The Shattered Peloton

1 Prologue - Le Grand Boucle
The Tour de France starts at 3am in the suburbs of Paris. Hours later, a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, would fire the shot triggering World War 1 and which would change the lives of these cyclists forever.

2 1914 Tour de France
The story of the 1914 Tour de France which takes place against the growing threat of war.

3 A Call to Arms - Henri Desgrange
On August 3rd, a week after the Tour finishes, Germany declares war on France. The Tour founder and staunch nationalist, Henri Desgrange, enlists and publishes a letter asking for all cyclists to join him in the fight against Germany.

4 The First Victim - Victor Fastre
Fastre was a Belgian cyclist who became the first Tour victim of the war. He had won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1909.

5 Emile Engel
Emile Engel won Stage 3 of the Tour de France but was subsequently kicked off the race for fighting with an official. Two months later, he was killed in the war.

6 The Giant of Colombes – Francois Faber
Francois Faber - The 1909 Winner of the Tour de France had signed up for the French Foreign Legion at the outset of the war and is killed in action the following year.


7 The Fighter Pilot - Octave Lapize
The 1910 winner Octave Lapize won the Tour de France became famous for shouting out the famous phrase at the organisers "Vous êtes des assassins!” He became a fighter pilot and was shot down over northern France.

8 The Little Pyrenean - Francois Lafourcade
Francois Lafourcade had become the first rider ever to cross the Col d’Aubisque in 1910. He died in action in 1917.

9 The Italian Front - Carlo Oriani
The war was also contested on other fronts. The 1913 Giro d'Italia winner, Carlo Oriani, was killed in action at the Battle of Caporetto.

10
The Elegant Argentinian - Lucien Petit-Breton
Lucien Petit-Breton became the first man to win the race twice and he was killed in action in 1917.

11
The Australians – Iddo Munro and Donald Kirkham
In 1914, Munro and Kirkham became the first Australian (and English-speaking riders) to take part in the Tour de France. This chapter looks at their involvement in World War I.

12 The Youngest Tour Rider - Camille Fily
Fily still remains the youngest rider ever to take part in the Tour de France. He died fighting on the Kemmelberg in Flanders, which is now the decisive climb used in Ghent-Wevelgem.

13 The Survivor – Henri Pelissier
Henri Pelissier finished in 2nd place in the 1914 Tour. He fought with the French army in the war but survived. He had a long-standing feud with Desgrange and would go on to win the Tour in 1923.

14 Aftermath
The war ends and the Tour starts again in 1919 with considerably fewer cyclists in action, racing through towns devastated by war. This was when Paris-Roubaix came to be known as the Hell of the North.

Appendix 1:1914 Tour de France Results

Appendix 2: List of 1914 Tour de France cyclists killed in action