Tour de France during the Second World War

The Tour de France was not held during the Second World War because the organisers refused German requests. Instead, some other races were organized, often with riders who might otherwise have ridden the Tour.

History

Politics and the shadow of war did not wait until the start of the second world war. Italy, Germany and Spain had already refused to send teams to France for the 1939 Tour de France. The 1938 Tour de France winner, Gino Bartali, was among those affected. Henri Desgrange, the original race organiser, and Jacques Goddet, his deputy and replacement, [Desgrange died on 16 August 1940 having abandoned his race the previous year while suffering the effects of an operation ] had planned a race for 1940 but dropped the idea with the German invasion.cite book|last=Dauncey|first=Hugh|coauthors=Hare, Geoff|title=The Tour de France, 1903-2003: A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values|origyear=2003|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=54pAJY6Ix8YC|accessdate=2008-07-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0714653624 ] The records and paperwork of the Tour were taken south to keep them safe but were never seen again. Nobody knows what became of them.Goddet, Jacques(1991), L'Équipée Belle, Laffont, Paris ]

The Tour during the Occupation

The German Propaganda Staffel wanted the Tour to be run and offered facilities otherwise denied, in the hope of maintaining a sense of normality. cite book|last=McGann|first=Bill|coauthors=McGann, Carol|title=The Story of the Tour de France: 1903-1964|origyear=2006|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=jxq20JskqMUC|accessdate=2008-07-02|publisher=Dog Ear Publishing|isbn=1598581805] . They offered to open the borders between German-occupied France in the north and the nominally independent Vichy France in the south. Goddet refused.Boeuf, Jean-Luc and Léonard, Yves (2003), La République du Tour de France, Seuil, France ] He was in any case in little position to run a race of that scale because many of the staff had left "L'Auto"'s office in Paris to go south.

Goddet's former colleague at "L'Auto", Jean Leulliot, didn't have the same reluctance. Leulliot, who had been manager of the French team that won the Tour in 1937, had become head of sport at "La France Socialiste". Despite its name, it was a right-wing paper that sympathised with the Germans. Leulliot assembled 69 riders for a race, the Circuit de France, which ran from 28 September to 4 October 1942. Over six stages and 1,650km, it want from Paris to Paris via Le Mans, Poitiers, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand, St-Étienne, Lyon and Dijon.cite book|last=Thompson|first=Christopher S.|title=The Tour de France: A Cultural History|origyear=2006|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=M-vUF6Y_4RUC|accessdate=2008-07-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0520247604] .

One of the riders, Émile Idée, told the writer and cyclist Jean Bobet that he had been threatened with the Gestapo if he didn't take part. [http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/dossiers/dos_cyclismag_bobet_leulliot.php Memoire du Cyclisme - Bobet Leulliot] ] Bobet said: "I asked him to repeat it to see if I had understood. I was stunned ["dans la tête ça fait tilt"] ! [Bobet, Jean ]

"L'Auto" organised a readers' poll in 1943 to name the perfect team for a Tour de France, were one to be run. More than 10,000 took part. In 1940 it ran what it called the Grand Prix du Tour de France, the paper's assessment of the greatest riders by their placings in single-day races. [Laget, Serge, 1940-1946 Des Ersatz]

The Tour after Liberation

In 1944, "L'Auto" was closed - its doors nailed shut - and its belongings, including the Tour de France were sequestrated by the state for having published articles too close to the Germans Libération,4 July 2003 ] . Rights to the Tour were therefore owned by the government. Jacques Goddet was allowed to publish another daily sports paper, "L'Équipe", but there was a rival candidate to run the Tour: a consortium of the magazines "Sports" and "Miroir Sprint". Each organised a candidate race. "L'Équipe" and "Le Parisien Libéré" had La Course du Tour de France [ [http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/timeline/Race%20Snippets/TdF/TdF1940_46.htm Cycling Revealed - Tour de France Timeline] ] [As close as it dared come to calling the race by its original name. It means The Race of the Tour de France] and "Sports" and "Miroir Sprint" had La Ronde de France. Both were five-stage races, the longest the government would allow because of shortages. "L'Équipe"'s race was better organised and appealed more to the public because it featured national teams which had been so successful before the war, when French cycling was at a high. "L'Équipe" was given the right to organize the 1947 Tour de France.

Emile Besson, communist sports writer and a member of the Resistance from 1943 when he was 17, called "L'Équipe"'s victory political. Besson, who was a member of the national study into French sport under the Occupation, set up by the sports minister, Marie-George Buffet, said:

It was a bit much to have given them the right to run the Tour again after all that [referring to "L'Auto"'s pro-German attitude and closure] . Goddet had the keys to the Velodrome d'Hiver when [the Germans wanted it] in the round-up of Jews in July 1942. After the Liberation, the battle between Left and Right had the Tour as one of its prizes.

Goddet had to defend his wartime behaviour at an inquiry in Algiers. He pointed to the way he had allowed Resistance workers to print anti-German tracts at his newspaper and called Philippe Amaury in his defence. Amaury had a blameless record in the Resistance. He was also a right-wing businessman, his ideals close to Goddet's. It was with Amaury and his paper, "Le Parisien Libéré", that Goddet ran La Course du Tour de France. It was Amaury's reputation that landed Goddet the Tour. That, says Besson, because the rival candidate was two magazines with a communist background and President Charles de Gaulle was determined to limit communist influence. [De Gaulle had spent much of his time during the war trying to prevent communist domination of the Resistance. Communists held many key positions in France just before and after Liberation but De Gaulle refused even to thank them for their work. Albert Bourlon, who achieved the record post-war distance for a lone break in the 1947 Tour, told Jean Bobet that he was convinced that his membership of the Communist Party denied him access to the race afterwards.]

Amaury eventually took control of both the paper and the Tour de France.

Jean Leulliot was tried for his role in organising races under German patronage but he was cleared after fellow journalists, including Goddet, spoke in his favour. [Bobet, Jean, Le Vélo à l'Heure Allemande, La Table Ronde, France]

Results

Circuit de France

The Circuit de France was organized in 1942 by "La France Socialiste" in both the occupied zone and Vichy France, to give a feeling of nationality. The race had six multinational teams, and was won by François Neuville. The inexperience of the organizers, combined with bad weather and logistical problems, made the race a disaster. Although there were plans to hold the race again in 1943, it was never held.

External links

* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/veloarchive/races/tour/waryears.htm The Tour de France during the War]
* [http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/timeline/Race%20Snippets/TdF/TdF1940_46.htm Cyclingrevealed]

References