he our de rance Cycle Race

Millions of young men died in the cataclysm that swept across Europe for four years. Sportsmen paid a heavy price, among them cycling champions. French roads would no longer see the kindly giant from Luxembourg, François Faber, who enlisted voluntarily in the Foreign Legion and was killed in Carency in May 1915; the lively, athletic Lucien Petit-Breton, killed at the Front in a car accident in June 1917; the phenomenal Octave Lapize, shot down during a dogfight in July 1917; the young hopeful Émile Engel, killed in Flirey in 1916; the youngest of the Cadolles, who went missing; Hourlier and his brother-in-law Comès, or Friol, all of them track racers; etc...
 

Killed in action on 19.12.1917

Lucien MAZAN "PETIT-BRETON" (France) alias "the Argentinian"

Born in 1883 in Plesse (Loire-Atlantique)

Winner of the Tour de France in 1907 and 1908
Winner of the Tour de Belgique in 1908
Winner of the Bol d'Or in 1905
Winner of the Paris-Tours in 1906
Winner of the Milan-San Remo in 1907
Winner of the Paris-Brussels in 1908
etc...

Killed in action on 09.05.1915
François FABER (Luxembourg) alias "the Hero"
Born in 1887 in Aulnay

Winner of the Tour de France in 1909
Winner of 19 stages in the Tour de France
7th in the Tour de France in 1907, 2nd in 1908 and 1910, 14th in 1912, 5th in 1913 and 9th in 1914
Winner of the Paris-Roubaix in 1913
Winner of the Paris-Tours in 1909 and 1910
Winner of the Paris-Brussels in 1909
Winner of the Bordeaux-Paris in 1911 
Winner of the Tour of Lombardy in 1908
etc...

Killed in action on 14.07.1917
Octave LAPIZE (France) alias "the Curly-Headed"
Born in 1889 in Paris

Winner of the Tour de France in 1910
Amateur Road Race Champion of France in 1907
Professional Road Race
Champion of France in 1911, 1912 and 1913
Winner of the Paris-Roubaix in 1909, 1910 and 1911
Winner of the Paris-Tours in 1911
Winner of the Paris-Brussels in 1908
etc...

We thank Mister Jean-Pierre BOES for having kindly helped to us to enrich this page

 

 

Thursday 12th July 2001

The Tour de France Cycle Race will be run along the Sacred Road

in a team time trial over a distance of 67 km

For full information, see on the website :

www.tourdefrancemeuse.com