The Silent Years

On September 1, 1939, as German forces invaded Poland, the cycling world held its collective breath. The Tour de France had concluded just six weeks earlier, with Belgian Sylvère Maes victorious in Paris. No one could have imagined that it would be seven years before riders would again race for the yellow jersey. The silence that descended on French roads spoke volumes about a nation under occupation and a sport that refused to collaborate.

The decision to suspend the Tour wasn't immediate. Henri Desgrange, aging and ill, initially hoped the war would be brief, like many who remembered 1914-1918. But as France fell in June 1940 and the nation split between German occupation and Vichy collaboration, the impossibility of staging the Tour became clear. More importantly, the moral implications of racing under Nazi oversight made continuation unthinkable for many.