Émile Pagie


Émile Louis Pagie was a French road cyclist of Belgian origin. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1915 after retiring from professional cycling. He was a main competitor in the inaugural 1903 Tour de France.

Biography

Émile Louis Pagie was born on 8 January 1883 in Wervicq-Sud, a French town on the border with Belgium, to Belgian parents. He was the younger brother of cyclist Paul Pagie.
In 1903, he rode in the first-ever Tour de France. During the opening stage from Paris to Lyon, Pagie escaped alongside Maurice Garin and Léon Georget. Georget suffered a puncture before reaching Nevers, leaving Garin and Pagie alone at the front. The two pushed a hard pace and gradually increased their lead, passing through all checkpoints together, including the, before racing toward Lyon. Near the finish, Garin took advantage of a crash by Pagie just from the line to win the stage in a time of 17h 45m 13s. Pagie finished less than a minute behind, while third-placed Georget arrived with a delay of nearly 35 minutes.
He also competed in other main cycling races and won in 1903 and had three times a top-10 finish at Paris–Roubaix.
On the morning of 1 August 1937 in Neuilly-sur-Marne, after breaking off a relationship with his partner Lucie Cloarec, a 41-year-old nurse at the Ville-Évrard asylum, Pagie shot her multiple times, seriously wounding her, before taking his own life with a shot to the heart.

Major results

1899