Henri Pépin (born France, 18 November 1864, died Bordeaux, 1914) was an affluent French racing cyclist who once hired two riders to escort him leisurely through the Tour de France, in which they ate at good restaurants and spent the night in expensive hotels. When he had had enough, he paid his assistants – the first domestiques in cycle racing – what they would have earned had they won the Tour and went home by train. Tour de France The Tour which made Pépin celebrated started at the Porte Bineau in Paris on 8 July 1907. Pépin, whom reporters quickly turned into a count or a baron (see below) was rider number 59 in a peloton of 112. He had hired two riders, Jean Dargassies and Henri Gauban to ride with him. Far from competing with the favourites, Gustave Garrigou, Émile Georget and Lucien Petit-Breton, Pépin planned to treat the race as a pleasure ride, stopping for lunch when they chose and spending the night in the best hotels they could find. The race left the Porte Bineau at 5.30am but without Pépin, Gauban and Dargassies. Pierre Chany reports that Pépin was in conversation with a lady, occasionally raising his hat to other women and blowing kisses. The bunch had already left for its eight-hour ride to Roubaix, but only when Pepin was ready did he say: The three riders never separated, never hurried. They took 12 hours and 20 minutes longer than Georget on the stage from Roubaix to Metz – they were far from last – and the judges were powerless because the race was decided not on time but points. It mattered less what speed riders competed than the order in which they crossed the line. In an era when riders could be separated by hours, there was no point in hurrying after a rival who could not be caught and passed. The judges had to wait for everyone. One day the trio came across another rider, not on the road but lying in a ditch. Somewhere between Lyon and Grenoble on stage five – three times the direct distance the way the race went – Pépin pulled out the money he had promised his little team and set off for the train home. Dargassies joined Pépin on the train. Gauban carried on, finishing 36th in stage six, 27th on stage four. By stage eight he was