Charles Cruchon

Charles Cruchon

Charles Cruchon was a French cyclist of the early 1900s and 1910s. He was born in Paris in 1883. He took part in the Tour of Belgium in 1907 as an amatuer. Cruchon raced as a professional for seven years, beginning in 1908 through the year 1914. He competed seven times in the Tour de France and finished in the top ten in two Tours de France in 1910 and 1911. He died in 1956 at the age of 72 in Paris.

Charles Chruchon on the Col d'Aspin

Charles Chruchon at the 1910 Tour de France.

Henri Pelissier

Henri Pelissier (1889 - 1935) was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France.


Pelissier was one of four brothers, three of whom became professional cyclists. He began racing professionally in 1911 and amassed important victories before the First World War, including the 1912 Milan-San Remo and three stages in the 1914 Tour de France.

Pélissier brothers (l to r) Henri, Charles, Francis

One day in August of 1911 while walking on the edge of Paris Henri Pelissier met Lucien Petit-Breton, one of the great cycling hereos of the day. Petit-Breton had already ridden the Tour de France four times and won it in 1907 and 1908. He asked Pelissier if he would like to travel to Italy with him to race. Six hours later they were on a train to Milan.


Their first race was the Tour of Romany-Tuscany. Pelissier crashed and didn't finish. But he won Turin-Florence-Rome and the Tour of Lombardy. 


 In his first time racing the Tour de France, Pelissier finished second in 1914 less than two minutes behind Philippe Thys of Belgium. He won the 10th, 12th and 15th stages.


 In 1923 Henri Pelissier  won the Tour de France at the age of 34. During his career he also won Milan - San Remo, Paris - Brussels, Paris - Roubaix twice, Tours of Lombardy three times, Bordeaux - Paris and Paris Tours.

Pelissier was repeatedly at war with organisers, sponsors and the press. When  he went training, he urged his friends to take it easy - "it's important not to wear yourself out" he advised - but never letting on that he had been out at dawn for 40 kilometres of "speed training".


He dismissed his rivals with a sneer. "The others are cart horses; I'm a thoroughbred," he said during the Tour de France. The next day Pelissier had a flat tire and the whole field left him and his brother Francis 30 minutes behind. 

Pelissier rode his last Tour de France in 1925. He did not finish. He stopped racing in 1927 and did nothing for two years. Then he returned to the sport as a motorcycle-pacer and team manager. He had little success at either. 


Henri Pelissier's first wife, Leonie, despaired and shot herself in 1933.  A few years later Pelissier had a girl friend, Camille Tharault, who was 20 years younger than him. He threatened her with a knife at least once. On May 1, 1935 he and Camille had an argument in the kitchen of their Norman-style villa outside of Paris. Pelissier lunged at her with a knife, cutting her face. She ran to the bedroom, opened a drawer and pulled out the revolver with which Leonie had shot herself. She ran back to the kitchen and found Pelissier waiting with the knife. Camille pulled the trigger five times. Pelissier fell to the floor. A bullet had hit his carotid artery. His body was placed in the room where Leonie had killed herself. 


Camille's trial opened a year later, almost to the day. She pleaded self-defence and on May 26, 1936, she got a year's suspended jail sentence. It was as close as the court could come to acquitting her.

1910 Tour de France

The 1910 Tour de France was a tour of several firsts. It was the first Tour de France to have two stages in the Pyrennes mountains, first time for a broom wagon, first death of a racer during the Tour and the first time a few of the racers used bicycles with gears.

With 110 starters the 1910 edition of the Tour was 4,737 km (2,944 miles) raced at an average speed of 28.680 km/hr (17.82 miles per hour). 


The first death of a racer during the Tour de France happened in 1910. On a rest day between stages 6 and 7 cyclist Adolphe Heliere died while swimming.

Adolphe Heliere

The course of the Tour de France since the first edition in 1903 had been drawn up each year by Henri Desgrange's, the tour organizer, assistant Alphonse Steines. For the 1910 Tour de France Steines wanted to include the high mountains and 2 stages in the Pyrennes. Desgrange was not in favor of adding these difficult mountain passes for fear that it might not be possible for the racers to complete the stages. 

