-mates have joked that while they are eager to try the latest and lightest equipment, Moncoutié would be happy riding on wooden wheels. Moncoutié said: "Equipment, even the latest technology, that's not my thing. What I like is to be on my bike and to ride. That's when I'm happy." His directeur sportif, Eric Boyer, said:
Professional racing
He was seen at Blagnac by the team manager, Cyrille Guimard, who offered him a place at, a French team sponsored by a money-lending company. He joined in 1997 and has ridden for the team ever since. Moncoutié said: He finished 13th in the Tour de France in 2002, saying: "I'm not capable of following the leaders." He finished 43rd in 2003, shaken by the speed. He said: His breakthrough was when he won a stage of the 2004 edition of Tour de France to Figeac. The following Tour de France he won the stage from Briançon to Digne-les-Bains on Bastille Day, guaranteeing him a place in the hearts of French fans. Moncoutié said: "A single stage, that could seem a bit thin but for me, that's enough. The emotion that I felt was enormous. In one day, I had saved my Tour." For the next twelve years, no French rider was able to repeat the feat of winning a Tour de France stage on the Bastille Day, until Warren Barguil did so in 2017. He won a stage in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in 1999, the Tour de l'Avenir in 2000, the Tour du Limousin, the Critérium International and the Tour of the Mediterranean. He won the 2010 Vuelta a España stage 8 in a mountaintop finishing in Xorret de Cati that included five mountain passes. He crossed the finish line solo and celebrated a prestigious victory.
