Maurice Garin

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**Maurice Garin**
Personal information
Full name	Maurice Garin
Nickname	Le fou
Date of birth	March 3, 1871(1871-03-03)
Date of death	February 19, 1957 (aged 85)
Country	France
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
1901-1904 1911	La Française La Française
Major wins
Winner 1903 Tour de France Paris-Roubaix (2x) Bordeaux-Paris
Infobox last updated on:
May 22, 2008

Maurice Garin (March 3, 1871 - February 19, 1957) was a road bicycle racer best known for winning the 1903 Tour de France - the first running of the event.

Garin was born in Arvier in the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy close to the French border. The cottage in which he was born, now a ruin, still exists. Garin was Italian but moved with his family to France, where he worked as a chimney sweep. There he adopted French nationality.

1 Career
2 Retirement
3 Major Wins
4 External links

[edit] Career

His career as a racing cyclist began in northern France in 1892, when he began winning regional races, which he rode with his brother, César. In 1893 Maurice Garin won a 24-hour race in Liège, Belgium and in 1895 the Bol d'Or endurance race held in the Vincennes park in south-east Paris.

He became a French citizen in December 1901, when he was a celebrated champion, winner of Paris-Roubaix in 1897 and 1898.

In 1902 he won Bordeaux-Paris, a race of 500km from south-west France, and then in 1903 the first running of the Tour de France.

He also won the 1904 Tour de France but was later disqualified for reasons that neither the Tour de France organisation nor the French cycling authorities made clear. They were said to include taking a train through part of the route, a claim which Les Woodland says in his book "The Unknown Tour de France" (Velopress, USA) is confirmed by one of the cemetery attendants looking after his grave who, as a boy, heard Garin tell his stories as an old man. The detailed allegations, which were not made public, were lost when the Tour de France archives vanished while being taken south to escape the German invasion in 1940.

[edit] Retirement

Garin subsequently retired from professional cycling and ran a garage in Lens until his death. The garage is still there, although wholly changed from Garin's era. On the Tour's 50th anniversary in 1953, Garin was among several old stars waiting at the finish as part of a celebration.

Garin is remembered as a short, determined man, even authoritarian. As an old man he became confused and wandered through Lens asking "Where is the control? Where is the control?" as his mind brought back images of the hotels where riders signed check sheets in the first Tours. He regularly ended up at the town's police station, from where he was escorted back home.

He is buried with his three wives in the Cimetière Est in the suburb of Sallaumines, near Lens.