Maurice Ville

Philippe Maurice Ville (born October 30, 1901 in Saint-Denis , † April 12, 1982 in Bobigny ) was a French cyclist and pacemaker .

Maurice Ville was a professional racing driver from 1923 to 1928. In 1923 he won the Tour of Catalonia , in 1924 he finished second behind Jules Vanhevel at Paris-Roubaix . He also won other races such as the Tour du Vaucluse (1924) and Brussels-Paris (1927).

In 1924 Ville took part in the Tour de France , but gave up together with his friends Francis and Henri Pélissier after the third stage, although he was in second place at that time. Above all, last year's winner Henri Pélissier was angry about the supposedly "harassing" interpretations of the rules. In a subsequent interview with the French journalist Albert Londres , the three racing drivers complained about the rigors of the tour and also reported on doping practices by spreading their "remedies" such as chloroform and cocaine on the table. In 1927 Ville drove for the Opel ZR III team .

After retiring as a cyclist, Maurice became a successful pacemaker in standing races . He led drivers to the world championship title four times: in 1938 the German Erich Metze , in 1952 , 1953 and 1954 the Belgian Adolph Verschueren .

Web links

• Maurice Ville in the database of Radsportseiten.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ svl.ch: 100 years of doping ( memento of the original from December 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ encyclique.com: Albert Londres: Les Forçats de la route: l'abandon des frères Pélissier ( Memento of February 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )