Leonard - Lanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de France

LANTERNE ROUGE

Pegasus Books LLC

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New York, NY 10004

Copyright 2015 by Max Leonard

First Pegasus Books hardcover edition June 2015

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ISBN: 978-1-60598-786-6

ISBN: 978-1-60598-787-3 (e-book)

Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

In thank yous I must first offer my profound gratitude to all the riders and others connected with pro cycling whom I interviewed or who helped me out. Without their willingness to give their time and memories, this would have been nothing. Second, to Matt Phillips, my editor at Yellow Jersey, for his thoughtful work and the big improvements he made, and to Jon Elek, my agent.

After that, I must also thank: Graeme Fife, Bill McGann and Les Woodland, for generously answering my no doubt annoying numerous questions. Feargal McKay, of PodiumCaf, for the interesting articles and painstaking tables of average speed information across the years. Professor Christopher Thompson of Ball University, Indiana, who will see the strands I took on from his book, particularly in 1919. Nigel Dick, for generously allowing me to see the transcripts from his interview with Tony Hoar. Basia Lewandoska Cummings, for transcriptions, and Lia Alba and Soren Evinson, for translations. Craig Gaulzetti, Jeremy Dunn and Embrocation magazine. And Steve Jones, for inspiration and for letting me make his bolthole temporarily mine. Also, in no particular order: Thierry Durand, the Inner Ring, Sadhbh OShea, Pierrot Picq and Dominique Magnier, Bill Strickland, Femke Hoogland, Tom Southam, Richard Moore, James Fairbank, Camille McMillan, Kristof Ramon, David Campano, Simon Mottram, Felix Lowe, Marion Gachies, Frdric Rtsin, Fabien Conord, Christian Wolmar, Carlton Reid, Emma Davies, Charlotte Easton, Nathalie Palomino, and Thomas Cariou and Fabrice Tiano at ASO. Any errors that remain in this work are all mine and not theirs.

Last but definitely not least, to Anton and Claire, Rmi and Catherine, and John, whose company in Nice and on long rides through the Alpes Maritimes helped give this idea legs. And to Laura, who made it happen.

MAX LEONARD

LANTERNE
ROUGE

The Last Man in the Tour de France

PEGASUS BOOKS

NEW YORK LONDON

Now all the truth is out,

Be secret and take defeat From any brazen throat,

For how can you compete,

Being honour bred, with one

Who, were it proved he lies,

Were shamed neither in his own

Nor in his neighbours eyes?

Bred to a harder thing Than Triumph, turn away...

To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing,

W.B. Yeats

Id been searching for signs of life signs of a life for so long it came as a relief when I finally saw his face.

For days Id been scanning the pages of the defunct sports newspaper LAuto, picking out his name in 110-year-old race reports. Days among snoozing old men and equally somnolent students in the basement of the Bibliothque Nationale de France, the French national library, on the windblown Left Bank of the Seine, scrolling through rolls of scratchy microfilm, chasing ghosts on bicycles on their maiden journey around France.

I was looking for Arsne Millochau, who Id plucked out of obscurity because, Id reasoned, the story of the last man in the Tour de France has to start with the first to have that dubious honour. But I was beginning to regret setting myself the task. It hadnt proved easy to unearth any facts about him, and what Id intended to be just a simple historical sketch was turning into a manhunt, a cross between an archaeological dig and a missing persons investigation. The only thing I could be sure of, it seemed, was that hed been last, first. In 1903 hed crossed the finish line a whopping 64 hours, 57 minutes, eight-and-two-fifths seconds after the winner, Maurice Garin, 21st of 21 finishers.

Millochau raced the first Tour and raced pretty badly you might say then never attempted it again.

Some things about the first Tour are pretty well established. That it was, for example, the last throw of the dice to save LAuto, a French sports newspaper, from failure in a bitter circulation battle, and that its editor, Henri Desgrange, was a fierce, athletic ascetic who seized upon the idea of sending riders on a wild six-stage tour of France when it was suggested by his junior reporter Go Lefvre over a glass or two of Chablis and a lobster thermidor, as they tried to dream up publicity wheezes to save the crisis-struck paper. races. ParisBrestParis (1891) and Paris-Roubaix (1895) are two of the best known that still survive in some form today, but this was even more ambitious. A tour of France. It is a crazy plan, but it might just work.

Aside from these known knowns to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld there are a lot of known unknowns, too, but also a lot of half truths, maybes and facts bordering on myth. After all, what do most of us know about Maurice Garin aside from he had a period-correct set of moustaches, a nice line in chunky knitwear and was partial to a gasper every now and then? That he won the first Tour de France, yes, and that he was disqualified from the second Tour for taking the train. Or maybe that was Pottier. Or was that 1906? And the Tourmalet was the first mountain they climbed? In the Tour, more than in many other historical events, its a case of you tell me your truth, Ill tell you mine.

Until the bibliothque in Paris all Id had to go on was a very brief Wikipedia entry and some tantalising references on distant strands of le web. I was pretty sure Millochau had been born in Champseru, near Chartres in north-western France, in 1867, but couldnt quite be sure of his name: many sources had it as Millocheau with an e. Old Arsne was a shadowy figure, almost coquettish in his reluctance to let himself be known, and I had been drawn into the chase. Id been sending out fruitless enquiries on Internet forums, and missives via obscure genealogy sites, but the bibliothque was where I hoped a few scrappy facts might be saved from the waste-paper basket of history. As the old LAutos unspooled in front of me so did the first Tour, as if happening for the first time. And Arsnes role gradually came into focus. Unfortunately for him, right from the off that role predominantly involved bringing up the rear.

In January 1903 Desgrange officially launched the Tour de France, The greatest cycling test in the world. Europes cyclists, however, were not as gung-ho as he was; initially scheduled for June, the start was pushed back to July because of the lacklustre response. From May onwards the race, the regulations Desgrange was dreaming up and in particular the prizes were regular news in LAuto. It cost 10 francs (around 100 in todays money) to enter and a list of new engags was published daily but, despite Desgranges efforts, sign-up was slow. The 15 June deadline loomed and the front-page exhortations to riders, by turns cajoling and pleading, became more frequent and urgent.