Maurice-François Garin (; 3 March 1871 – 19 February 1957) was an Italian-French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with eight others, for cheating. He was of Italian origin but adopted French nationality on 21 December 1901.
Family life
Garin was born the son of Maurice-Clément Garin and Maria Teresa Ozello in Arvier, in the French-speaking Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, close to the French border. The Garin last name was the most common in the native frazione of Maurice, called "Chez-les-Garin", belonging to five of the seven families there. They had four daughters and five sons, of whom Maurice was the first son.Journal du Dimanche, France, 29 June 2003
In 1885 the family left Arvier to work on the other side of the Alps, almost to the Belgian border.
Garin worked as a chimney sweep. He later moved to France. By the age of 15, he was living in Reims as a chimney sweep.Journal L'Alsace-Le Pays, 20 February 2001, Profile of Maurice Garin He moved to Charleroi in Belgium but by 1889 he was back in France, at Maubeuge.
Garin's younger brother, Joseph-Isidore, died in 1889. The father died shortly afterwards in Arvier. Garin's brothers François and César stayed in northern France and, with Maurice, opened a cycle shop in the lower end of the boulevard de Paris in Roubaix in 1895. Brothers César and Ambroise also competed as professional cyclists.
Garin moved to Lens, Pas-de-Calais in 1902 and lived there the rest of his life. He bought his first bicycle for 405 francs, twice what a forge worker would earn in a week of 12-hour days, in 1889. Racing did not interest him but he did ride round the town fast enough to be called a madman – le fou.
Until 2004, it was said that Garin had taken French nationality when he was 21, in 1892 but in 2004, the reporter Franco Cuaz found the naturalizing act and Garin took French nationality 21 December 1901.Coup de chapeau à... Maurice Garin.
Amateur racing He began racing in northern France in the same year when the secretary of the cycling club at Maubeuge persuaded him to enter a regional race, Maubeuge-Hirson-Maubeuge, over 200 km. Garin finished fifth despite suffering from the sun and decided to ride more.
His first win was in 1893, in Namur-Dinant-Givet in Belgium. He had sold his first bike and bought a lighter one – still 16 kg but with pneumatic tyres – for 850 old French francs (approx €3,000 at 2008 values).This Chart showing Value of French franc in Euros says that 1 French franc was worth circa 3.5 Euros around 1900. The race was over 102 km. He was leading by Dinant when he punctured. Spotting a soigneur waiting with a spare bike for a rival, Garin rested his own against the wall of a bridge, grabbed the soigneur's spare bike and rode off. At the finish, winning with ten minutes over the field, he gave back the bike and recovered his own the next day where he had left it.
Professional racing Garin became a professional by chance. He planned to ride a race at Avesnes-sur-Helpes, 25 km from where he lived. He arrived to find it was only for professionals. Not allowed to compete, he waited until the riders had left, raced after them and passed them all. He fell off twice but finished ahead of the racers. The crowd was enthusiastic but the organisers less so. They refused to pay him the 150 francs (approx €525 at 2008 values) due to the real winner, so spectators raised 300 francs (approx €1,050 at 2008 values) among themselves. Garin became a professional.
His first true professional win was in a 24-hour race in Paris in 1893.Races at the time were largely of extremes, velodrome races being short sprints or paced behind motorcycles, road races becoming ever-longer trials of endurance which culminated in the Tour de France, which Garin won It was held on the Champ de Mars, site of the Eiffel Tower. The riders competed, as was the custom, behind a succession of pacers. The event took place in February and the cold drove out riders one after the other. Garin rode 701 km in 24 hours, beating the only other rider to finish by 49 km. While other riders would consume much strong red wine, Garin chose a more apt diet, and said he had survived on:
19L hot chocolate 7L tea mixed champagne/coffee 5L tapioca 2kg rice 45 cutlets 8 hardboiled eggs oysters
In 1894 he won a 24-hour race in Liège, Belgium, and the following year set an hour record for cycling behind pacers.
The first Paris–Roubaix was in 1896; Garin came third, 15 minutes behind Josef Fischer. He would have come second had he not been knocked over by a crash between two tandems, one of them ridden by his pacers. Garin "finished exhausted and Dr Butrille was obliged to attend the man who had been run over by two machines," said the race historian, Pascal Sergent.Sergent, Pascal (1997), trans Yates, D., A Century of Paris–Roubaix, Bromley Books, UK,
In 1897 he won Paris–Roubaix, beating the Dutchman Mathieu Cordang in the last two kilometres of the velodrome at Roubaix.In 2004 Les Amis de Paris–Roubaix marked Garin's victories in the Paris–Roubaix event by placing a cobblestone – traditional trophy for winners of the race, on his grave. See Sergent said:
As the two champions appeared they were greeted by a frenzy of excitement and everyone was on their feet to acclaim the two heroes. It was difficult to recognise them. Garin was first, followed by the mud-soaked figure of Cordang. Suddenly, to the stupefaction of everyone, Cordang slipped and fell on the velodrome's cement surface. Garin could not believe his luck. By the time Cordang was back on his bike, he had lost 100 metres. There remained six laps to cover. Two miserable kilometres in which to catch Garin. The crowd held its breath as they watched the incredible pursuit match. The bell rang out. One lap, there remained one lap. 333 metres for Garin, who had a lead of 30 metres on the Batave.
