Maurice Garin
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Maurice-François Garin |
| Nickname | Le petit ramoneur The Little Chimney-sweep |
| Born |
3 March 1871 Arvier, Aosta Valley, Italy |
| Died | 19 February 1957 (aged 85) Lens, Pas-de-Calais,France |
| Height | 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in) |
| Weight | 60 kg (130 lb) |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road and track |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Distance rider |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| 1892 | Maubeuge cycling club |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1893–1904 | La Française |
| 1911 | La Française |
| Major wins | |
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Maurice-Francois Garin (pronounced: [mo.ʁis.fʁɑ̃.swa ɡa.ʁɛ̃]; 3 March 1871 – 19 February 1957) was an Italian-born French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with eight others, for cheating.
Garin was born the son of Maurice-Clément Garin and Maria Teresa Ozello in Arvier, in the French-speaking Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, close to the French border. The name Garin was the most common in the native village of Maurice, called "Chez-les-Garin", belonging to five of the seven families. They married in 1864 when he was a 36-year-old labourer and she a 19-year-old employee of the town's hotel. They had four daughters and five sons, of whom two were twins. Maurice was the first son. The cottage in which he was born, now a ruin, still exists.
In 1885 the family left Arvier to work on the other side of the Alps, as most Valdotainians did at that time. The wish for a better life is a likely explanation but does not suggest why they travelled so far, almost to the Belgian border. Speculation surrounds the move, possibly because it was in secret. To emigrate needed authority and mayors had been told by the sub-prefect of Aoste to refuse or at least make permission difficult. If the family travelled separately, it would explain the legend that Maurice, then 14, was exchanged for a round of cheese: it could have been payment to a guide to lead him clandestinely over the mountains or payment in return for custody of the son.
Garin worked as a chimney sweep, which again fits having been led individually across the mountains. Among the sub-prefect's reasons for stopping emigration was concern about "avid speculators who, claiming to teach a trade to young children, especially that of chimney sweep, set out to seduce their parents with promises and false hopes [to] get their children... to get a large profit from them by exploiting their fatigue, their misery and sometimes even their life.".
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