the event was 450,000 francs (about €1,200,000 in 2006), made up of a number of separate prizes for the various stages of the race. Death and commemoration Lemartin died in a crash on 18 June 1911 during the first leg of Le Circuit Européen (Tour of Europe) air race. He was still within sight of the reportedly 'up to 1 million' spectators at the take-off in Vincennes. The Circuit Européen (Tour of Europe) was his first competition. The night before his departure from Vincennes, he was working on the machines of his teammates Gustav Hamel and Lieutenant Jean Louis Conneau (flying under the name André Beaumont) who went on to win both Le Circuit Européen and Paris-Rome. Thus the next morning, 18 June, Lemartin was tired. That morning, the weather was not good and Roland Garros, who was the first to start, had to scratch. He advised Lemartin against flying because "les ailes souples ne vont pas tenir!" ("the wings are too flexible and will not hold"), but Lemartin wanted to achieve his dream of racing before a million spectators. According to the New York Times of 19 June 1911: The wind was rising at the start of the contest, and Le Martin, who was one of the most experienced aviators in France, rocked about a good deal as his machine left the ground and swept across the field. His aeroplane had reached the woods, a quarter of a mile beyond the barriers, when it was observed to pitch swiftly downward and into the trees. Le Martin was using a biplane, [sic] which was broken badly as it fell at the foot of an oak tree. A corner of the motor struck Le Martin's head, crushing his skull, and his right leg was also broken in two places. The aviator was barely alive when he was taken away by Red Cross surgeons, whose stations surrounded the field. The crowds removed their hats as the wounded aviator was carried past, or as word passed among the people that he was dead. Le Martin was alive when he reached the hospital, but expired a few minutes afterwards. Soon after the crash, Madame Bleriot arrived at the site. Ernest Monis, the Prime Minister of France, who was a spectator, sent his doctor, but Lemartin died on arrival at the hospital Saint-Antoine in Vincennes. Coincidentally, two other pilots in the race were killed in