Lucien Petit-Breton was the first man to win the Tour twice, and in consecutive years – 1907 and 1908. At a time when just completing the Tour was a challenge, winning it twice in row was an incredible achievement. He is also the winner of the inaugural Milano Sanremo in 1907 and the first foreign rider to be in the overall lead of the Giro d’Italia, in 1911. In the same year, he became only the second foreign rider to win a stage in the Giro, after Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq had done it the prior year. As with many great riders of his time, he also won the 1906 Paris Tours and the 1908 Paris Brussels.
As the ones more familiar with the French language probably already noted, Petit-Breton seems more like a nickname than an actual birthname. Petit-Breton’s birthname was Lucien Georges Mazan. At a young age, he moved with his family to Argentina where he developed his passion for cycling. His father did not approve of this, so, in order to hide his racing from his father, he rode under the name “Breton”, a reference to his home region in France.
In 1902, Lucien moved back to France. His aim was to become a professional cyclist. This would prove an easy task for Petit-Breton. His first participation in the Tour de France came in 1905, the Tour’s third edition. By this point, he was already a pretty well-known track rider, but unfamiliar on the road.
Between 1905-1906 he place twice in the top-5 of the Tour (5th and 4th) and got his first major road win: the 1906 Paris Tours, in front of reigning and former Tour champions Louis Trousselier and Henri Cormet.
That Paris Tours victory is Petit-Breton’s best achievement going into 1907 which is why he wasn’t considered one of the top favorites for the Tour. In 1907 he went on to add the first edition of the Milano Sanremo to his palmarés, beating future (1911) Tour winner Gustave Garrigou and 1905 Il Lombardia winner Giovanni Gerbi.
Now is a good time to mention that the rules of the Tour at the time were a little bit different, as explained here. Émile Georget led the Tour for a while, but, on stage 10, he was penalized for an illegal bike change. Initially he finished the stage in 4th place, but race-director Henri Desgrange decided to relegate him to last (48th). A 44-point swing. Given that the general classification (GC) was organized by points accumulated based on the stage finishes, the punishment effectively took Georget out of contention.
Petit-Breton took the race lead and no longer lost it, thereby winning his first Tour de France (along with two stages). He rode the whole Tour unaffiliated with any team, which makes his achievement even more spectacular. Furthermore, he won the GC in front of the man he beat earlier in the season for the Milano Sanremo by an astonishing 19 points. The same difference between 2nd and 4th that year. Remarkable for a rider riding solo. Émile Georget finished in 3rd place, 27 points behind.
Peugeot Wolber, the team of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, GC finishers did not make the same mistake in 1908, and recruited Petit-Breton. If he had been dominant the year before, he pulverized his competition that year (mainly from his own team) beating silver medalist François Faber (the following year’s Tour winner) by 32 points. Peugeot–Wolber got 7 of the first 8 places – only 5th placed Luigi Ganna was riding for a different team: Alcyon–Dunlop.
Speaking of teams, the 1908 Tour marked the last year of Peugeot’s dominance until 1913. In fact, the following year it was Alcyon with Faber, Garrigou, etc. to claim all top-5 places in the 1909 Tour.
The 1908 Tour was less exciting than its predecessor, with Lucien Petit-Breton taking sole possession of the GC lead after stage 3 and no longer relinquishing it. After the end of the 9th stage, he had a mere 18 points, while second placed Faber already had 57. Victory was all but certain at that point, which eventually materialized when the Tour arrived at the Parc des Princes. Lucien took the GC and five stage wins, in the second most-dominant performance of the “points era” of the Tour (36 vs 68 – 32-point advantage). Only Belgian Odile Defraye won it more decisively, in 1912, 59 points ahead of second place.
1908 would be the last edition of the Tour Lucien Petit-Breton would finish, despite participating in every one from 1910-1914.
In the twilight of his career, he still managed to be the first non-Italian GC leader of the Giro d’Italia, and just the second foreign rider to win a stage. Both of these accolades came in 1911.
Sadly, just like contemporary Octave Lapize, Petit-Breton would not live beyond the First World War. He died on the 20th of December of 1917 as a result of a traffic accident while serving in the French Army.
Lucien Petit-Breton is another great champion that lost his life too soon but not before leaving an indelible mark on the sport.