Entering The Tour De France
Legend says that Dargassies bought a bicycle so that he could ride 25 km to Montauban, as far to the north as Toulouse was to the south. Nobody in the family had left the immediate area. The shop owner had heard of a new race, the Tour de France, to be promoted that summer. He looked him up and down and said: "You could ride that, with muscles like yours." Dargassies wrote to L'Auto to say he wanted to take part. By the days before the start, he had heard nothing. He went to Paris anyway to meet the race director, Géo Lefèvre. There were few entrants from the south and Lefèvre, a Parisian, was entranced by Dargassie's country ways and his marked southern accent. He recounted the meeting in L'Auto:
- "My name is Dargassies and I've come from Grisolles."
- "Where?"
- "From Grisolles, near Montauban, and I've come to make inquiries."
- "About?"
- "Inquiries about the Tour de France."
- "But... You're already entered, I think.
- "Heavens, yes, I've entered! I just wanted to know what's going to happen."
- "You haven't read L'Auto?"
- L'Auto? I don't think anyone reads that in Monnetaubanne.'" (Lefèvre took pleasure in reproducing Dargassie's pronounce-every-letter southern accent.)
- "Where?"
- "Monnetaubanne, Tarn-et-Garonne."
- "Oh, Montauban!"
- "Yes. The man who sold me my bike told me there was a Tour de France race and he said: 'Dargaties, you're made for that.'"
Dargaties was the blacksmith's real name. Lefèvre misheard it. Jean Dargaties became known as Jean Dargassies. Lefèvre asked: "Tell me, have you ever actually ridden a cycle race?" Dargassies replied: "No, but I've ridden from Grisolles to Montauban and back and I didn't even have to try. I'm a blacksmith; I'm not worried about tiredness."
Read more about this topic: Jean Dargassies
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