Achille Germain, born May 5, 1884 in Beaupréau (Maine-et-Loire) and died April 12, 1938 in La Flèche (Sarthe), was a French track cyclist.
A professional from 1905 to 1919, he won many local events, but also shone on the velodromes of Paris, where he gained a great reputation in middle-distance races, notably taking third place in the French championship in 1914. Second in the Six Jours de Toulouse in 1906, in partnership with Jean Gauban, he also participated twice in the Six Jours de New York, and took part in the first Six Jours de Paris in 1913.
Achille Germain, nicknamed “Germain de la Flèche” by his followers, also competed in road races, taking part in the 1908 Tour de France, where he placed 16th, achieving his best result with an eighth-place finish on the tenth stage to Bordeaux. The following year, he won a stage in the Circuit de la Loire and finished second overall.
Mobilized as a corporal cyclist with the 317th infantry regiment during the First World War, he retired from the sport in 1919 following an injury sustained during the conflict. He retired to La Flèche to run a cycle repair shop, and became so involved in local life that he was elected town councillor in his final years.
Biography
Early cycling career
Achille Germain was born in Beaupréau, Maine-et-Loire, on May 5, 1884, but his family moved to La Flèche, Sarthe, when he was still very young1. His beginnings in cycling were fairly modest. He took part in his first races in his adopted town in 1902, at the July 14th races held on the Promenade du Pré. He came second in the bonus race2.
The following year, he joined the newly-formed Union vélocipédique fléchoise (UVF), and at the same July 14th meeting, came second in the speed final and third in the bonus race. On September 20, he finished second in the 100-kilometer UVF Cup behind Mareau from Mance, a member of the Union Auto-Cycliste de la Sarthe2.
Like many racers of the time, Achille Germain took part in both road and track events. On April 4, 1904, at the opening of the Fléchois velodrome on rue Belleborde, he scored his first victory in the middle-distance race, which he won by half a lap over his rivals. The same day, he reached the final of the sprint race, where he was narrowly beaten by Tubières3 from Mance. He went on to achieve good results on the Fléchoise track, finishing third in the Sarthe departmental championship and then in the La Flèche championship in June, and fourth in the regional final the following month, an event won by Nantes rider Hardy3.
On July 31, Germain scored a prestigious success on the track of the Buffalo velodrome in Neuilly, clearly dominating the 10-kilometer bonus race. During the event, he won the last five of the ten intermediate sprints, pocketing a ten-franc bonus each time4. Back in La Flèche in September, he took second place in the UVF speed championship behind clubmate Albert Leroy, who had just taken part in the Tour de France3.
Professional racer
A benchmark in track racing (1905-1907)
In 1905, Achille Germain, now a 3rd category professional racer, established himself as one of the best cyclists in his region. On the Fléchois velodrome on March 26, he won the speed event, the 45-lap race behind the bike and the bonus race, a domination he repeated on April 24, when he won the Sarthe departmental speed championship, held on the same track, as well as the 25 km race and the bonus race3. At the end of the summer, he scored two further successes, with the Grand Prix de Tours on September 9 and the Grand Prix de Montluçon the following day, both in the middle-distance race5. He also distinguished himself in more modest competitions, such as the 4-kilometer cantonal race he won in Verron in early October5, or at folklore events: the Pinder circus was visiting La Flèche, and Achille Germain competed with several Fléchois amateurs on the “Canadian track”, a 6.5-meter-diameter construction of wooden rungs spaced ten centimeters apart and inclined at 75 degrees. After an unsuccessful first attempt, he achieved the best performance of the participants, completing eight laps of the track6.
During the winter of 1905-1906, Achille Germain trained alongside the best specialists of the day on the Vélodrome d'Hiver track in Paris. He can see the gap that still separates him from the leading racers, but his persistence in training is noticed. Along with Georges Parent, he was chosen to join the coaching team of Henri Cornet, winner of the 1904 Tour de France, in a 50-kilometer tandem matchNote 1 against Karl Ingold. Cornet won by nine laps. At the same meeting, Germain made his mark as an individual in the 15-kilometer race behind motorcycles. Third behind Paul Rugère and Anton Jaeck, his offensive behavior throughout the race was praised by the spectators7. On February 18, he teamed up with Denmark's Axel Hansen in the American-style Twelve Hours race, in which the two competitors took turns at will. At the end of the race, fourteen teams were still classified in the same lap: victory was therefore decided over six laps between the best sprinters in each team. Hansen initially placed fourth, but the commissaires were slow to validate the results after a crash on the last lap. The race was eventually cancelled7. On March 4, a meeting was held at the La Flèche velodrome, bringing together a number of well-known riders. On his home turf, Achille Germain took third place in the bonus race behind Charles Vanoni and Victor Thuau, before losing out to César Simar, Olympic medalist two years earlier, in the 10-kilometer race behind the bike8.
The outdoor season brought him many successes. On April 23, 1906, in La Flèche, he won the 15-kilometer race behind motorcycles ahead of Arthur Pasquier, then set the track record over 10 kilometers8. The following week, in Tours, he won the 50 kilometer race behind motorcycles, again ahead of Pasquier, then shared victory with Jean Gougoltz in the Grand Prix du Conseil Général in Nantes on May 6. His performances attracted the goodwill of the newspaper L'Auto, which had already dubbed him “Germain de la Flèche”: “The middle-distance race went very easily to the Fléchois crack, Germain. This fellow is about to play a major role8 “.