“H as in Habierre Joseph”, a text by Christian Laborde, “Le Tour de France”

“The first Spanish rider in the Tour de France is not, as is often written, Vicente Blanco, known as Le Boiteux, but Joseph Habierre, French name of the Aragonese José Maria Javierre Rapaun. José Maria was born on February 4, 1881, in Jaca, into a poor family. A family with 5 children: Miguel, Candida, José Maria, Luis, Damacio. A family that shares its roof with two other equally poor families. Poverty, cholera, smallpox: this is Aragon where José Maria lives. The epidemic kills his father Busto. Orosia is alone now with 5 children to feed. Leave. We have to leave. Cross the Pyrenees, the border, reach France. As so many families in Aragon do. Once the border is crossed, Orosia arrives, with little ones and bundles to Lescar. José Maria becomes a stone breaker in a quarry at the age of fifteen and calls himself not Javierre but Habierre. He becomes Joseph Habierre. He feels French. Besides, he speaks the French language. He also speaks Occitan. Occitan is the language of other stone breakers who hire people like him at 5 a.m. Joseph was 17 years old when he bought his first bike. When he's not breaking stones, he pedals like crazy, like a madman, never tired, kidneys of steel, legs of fire. Here he is running. Here he is, the terror of Béarn. He won Monein Artix Monein then Pau - Puyoô - Pau. Terror, yes, because he wins both on the road and on the track of the Pau velodrome, in Bois-Louis. He tells Orosia that he wants to do the Tour de France. He is going to do it. He signs up. When registering, he indicates that his name is Joseph Habierre and that he is French. It's a little lie, the French nationality requested has not yet been granted to him. On July 5, 1909, Joseph Habierre took the start of the Tour, on an Alcyon bike, in the “isolated” category. He is undoubtedly the only rider in the peloton to speak three languages: French, Spanish and Occitan. Habierre fights, alone, like the other isolated runners. He fights and suffers in the third stage Metz Belfort, 259 miles. He crossed the finish line in pieces, in pieces, boneless, dead. The Tour is hard, exhausting. But breaking stones: carrying two cubic meters of stone per day is even harder. This is what Joseph told himself, to drive the desire to give up from his mind. He did not give up and, on July 21, during the Toulouse - Bayonne stage, he left the peloton to enter the lead in his town, Lescar. Joseph Habierre takes the lead in Lescar. In front of him, above the road, held by two wooden pylons, a banner. What does the banner say? She says “Long live Habierre”. And who is waiting for him, on the side of the road, under the banner? His mother, Orosia. his mother, he said: thank you. To his mother, he said, “The stones are over, and I’m going to see Paris.” Joseph Habierre will see Paris. He ranks 17th in this Tour de France won by François Faber. Joseph, he did another Tour in 1910, ranking 24th, and left. He goes to Oloron-Sainte-Marie to open a cycle shop. Shop that Henri Desgrange himself asked him to leave to join the roads of a Tour to which he does honor. In vain. Joseph Habierre will only leave his shop to join the Foreign Legion and go to the front. Quartermaster, wounded at Verdun, Joseph Habierre was decorated with the Military Medal, the Legion of Honor, and was finally granted French nationality.”