CQ27_FINAL_SPREADS (1)

FROM PARIS TO THE
BLUE WAVES OF THE
MEDITERRANEAN,
FROM MARSEILLE TO
BORDEAUX, PASSING
Rude in his behaviour, rude in his
speech, ruder to himself than to
ALONG THE ROSEATE
AND
his
DREAMING
collaborators, Henri Desgrange
ROADS
saw life as a permanent fight.
SLEEPING UNDER THE
SUN, ACROSS THE
CALM OF THE
Jacques Goddet
FIELDS
OF THE VENDÉE, FOL-
LOWING THE LOIRE,
WHICH FLOWS ON STILL
AND SILENT, OUR MEN
ARE GOING TO RACE
MADLY, UNFLAGGINGLY.
72
Henri Desgrange, cycling’s
greatest culture warrior?
Rude dans son comportement,
rude dans ses expressions, rude
envers lui-même plus encore
qu’envers ses collaborateurs,
Henri Desgrange a considéré
la vie comme un combat
permanent. Rude in his
behaviour, rude in his speech,
ruder to himself than to his
collaborators, Henri Desgrange
saw life as a permanent fight.
Jacques Goddet
As battle-hardened warriors of
the 21st-century culture wars,
where every aspect of our lives
becomes a politicised struggle
between competing values and
beliefs, it’s hard to see Henri
Desgrange as anything but a
quaint historical figure with
some antiquated views about
women and a few commonsense
ideas about riding your
bike.
But Desgrange’s position as
a journalist and father of the
Tour gives him a contemporary
resonance that directly
foreshadows all our shouty,
sweary debates on Twitter.
How he would have loved to
provoke and block, brooking
no argument or contrary
position, imposing his ideas
on hypermasculinity and the
threat of feminisation with a
vigour that would have won him
followers from Jordan Peterson
to Donald Trump.
H.D. The abstract loops and
whorls of those initials have
adorned one of the greatest
prizes in sport, the maillot jaune,
on and off since 1919. Black
against yellow for maximum
contrast and visibility. You can
imagine the hand that wrote
them, strong and sure, yet
impatient and ready to fight.
Autocratic, and hardened by
years of gripping his handlebars
in pursuit of excellence.
The father of the Tour, le patron,
Henri Antoine Desgrange
was born in Paris, on the
31st January, 1865. Henri
and his twin Georges-Leon
were born into a comfortably
middle-class home in the 10th
arrondissement, where his
father Jacques practiced as an
architect and his mother Marie-
Hortense arranged flowers
and kept house – we imagine.
Graduating with his bac a year
early, Henri earned the right to
practice law at the age of 20.
But Henri, with his dashing
moustache and slender build,
wasn’t meant for the stuffy
office of an avocat, with a stiff
white jabot at his throat and
a bespoke black robe draped
across his shoulders. And he’s
no juge Roban. In fact, rumour
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