Honoré Barthélémy

Honoré Barthélémy (1891 to 1964) was a French road bicycle racer, born in Paris, who rode the Tour de France in the years after the First World War. In the 1919 Tour he finished fifth overall and won four stages. His best known story comes from 1920, when he crashed on the stage to Aix-en-Provence, struggled on dazed and bloody, and discovered that a flint had lodged in his eye. He still finished the race, eighth overall, despite half-blindness, a broken shoulder and a dislocated wrist, and was carried in triumph at the finish. He later raced with a glass eye. In 1921 he finished third overall and won stage 12, and he last rode the Tour in 1927, abandoning on stage 9. He also won the Bol d'Or track race in 1925 and 1927.