Pierre Chany covered the Tour de France 49 times and was for a long time the main cycling writer for the daily newspaper, L'Equipe.
21 Facts About Pierre Chany
1.
2.
Pierre Chany grew up there and, in his teens, escaped from the city on his bicycle, sometimes riding as far as Melun.
3.
Pierre Chany became interested in cycle-racing after reading L'Auto, Paris-Soir and Match and looking at sepia pictures of riders such as Andre Leducq.
4.
Pierre Chany rode several races, including the Premier Pas Dunlop event which in other years showed the talent of young riders such as Louison Bobet and Raphael Geminiani.
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Pierre Chany raced for five years and then, in 1942 when he was 20, went into hiding rather than be sent to Germany as a worker.
6.
Pierre Chany was arrested and jailed first at Puy-en-Velay and then Riom.
7.
Pierre Chany escaped - on his birthday - from a train taking him to Germany.
8.
Pierre Chany joined a branch of the Resistance, the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, then joined an Algerian regiment.
9.
Pierre Chany was wounded three times and awarded the Croix de Guerre.
10.
Pierre Chany then took a job with Front National, a Resistance publication edited by Jacques Debu-Bridel.
11.
Pierre Chany was to replace Albert Baker d'Isy, an author and one of France's best-known contemporary writers.
12.
Pierre Chany was head of cycling there from 1953 to 1987.
13.
Pierre Chany wrote under the pen name Jacques Perillat for 'Miroir Sprint and 'Miroir du Cyclisme'.
14.
Pierre Chany insisted that L'Equipe's editor, Jacques Goddet, knew Pierre Chany was doing it but chose to say nothing rather than lose his leading cycling writer.
15.
Pierre Chany wrote not only journalistic pieces but numerous other works, including books of cycling history which went to several new editions.
16.
Pierre Chany wrote a history of the Tour de France and then of the cycling classics and the world championships.
17.
Pierre Chany wrote a history of all cycle racing from the days of the first bicycle to his death in 1996.
18.
Pierre Chany wrote biographies of Fausto Coppi and Jacques Anquetil and a novel called Une Longue Echappee - A Long Break, a reference to a group of cyclists breaking away from the main field.
19.
Pierre Chany received the Prix Martini in 1967 for the best sports article of the year and the Grand Prix of Sporting Literature in 1972 for his work on the Tour de France.
20.
The Prix Pierre Chany is awarded each year to the writer of the season's best cycling work in French.
21.
Pierre Chany sat through a succession of interviews with the writer Christophe Penot, who planned to publish them under the title Pierre Chany, l'homme aux 50 Tours de France.