“C’EST UN DOMESTIQUE” He is just a servant. This was Henri Desgrange’s opinion about Maurice Brocco, who offered his services to help other riders at the Tour de France in 1911.
And one of the most famous cycling terms was born.
Desgrange, “the father of the Tour de France” had the strict opinion, that someone who doesn’t fight for his own success isn’t a real sportsman (and isn’t a gentleman either), and the Tour de France should be a competition for individual riders. Helping other riders was against the rules those days.
Brocco’s chances to win the Tour disappeared quite early and he offered his services for other riders. Another strange rule allowed him even to continue the race without finishing a stage (9th), however, without competing for the GC (but it wasn’t the case for him anyway).
Brocco was a talented rider in a good shape that year and he won the 10th stage 34 minutes ahead of the 2nd placed rider. But Desgrange still had the opinion Brocco has to be ejected from the race.
Nowadays the term “domestique” is an everyday word in the world of road cycling.
Fun fact: the Italian term of this role “gregario” means soldier (among other meanings), which shows pretty well, that people in Italy were thinking about the role of a helper at a cycling race quite differently those days.