Stopped since the victory of Belgian Sylvère Maes in July 1939, the Grande Boucle saw the collaborationist daily “La France Socialiste” launch another stage race across France in 1942. An ersatz that fell into oblivion due to its disordered and constrained organization.
It is a particularly misunderstood page of history. On the occasion of the release of his novel The forces of the road, to editions Highlight, the journalist Etienne Bonamy returns to the episode of the Circuit de France. A pale copy of the Tour de France, organized under the Occupation. Because if it was created in 1903 by the newspaper Car (ancestor of The Team), the Grande Boucle, whose 110th edition starts on Saturday July 1, was put on hold after the victory of Sylvère Maes in 1939.
After the death of Henri Desgrange in 1940, when Nazi Germany had just invaded France, it was a certain Jacques Goddet who took over as head of operations on the Tour. But while the Occupation and the Vichy regime demanded the organization of the race, the new boss refused. Result: in 1942, the case was finally entrusted to Jean Leulliot, a former reporter for Car now head of sports at collaborationist newspaper Socialist France. The event is held – not without difficulty – from September 28 to October 4 of the same year. Now 102 years old, his last witness is one of the protagonists of Etienne Bonamy’s novel, to whom he shared his memories.
Runners forced to participate
This former rider is Emile Idée, originally from Picard and crowned at the French championships in 1942 in Lyon, a few days before the start of this ersatz Tour. A status that constrains him. “For Jean Leulliot, the absence of the wearer of the blue-white-red jersey on the Circuit was unthinkable. As Emile had been caught a year before, after crossing the demarcation line to take part in a race and that he was very marked by his time in prison alongside future deportees, he put pressure on him”explains Etienne Bonamy, restoring the stories from the memory of the champion.
“I didn’t want to race this Circuit de France, precisely explained the veteran cyclist in the columns of the World in 2022. I never liked stage races and then, Leulliot and his newspaper, they were the collaborators. But he threatened to report me to the Germans.” If he did not align himself, Emile Idée risked being sent to the Compulsory Labor Service (STO) or to a camp on the other side of the Rhine. Uncomfortable in stage races, the young man, 22 at the time, was a regular cyclist at Vel’ d’Hiv’, where 13,000 Jews were rounded up on July 16 and 17, 1942 without let him know.
He took the start, as a non-specialist, alongside the 71 other participants, mainly French or Belgian. “They certainly received bonuses, but above all belonged to the 12 teams convinced by La France sociale. The runners therefore did not have much choice to say no. In addition, it was only for one week of racing”details the author who immersed himself in the archives of the time.
A disastrous organization
On the program, 1,650 km over six days (i.e. an average of 275 km per stage) and a loop from Paris to Paris, via Le Mans, Poitiers, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand, Saint-Etienne, Lyon and Dijon. A course similar to the first editions of the Tour de France, still rudimentary, forty years earlier. Very quickly, the race but especially the runners – guts on the chest as at the beginning of the century – suffered from a badly put together organization. “The idea of the Germans was to show that sport was stronger than anything, with their ideals linked to the body and physical strength. They did not realize the climatic conditions of the beginning of October which hit the runners in their flesh”recalls Etienne Bonamy.
“Like everyone at the time, the runners used ration tickets given by their teams. But for lack of sufficient money and lack of space in the mostly bankrupt hotels along the route, they slept in seminars or high school dorms after riding all day.”
Etienne Bonamy, author of the book “The forces of the road”at franceinfo: sport
Despite the presence of many spectators at the start and finish of the too long stages, the context of war is also felt in the peloton. Whether it is the evenings punctuated by curfews or when crossing the line of demarcation between the occupied zone and the free zone. At Jardres, in Vienne, cyclists thus lose almost three hours at the checkpoint in the middle of a stage. “What is quite striking when you go back to the press of the time, collaborator or not, is that it seems normal. For us, it seems unreal but the newspapers told the race by mentioning a simple waste of time to this level. It’s like telling a football match in Ukraine while eclipsing a bomb threat”, notes the one who was editor at The Team.
A fiasco never renewed
If the Belgian François Neuville finally wins the leader’s black and white striped jersey, only 29 competitors arrive in Paris at the end of this week of racing. The Circuit de France is a major fiasco and it will never be renewed. In the months that followed, the Germans were mainly concerned with the progress of the Allies and the Resistance that had landed in Algeria in November 1942.
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Saved by the testimonies of his colleagues at the Liberation, Jean Leulliot will finally become a recognized race director and will relaunch Paris-Nice in 1951. “Without exonerating him from his collaborationist acts, I believe that being the boss of the Circuit de France was essentially for him a question of ego, of personal ambition. He was driven by the desire to show that the we could organize a Grand Tour despite the circumstances”Judge Etienne Bonamy.
It will be necessary to wait until 1947 and the foundation of The Team by Jacques Goddet so that the Tour de France and its famous yellow tunic make their comeback. Emile Idée will be there with his second French champion jersey on his back. He will even win a stage two years later, on July 14 moreover. Enough to make people forget this Circuit de France once and for all.