 Prior to the start of the Tour Desgrange sent Alphonse Steines to see if it was possible for the riders to climb the mountains in the Tour de France. He went there on January 27th, 1910 and asked an innkeeper about the mountain pass. The innkeeper told Steines that it was barely passable in July and practically impossible in January. Steines hired a car anyway and headed up the mountain. The car was stopped by a snow drift while trying to get up the mountain. Steines continued on by foot. Eventually he fell off a ledge of snow into a ravine. A search party formed by locals didn't find him until 3:00 AM. The next morning Steines sent the following famous telegram to Henri Desgrange: "No trouble crossing Tourmalet. Roads satisfactory. No problem for cyclists. Steines"

Desgrange announced in L'Auto that the 1910 Tour route would include ascents of the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque mountains. Originally there were 136 cyclists that had entered the Tour, 26 of these racers dropped out when they heard about the route. Other newspapers reacted to the Tour's route as "dangerous" and "bizarre".

A first time addition was the broom wagon to pick up cyclists that abandoned during the race. During the tenth stage over the four mountains in the Pyrennes it was ruled that riders that couldn't make it could finish the stage in the broom wagon and still start the race the next day.

Riding with gears on their bikes for the first time ever in a Tour de France were Lucien Petit-Breton, Maurice Brocco, Henri Cornet, Charles Pavese and Jean Alavoine.

As in the 1909 Tour the 1910 Tour de France was scored on points. This made it possible for a sprinter or a climber to win. As in modern times a major team was split over two potential winners among their teammates. Alcyon had assembled a huge amount of talent within it's team members. Two Alcyon team members, Octave Lapize and Francois Faber, were both contenders capable of winning. 

Alcyon teammates Francois Faber (left) and
Gustave Garrigou.

Faber had won the 1909 Tour de France and was set to win again. He was a big man and had trouble getting across the mountains. His teammate, Octave Lapize, excelled at climbing mountains on his bike. 

The tenth stage of the 1910 Tour was 326 km (202.57miles) that included the 4 monster mountains, the Peyresourde, the Aspin, the Tourmalet and the Aubisque. Desgrange didn't want to watch this stage and sent his assistants to supervise. The riders started at 3:30 AM so that they would be able to finish the stage. 

 On the Aubisque Steines and an assistant, Victor Breyer, stationed themselves 150 km from the finish of the stage. Beyer described when they saw the first man coming up the mountain:

And suddenly I saw him, a rider, but one I didn't know. His body heaved at the pedals, like an automaton on two wheels. He wasn't going fast, but he was at least moving. I trotted alongside him and asked, "Who are you? What's going on? Where are the others?" Bent over his handlebars, his eyes riveted on the road, the man never turned his head nor uttered one sole word. He continued and disappeared around a turn. Steines had read his number and consulted the riders list. Steines was dumbfounded. "The man is Francois Lafourcade, a nobody. He has caught and passed all the "cracks'. This is something prodigious, almost unbelievable!"

Still the minutes passed. Another quarter-hour passed before the second rider appeared, whom we immediately recognized as Lapize. Unlike Lafourcade, Lapize was walking, half leaning on, half pushing his machine. His eyes revealed and intense distress. But unlike his predecessor, Lapize spoke, and in abundance. "You are assassins, yes, assassins [Vous etes des assassins!]" To discuss matters with a man in this condition would have been cruel and stupid. I walked at his side, attentive to all he said. After more imprecations, he finished by saying, "Don't worry, at Eaux-Bonnes [the town at the bottom of the mountain] I'm going to quit".

Octave Lapize walking his single speed bicycle up the Tourmalet.

Lapize tore down the unpaved rutted paths of the descent of the Aubizque. He regained his strength, caught Lafourcade and won the stage. Lapize didn't quit.

Both Alcyon riders Faber and Lapize and many flats. The lead was traded back and forth between them. Faber had the misfortune of colliding with a dog during stage 7 and crashing hard. At the end of the 1910 Tour de France Lapize won over Faber by a mere 4 points. 

The Alcyon Team was dominant in the 1910 Tour de France, winning 9 out of 15 stages and taking the top 4 places in the general classification.

Top 5 places in the General Classification:

1. Octave Lapize (Alcyon) 63 points

2. Francois Faber (Alcyon) 67 points

3. Gustave Garrigou (Alcyon) 86 points

4. Cyrille Van Houwaert (Alcyon) 97 points

5. Charles Cruchon (independent) 119 points

Octave Lapize winner of the 1910 Tour de France

Lapize won Paris-Roubaix 3 times, Paris-Brussels 3 times and the Championships of France 3 times. He never again finished the Tour although he tried 4 more times. In World War I he was a fighter pilot and was shot down and died. He was only 29 years old. Click here to learn more about Octave Lapize.

Francois Faber

Click here to learn more about Francois Faber.

Gustave Garrigou during the 1910 Tour de France

Cyrille Van Houwaert

Click here to learn more about Cyrille Van Houwaert.

Charles Cruchon