A story of stubbornness, bad luck, and accomplishment exemplifying the cruelty of cycling is that of Charles Crupelandt, "the bull of Roubaix" (or even the bull of the North).
[Read to the end to check the results of the latest giveaway and get a new surprise].
Born on October 23, 1886, of a poor family, since childhood his dream is to ride the track of the local velodrome in Roubaix. He will do it showing himself as a powerful sprinter, as powerful is his physique. He is noticed above all for his head: that of someone who never gives up. With a well planted dream like a nail in that head: to win the race of house, the Paris-Roubaix.
He turns professional at the age of 18, but doesn't combine much until the age of 24.
In 1910 he arrives 5° to the Roubaix, but the same year the first stage of the Tour de France is practically a copy: start from Paris and arrival in Roubaix. Crupelandt wins in front of the superstars of the time: Cyrille Van Hauwaert, Octave Lapize and François Faber. The following day he will lose the yellow jersey, but he will also win the 11th stage, Bordeaux-Bayonne but he was demoted for having hindered incorrectly the Italian Luigi Azzini in the sprint.
In the following edition of Tour de France, Crupelandt will win 2 stages. In the 1911 edition the shortest stage of the Tour was 289km (470km the longest). Crupelandt wins the Belfort-Chamonix (344km) and the Nice-Marseille (334km). The Belfort-Chamonix stage is a mountain stage, and Crupelandt thus establishes himself as the first climber-passer in history (a versatile athlete).
His dream comes true in 1912: Crupelandt wins the Paris-Roubaix in a sprint ahead of Gustave Garrigou. With one of the rare help of luck: Maurice Léturgie, a young outsider (also born in Roubaix) falls, when he is leading the race, about a hundred meters from the entrance to the velodrome.
There are 100,000 people inside and outside the velodrome to celebrate the first Roubaix victory of "l'enfant du pays", Crupelandt.
The following year Crupelandt will arrive 3rd, while he will win the Roubaix again in 1914. To this day he remains the only native of Roubaix to have won the hell of the north.
Today the last cobbled section of Roubaix, the one that leads to the velodrome, is called "Secteur Crupelandt".
But the career of the Roubaix bull was not as linear and successful as it would seem at first glance.
In 1913, he fell in a track race on June 16 breaking his collarbone. They bandaged him up and sent him home. Crupelandt was resigned to not racing the Tour de France, which would start on June 29. The owner of his team, however, does not want to know to deprive himself of his leading man, so he sends him to Paris, where Dr. Dujarier, the greatest specialist of the time, operates on June 20. On June 29 he is at the departure of the Tour.
Charles Crupelandt, 1914 portrait
During the third stage, a dog crosses the road downhill in the city of Baccarat. Crupelandt doesn't manage to avoid it and makes a 15mt flight. He is carried by spectators, unconscious, to the local pharmacist. He has a dislocated kneecap. He retires.
In 1914 beyond to the Roubaix it is national champion and arrives 3° to the Milan-Sanremo. That he is a lucky guy is demonstrated by the fact that at the time of the declaration of war is at a track race in Berlin. It will return in train to Paris under false name closed in the toilet for all the trip.
Back home he is sent to the front. He is seriously wounded in 1915. He is decorated for "acts of heroism" with the war cross. After the wound he is assigned as an army attaché to supervise Renault's automobile vehicle factories on the outskirts of Paris. There he gets involved in a traffic of batteries by some workers with underworld ties. The theft of materials during the war is not something that they took lightly in France. Crupelandt served 2 years in prison from 1918 to 1920.
When he got out of prison he wanted to return to racing, but the sentence prevented him from being a member of the French federation. Despite the pressure of a part of the public and some journalists, he was not able to join. Rumors of the time told of a pressure of some of his colleagues not to let him have the license and get rid of an opponent.
To make ends meet, Crupelandt joined a parallel federation, the Société des Courses, and was thus able to run at least the national championships, which he won in 1922 and 1923, but at the time they were races of little prestige.
His dream was always the Roubaix. But without a federation card, it was an impossible dream. At the end Crupelandt slipped into the group during the 1923 edition, without a number on his back, as a "Portuguese". Obviously he didn't enter in the classification, but he arrived in the group of the first ones.
In 1924 he retired from racing, and opened his own brand of bicycles Cycles Crupelandt. Enterprise that failed shortly after. Crupelandt abandoned the world of cycling and opened a small bar in Roubaix.
In April 1943 he is arrested for having purchased coal contraband. The following month he was arrested again for being found in possession of 23kg of wheat and 85 eggs, also contraband. He is not condemned, but must pay fines with which he loses his bar. He begins a painful journey into misery and depression.
Added to this is diabetes, which makes him blind. In 1955 both his legs are amputated. He died on February 18 of that year at the age of 68.
Today Crupelandt is certainly not a very remembered champion, especially outside France. He remains in the history for his Roubaix and for being immortalized in the first painting of contemporary art representing the sport: Au vélodrome, by Jean Metzinger, who used as a model Crupelandt photographed in Roubaix in 1912. The painting is on display at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.
(Au Vélodrome), 1912
Oil and collage on canvas, 130.4 x 97.1 cm
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice 76.2553 PG 18
JANUARY 6 GIVEAWAY RESULTS and NEW NFT DROP
The prizes from the January 6 giveaway have all been submitted.
The mint #1 was won by @Sergioioio5 congratulations.
Thank you also to all participants
@1971chs @CMO2021 @Feax21 @GR333N @BenChWarmer @ciuoto @ifiwasfrank @Etrusco @Cuteimma1 @LeggoSolo1 @josephbr @dubliker @Panofsky81 @EHEHESIUUU @hectoriousss @Madhu1 @Nihilio_0 @Boomshankaar @CryptoBoardy @potatooth @Frena91@Mok @Tonydec @Zoic @IvanSlait @Upsetter
There will also be a drop on AtomicHub shortly of another sticker promo.
The private link will only be disclosed on the official Heroes on Bike telegram channel, few seconds before the drop start.
always stay tuned
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