Henri Pélissier

Henri Pélissier, a French racing cyclist from Paris, lived from 22 January 1889 to 1 May 1935 and was the champion of the 1923 Tour de France. He began racing professionally in 1911 and, before the First World War, won the 1912 Milan-San Remo and three stages of the 1914 Tour de France. After the war he won Paris-Roubaix in 1919 and the second and final running of the Circuit des Champs de Bataille in 1920. He was known for his 29 career victories, for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions riders endured in the early years of the Tour. One of four brothers, three of whom became professional cyclists, he was killed by his lover with the gun that his wife had used to commit suicide.