Marius Thé

Marius Thé (1903) with a Buchet motorcycle

Marius Antoine Thé (born September 24, 1871 in Marseille , † September 10, 1915 in Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise ) was a French cyclist and pacemaker .

Marius Thé was a professional cyclist from 1891 to 1899 and was considered one of the best long-term cyclists on the road and rail . In 1891 he won the Marseille-Avignon-Marseille race and in 1892 took second place at Paris-St. Malo . In 1896 he was third at Bordeaux-Paris - behind the two first-placed Arthur Linton and Gaston Rivierre - and in 1897 he won Marseille-Nice . In 1899, he finished second in the Bol d'Or 24-hour race .

After retiring as a racing cyclist, Thé switched to the pacemakers of standing races . He was one of the first to try a motorized tour (at the beginning of cycling, pacemakers rode multi-seat bicycles), also with an electric drive. He became famous, however, because from 1902 he helped the single-seat guide motorized lower wheel achieve its breakthrough, which made him the “father of modern pacemaker”. Thé was a conspicuous figure on the cycling track , with a martial mustache, who wore his flat cap preferably with the peak back. One of his standard partners in standing races was the British cyclist Tom Linton , with whom he set several hourly world records.

Marius Thé died as a soldier at the front in World War I.

literature

Toni Theilmeier: The wild, daring hunt. The rise of professional standing sport in Germany. The early years up to 1910 (= series of publications on bicycle history. Vol. 6). Maxime, Verlag Kutschera, Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-931965-23-5 .

Individual evidence

↑ Theilmeier, p. 105. In a short phase between multi-seat bicycles and single-seat low-powered bicycles, “motor tandems” were common with a crew of two who had to pedal themselves to support the engine.

Web links

Commons : Marius Thé - collection of images, videos and audio files

Marius Thé in the Radsportseiten.net database

Personal document from the French Ministry of Defense of Marius Thé

Marius Thé on lepetitbraquet.free.fr ( Memento of February 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

personal data
SURNAME	Thé, Marius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Thé, Marius Antoine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French cyclist and pacemaker
DATE OF BIRTH	September 24, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH	Marseille
DATE OF DEATH	September 10, 1915
Place of death	Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise

[1] Theilmeier, p. 105. In a short phase between multi-seat bicycles and single-seat low-powered bicycles, “motor tandems” were common with a crew of two who had to pedal themselves to support the engine.