Émile Friol

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Émile Friol

Émile Friol (born March 6, 1881 in Tain-l'Hermitage , † November 6, 1916 in Dury ) was a French cyclist .

Émile Friol was born in a small town 80 kilometers south of Lyon. He first learned to be a mechanic. He also took part in small amateur races in his homeland.

After serving in the military in Briançon, Friol moved to Paris in 1904 to become a professional. There he trained together with the successful German racing driver Henri Mayer . He subsequently won the sprint world championship twice (1907 and 1910). He was French champion five times in this discipline, four times alone (along with many other grand prizes) the track classic Grand Prix de Paris .

A duel between the Friol and his German friend Henri Mayer, of all things, led to a rift between the Association of German Cyclists and the UCI at the World Cup in Brussels in 1910 . Friol won an intermediate run, wrongly in the opinion of the BDR. As a result, all German drivers were withdrawn from the World Cup and the BDR withdrew from the UCI. An agreement was not reached again until 1912.

In 1916, Friol died during his service as a soldier in the First World War on the Western Front as a result of a motorcycle accident.

Trivia

On May 29, 1910, Friol started a match against the then best French short-distance runner Figour. Friol covered 600 meters in 43 seconds, his opponent ran 300 meters in 41 seconds.

literature

  • Hans Borowik : 300 racing drivers in one volume. Short biographies. Deutscher Schriftenverlag, Berlin 1937.
  • Wheel world . Sports album. A cycling yearbook. 4th year, 1905, ZDB -ID 749618-7 .

Web links

Commons : Émile Friol  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Hervé Paturle, Guillaume Rebière: Un siècle de cyclisme . Calmann- Lévy, Paris 1997, p. 62 (French).