The Bicycle Spy
Page 11
Twenty thousand fans poured into the Parc des Princes velodrome to cheer as Garin won both the stage and the first Tour de France. He was almost three hours ahead of his nearest competitor, Lucien Pothier. In total, Garin had been riding for more than ninety-five hours. His average speed was 15 miles per hour. When the race was over, only twenty-one of the sixty riders who entered completed the Tour. The last-place rider came in sixty-four hours after Garin.
Desgrange’s big gamble had paid off. Newspaper circulation soared during the race and a new tradition was born. Today, more than 110 years later, the Tour de France continues to be wildly popular with cycling fans all over the world. Boys and girls like Marcel and Delphine continue to idolize the cyclists’ remarkable athletic gifts and their fierce determination to win. Here are some fun facts about how the big race has evolved over time:
At first, Desgrange did not allow the use of multiple gears on the bicycles, and for many years insisted riders use bicycles with wooden rims, because he was afraid the heat of braking while coming down mountains would melt the glue that held the tires on metal rims. Metal rims were finally allowed in 1937.
In 1903, Desgrange had allowed riders who dropped out one day to continue the next for daily prizes but not the overall prize. In 1928, he allowed teams who had lost members to replace them halfway through the race.
Night riding was dropped after the second Tour in 1904. Riding in the dark made it just too easy to cheat.
Endurance was always a key element. Desgrange said his ideal race would be so hard that only one rider would make it to Paris.
The first three Tours stayed within France and ran around the perimeter of the country. Over the years, the cycling route expanded, and now Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland are part of the race. More difficult mountain routes, through the Pyrenees and the Alps, were also added.
Henri Desgrange planned a Tour for 1940, after the war had started but before France had been invaded. Then the Germans invaded and the race was not held again until 1947.
From 1984 to 1989, a women’s stage race was held, and in 2014, the last men’s stage was preceded by a women’s race, called La Course. It was won by Marianne Vos.
The Tour de France has always offered a big prize. In addition to money, prizes have also included cars, apartments, and artwork. In 1990, the prizes went back to being cash.
Four riders have won five times: Jacques Anquetil (France), Eddy Merckx (Belgium), Bernard Hinault (France), and Miguel Indurain (Spain). Indurain is the only rider to have won five consecutive times, from 1991 to 1995.
Baguette—A long, thin loaf of bread, traditional in France. The word baguette means wand in French.
Cassoulet—A French stew made of beans, herbs, sausage, and sometimes other meats, and simmered for several hours.
Collaborator—Term used by the French to describe the people who went along with the Germans, obeyed their orders, and carried out their plans.
Concentration camps—Camps where inmates were imprisoned and used as slave labor or, in many cases, murdered outright. Jews, Sinti and Roma, Communists, and homosexuals were just some of the people sent to the camps.
Cornichons—Small, hard, and very sharp-tasting, these tiny green pickles are commonly served in France.
Croissant—A flakey, crescent-shaped French pastry, often served for breakfast with butter and jam.
Free Zone—The southern part of France that was not initially occupied by the military, although by 1942, the Germans occupied the entire country.
Gendarme—A soldier, especially in France, serving in an army group acting as armed police with authority over civilians.
Gestapo—The official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. One of the Gestapo’s chief jobs was to hunt down and capture Jews.
Merci—Thank you in French.
Mon Dieu!—My God! in French.
Nazi Party—Started in 1920 and led by Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi for short) believed that Germans, especially those with blond hair and blue eyes, were a master race and deserved to dominate all other people.
Occupied Zone—The northern part of France that was taken over when the German army invaded the country in 1940.
Pain d’épice—Literally, spice bread in French. The French version of gingerbread.
Ration cards—Because food, fuel, and other essentials were all being used for the war effort, there were many shortages. People were issued cards by the government that allowed them to buy a limited amount of any given item. This way, no one could buy too much and try to resell these items at a higher price.
Resistance—A loosely formed underground movement of French citizens who opposed the Germans and worked secretly to overthrow them. When they could, Resistance members helped by hiding Jews or leading them safely out of France.
Swastika—A 5,000-year-old religious symbol common in ancient Greece, for example, and still found today in India and Indonesia. Adolf Hitler adopted it as the symbol of the Nazi party.
Touron—A sweet candy that is filled with nuts and dried fruit. It is a specialty of southwest France.
Vichy government—Vichy was the temporary French government set up in unoccupied France in 1940. The Vichy regime was fully cooperative with the invading Germans.
Zut and zut alors—French for heck or darn.
DK Eyewitness World War II, Simon Adams and Andy Crawford, DK Publishing, 2000
History Hits: Second World War: The Fun Bits of History You Don’t Know About, Callum Evans, Thought Junction Publishing, 2015
The Doll with the Yellow Star, Yona Zeldis McDonough, Henry Holt, 2005
Yona Zeldis McDonough is the award-winning author of twenty-seven books for children and seven novels for adults. Her essays, articles, and short fiction have appeared in numerous national and literary publications. She is also the fiction editor of Lilith magazine. McDonough lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two children.
Copyright © 2016 by Yona Zeldis McDonough
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While inspired by real events and historical characters, this is a work of fiction and does not claim to be historically accurate or portray factual events or relationships. Please keep in mind that references to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales may not be factually accurate, but rather fictionalized by the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McDonough, Yona Zeldis, author.
Title: The bicycle spy / Yona Zeldis McDonough.
Description: First edition. | New York : Scholastic Press, 2016. | Summary: Twelve-year-old Marcel loves riding his bicycle, and dreams of competing in the Tour de France, but it is 1942 and German soldiers are everywhere, stopping him as he delivers bread from his parents’ bakery around Aucoin—then one day he discovers that it is not just bread he is delivering, and suddenly he finds himself in position of dangerous secrets about his parents and his new friend from Paris, Delphine. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013790 | ISBN 9780545850957
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939-1945—Underground movements—France—Juvenile fiction. | Secrecy—Juvenile fiction. | Families—France—Juvenile fiction. | Jews—France—History—20th century—Juvenile fiction. | Cycling—Juvenile fiction. | Adventure stories. | War stories. | France—History—German occupation, 1940-1945—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: World War, 1939-1945—Underground movements—France—Fiction. | Secrets—Fiction. | Family life—France—Fiction. | Jews—France—Fiction. | Bicycles and bicycling—Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers—Fict
ion. | France—History—German occupation, 1940-1945—Fiction. | GSAFD: Adventure fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.M15655 Bi 2016 | DDC 813.54 [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013790
First edition, September 2016
Author photo by Keith Price
Jacket art © 2016 by Mike Heath
Jacket design by Ellen Duda
e-ISBN 978-0-545-85182-4
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