Tour de France: “You are assassins”, this emblematic runner who broke down in the middle of the stage

The 109th edition of the Tour de France was launched on July 1st. The big start took place in Copenhagen and the finish will be judged on July 24 in Paris, on the avenue des Champs-Élysées. This has been organized for several years now and it has also been marked by many events. In 1910, Octave Lapize was taking part in the Tour de France and he had lost his temper. The reason ? A step that was very difficult to overcome. This is the one between Luchon and Bayonne since there are 300 kilometers, 6,000 meters of elevation gain, and five passes to pass. This was very trying for the riders and Octave Lapize, then leader of the Tour de France, did not hesitate to let Henri Desgrange, its organizer, know. While he was at the top of the Aubisque, he had shouted: “You are killers!”, recalls Ouest France who had interviewed the Swiss runner Patrick Seabase, who was about to take the same step. “I wanted to feel, to understand what the runners of the time went through“, he explained in the columns of the media.

Octave Lapize made an impression and it is not Patrick Seabase who will say the opposite. During his interview in 2015, he spoke of his admiration for the runners. “You can imagine, they left in the middle of the night, July 21, 1910, at 3:30 a.m. With candles for light. They had very heavy bikes, the tires had nothing to do with now“, he recalled. If it was important for him to attempt this stage, it was in particular to give them back “a kind of tribute, to these 59 heroes who took the start of this terrible stage“, he continued, recalling that Octave Lapize had not let himself be done. “In 1910, the organizers of the Tour had decided for the first time to put a mountain stage on the program. That was it. Talk about a crazy step! I still wonder how they managed“, he said before saluting the courage of the runner. “Can you imagine the atmosphere? He still ended up winning after more than 14 hours of racing“, he concluded, very admiring of this feat. Despite the passage of time, Octave Lapize has never been forgotten.

Octave Lapize: who was the emblematic runner?

Octave Lapize is one of the greatest cycling champions France has ever known. Born in October 1887 in Paris, he first participated in the London Olympics in 1908 and finished third. In 1910, he stood out by winning the Tour de France but also thanks to his famous line that has become cult: “you are killers“. A few years later, in August 1914 and despite his deafnesshe was assigned to the 9th Train Squadron where he asked his transfer to the Air Forcenot. He joined the front in November 1916 and left for a new mission the year after.This was his last since no one has seen him alive since. He has was shot down on National Day above Flirey. Octave Lapize has been resting in Villiers-sur-Marne ever since. An important place for him since there is won his first victory in August 1906.