A classic victory was within his grasp but he could almost feel his adversary's breath on his neck. Somehow Garin held on to his lead of two metres, two little metres for a legendary victory. The stands exploded and the ovation united the two men. Garin exulted under the cheers of the crowd. Cordang cried bitter tears of disappointment.
In 1898 he won Paris–Roubaix again, this time by 20 minutes, and in 1901 he won the second edition of Paris–Brest–Paris, finishing almost two hours ahead of Gaston Rivierre after covering 1,208 km in 52h 11m 1s. He started by chasing another Frenchman, Lucien Lesna, who rode the first 600 km at 28km/h and had two hours' lead at Brest. At Rennes he stopped for a bath to recover from the tiredness, filth and heat, then found he could not get racing again into the headwind. Garin passed him at Mayenne and Lesna gave up shortly afterwards with 200 km to go. Garin finished 19h 11m better than Charles Terront ten years earlier.Chany, Pierre (1988), La Fabuleuse Histoire de Cyclisme, vol 1, Nathan, France, p. 162
In 1902 Garin won Bordeaux–Paris, a race of 500 km from south-west France.
Tour de France
1903 Tour de France
The Tour de France was established to promote a new daily sports newspaper, L'Auto which was startted as a rival to the then largest paper in France, Le Vélo,Boeuf, Jean-Luc, and Léonard, Yves (2003), La République du Tour de France, Seuil, France, p. 23 which sold 80,000 copies a day.Nicholson, Geoffrey (1991) Le Tour, the rise and rise of the Tour de France, Hodder and Stoughton, UK Some of Le Vélos advertisers had disagreed with that paper's support for Alfred Dreyfus, an officer found guilty on trumped up charges of selling secrets to the Germans, who would be eventually acquitted after being long jailed on Devil's Island.Boeuf, Jean-Luc and Léonard, Yves (2003); La République de Tour de France, Seuil, France The Tour was to promote their new anti-Dreyfus rival paper, L'Auto.
The editor, Henri Desgrange, planned a five-week race from 31 May to 5 July. This proved too daunting and only 15 entered. Desgrange cut the length to 19 days and offered a daily allowance.
The race began at the Au Reveil Matin café at a crossroads in Montgeron, south of Paris, and ended in Ville-d'Avray, another suburb, having circuited France in six days of racing over 2,428 km. One stage, between Nantes and Paris, was 471 km. Sixty riders started at an entry fee of 10 francs – €87.50 today with inflationWheatcroft, Geoffrey (2003), 'Le Tour: a history of the Tour de France, 1903–2003', Pocket Books, UK – and 21 finished. Garin won 3,000 francsAugendre, Jacques (1996), Le Tour de France, Panorama d'un Siècle, Société du Tour de France, France, p7; for comparison, a kilo of bread cost 40 centimes (approx €10,500 at 2008 values) for finishing first in 94h 33m 14s, or 6,125 francs (approx €21,500 at 2008 values) in all with his other prizes.Chany, Pierre (1988), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, La Martinière, France, p. 45 Lucien Pothier was second and Fernand Augereau third.
Pierre Chany wrote: In the town which adopted Maurice Garin, at Lens, an immense procession was organised with the participation of all the notables of the region. Before leaving Paris on Monday evening, the day after the race finished, the winner paid a visit, out of politeness, to Henri Desgrange and, in a gesture without precedent, pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. It was an article 'in order to simplify the interview', he explained! There he gave his feelings during the race, gave his opinion on the formula by which the race was run, gave a word of congratulation to his rivals.Chany, Pierre (1988), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, La Martinière, France, p. 46
Garin's written note said:
1904 Tour de France
Garin also won the 1904 Tour de France, by a small margin over Lucien Pothier, but was subsequently stripped of the title which was awarded to Henri Cornet. The race aroused a passion among spectators, who felled trees to hold back rivals and beat up others at night outside St-Étienne.Chany, Pierre (1986), La Fabuleuse Histoire de Cyclisme, La Martinière, France, p. 60 Garin was one of the mob's victims. Pierre Chany wrote:
In the climb of the col de la République, leaving St-Étienne, supporters of the regional rider, Faure, assault the Italian, Gerbi. He is thrown to the ground, beaten like plaster. He escapes with a broken finger...
... A bunch of fanatics wielded sticks and shouted insults, setting on the other riders: Maurice and César Garin got a succession of blows, the older brother [Maurice] was hit in the face with a stone. Soon there was general mayhem: "Up with Faure! Down with Garin! Kill them!" they were shouting. Finally cars arrived and the riders could get going thanks to pistol shots. The aggressors disappeared into the night.
Garin said: "I'll win the Tour de France provided I'm not murdered before we get to Paris."Chany, Pierre (1986), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, La Martinière, France, p. 61Chany, Pierre (1986), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, vol. 1, La Martinière, France, p. 181
Misbehaviour was rife too between riders and nine were thrown out during the race for, among other things, riding in or being pulled by cars.Chany, Pierre (1986), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, La Martinière, France, pp. 54–55 There were claims, too, that the organisers had allowed Garin to break rules – at one stage being given food where it was not permitted by its chief official – because his sponsor, La Française, had a financial stake in the race.Chany, Pierre (1986), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, La Martinière, France, p. 62