that in Monnetaubanne.'''" (Lefèvre took pleasure in reproducing Dargassie's pronounce-every-letter southern accent.) "Where?" "Monnetaubanne'', Tarn-et-Garonne." "Oh, Montauban!" "Yes. The man who sold me my bike told me there was a Tour de France race and he said: 'Dargaties, you're made for that.'" Dargaties was the blacksmith's real name. Lefèvre misheard it. Jean Dargaties became known as Jean Dargassies. Lefèvre asked: "Tell me, have you ever actually ridden a cycle race?" Dargassies replied: "No, but I've ridden from Grisolles to Montauban and back and I didn't even have to try. I'm a blacksmith; I'm not worried about tiredness." Riding the Tour de France The first Tour de France started at Montgeron, south of Paris. By Toulouse he was one of 30 left in the race. With them he left the city in the night and led the race as it passed through his village. Lefèvre reported: "The whole of Grisolles is by the side of the road. They're here to see Dargassies, the champion of the region. When he rode by, every voice shouted in encouragement, in a long avenue of people all the way to Montauban." Dargassies was three minutes behind the leaders as he came through Montauban and his front fork had broken. As a blacksmith, he had no trouble finding a colleague to make a repair. In Paris he finished 11th, 13 hours behind the winner, Maurice Garin. His prize: 145 francs. When he got home to Grisolles he sent a telegram to Lefèvre: "Got back home today. All my compatriots are crazy, crazier than me. Everybody at the station, music, flowers, speech. Fame! Fame!" He rode the Tour again in 1904 and finished fourth, lifted from 10th by disqualifications of the best riders for cheating. This time he won 1,000 francs. The first domestique Dargassies rode the Tour in 1905. There he met another rider, Henri Pépin, a prosperous landowner from Gontaud-de-Nogaret, east of Bordeaux. The two made a deal that Dargassies and another rider, Henri Gauban, would pace Pépin round the 1907 event. Instead of racing, they would take their time, stop at good restaurants, spend the night in the best hotels they could find. In return, Pépin would pay his helpers what they would have received had they won the race. As hired hands sacrificing their own hopes for their leader's, Dargassies and Gauban became cycling's first domestiques, although the word wasn't coined until later.