During World War I, also known as “the Great War”, many cyclists were involved in the fights. Some of them losts their lives. Among the death casualities of the international cyclists community there were three former Tour de France winners.
François Faber (1887-1915)
He was the first foreign Tour de France winner (a Luxembourgian, but born in France) in 1909. His record of winning five consecutive stages within a race still stands. He joined the French Foreign Legion at the beginning of the war and was shot on the first day of the Battle of Artois (9 May 1915).
There are two stories about the circumstances of his death: he just received a telegram saying his wife gave birth to their daughter and he was shot when he jumped out of the thrench enthusiasticly. The other version of his dead is more realistic: he was carring an injured collegue from no man’s land as he was shot too.
Octave Lapize (1887-1917)
The first cyclist on the top of the Tourmalet, 3 times Paris-Roubaix winner (1909, 1910, 1911) Tour de France winner ( 1910) He was a pilot of the French Army and was shot down on the Bastille Day in 1917. He suffered serious injuries and died some days later.
Lucien Petit-Breton (1882-1917)
Winner of the Tour de France 1907 and 1908 and Milano-Sanremo in 1907. At the beginning of the war he was a taxi driver in Paris, so he was part of the famous car convoy which transported cca 6000 French soldiers to the northern part of the country right before the 1. Battle of the Marne. After it he joined the army and killed in a fatal accident caused by a drunken butcher with a horse-drawn cart in December 1917.