He escaped.
Definitely.
Robert Marchand, the man of all cycling records, the one who among other things broke the world hour record in 2017 in the category of over 105 years by covering 22.547 km, the one who was still doing there a few days 20 minutes of exercise bike in the Mitry-Mory nursing home, died during the night from Friday to last Saturday.
Despite everything, he did not manage to let go of the peloton, most of them gathered in fluorescent attire this Friday morning in the park of the town hall of Mitry-Mory to pay him a final tribute.
In the marquee erected for the occasion, the 300 or so chairs are all occupied, mostly by men and women dressed in the colors of their cycling or cycling club.
Those of Conches, Villeparisis, Dammarie-les-Lys, Meaux and others, without forgetting, of course, the Cyclos Mitryens, the regional of the stage.
The jersey, red like the political color of the deceased, also recalls the other common thread in the life of Robert Marchand, namely his trade union and political commitment to the CGT and the PCF.
Mitry-Mory, Friday May 28, 2021. Among those present, many had donned their cycling or cycling club jerseys to pay tribute to Robert Marchand.
LP / TS
When the champion's coffin joins his eternal bicycle on the platform, he is greeted by thunderous applause, worthy of the yellow jersey.
Charlotte Blandiot-Faride, mayor (PCF) of Mitry, her city of heart, is the first to greet "the man with 1001 lives", a "simple and smiling" man, "with an undeniable taste for surpassing".
An extraordinary life
If “Robert the Indomitable” arrived in Mitry with his family in 1923, he then lived an existence as rich as it was dense.
In bulk, he was a firefighter in Paris, a high-level gymnast, a sugar cane planter in Venezuela, and a lumberjack in Canada.
Back in France in the 1960s, he became a market gardener, shoe seller and wine merchant.
“He was still with us during the last municipal elections in 2020, remembers the elected official, visibly moved.
He had both legs, head and body.
She also announces that the next Mitry sports complex will be named after Robert Marchand.
Mitry-Mory, Friday May 28, 2021. Among the more than 300 people who came to pay tribute to Robert Marchand, Pierre Laurent, Philippe Martinez and Charlotte Blandiot-Faride (from left to right).
LP / TS
Then it was the great-niece's turn to come and talk about the one her family called Bob.
"I had the naivety to believe that you were immortal", she confides, in a particularly touching speech.
“Living to age 109 is exceptional.
But living like you did is almost science fiction.
"
"At 100, you went from shadows to full light"
It evokes the journey and the extraordinary encounters of the one whose doctors said he had the heart of a 60-year-old man.
"Have a good trip and be happy up there," concludes the young woman, her throat tight.
A leader of the cycling club succeeds him to highlight "the crazy projects" of the one who regularly accompanied them on "these roads in France that he knew by heart".
“At 100, you went from shadows to full light,” she says.
Another cycling colleague takes the floor, the president of the Ardéchoise, an event to which Robert Marchand was very attached.
"We had fun counting that his heart had beaten 3.5 billion times," he smiles, also dressed in a cyclist's tunic.
"Thin colossus with a heart of gold"
To honor Robert the militant, the boss of the newspaper "L'Humanité", the communist daily of which Robert Marchand was a faithful reader, made the trip to greet "this thin colossus with a heart of gold who has taunted fate for so long" .
Philippe Martinez, the general secretary of the CGT, met Robert Marchand in 2015. "He was a member of the CGT for 85 years, that too is a record," says the union leader, emphasizing the "social values" defended. by the one who was decorated with the medal of honor of the CGT.
Mitry-Mory, Friday May 28, 2021. Philippe Martinez, General Secretary of the CGT, spoke during the funeral tribute to Robert Marchand.
Thomas Segissement
Pierre Laurent, senator and former leader of the PCF, also spoke of "the sports activist, the life activist faithful to his values", recounting the meeting between François Hollande and Robert Marchand, then 105 years old.
“He spoke to her about the need for social development measures,” he recalls.
His fellow cyclists accompany him to the crematorium
At the end of the ceremony, once the release of the coffin decorated with the French flag is acclaimed and while some leave a few words on the guestbook of this moment of tribute, friends and fellow cyclists get back on their bikes to follow the hearse to the crematorium of Saint-Soupplets, about twenty kilometers away.
"This is the opportunity to ride one last time together", slips Fabrice, 48, yet one of the youngest members of the Mitry-Mory club.
Robert Marchand will be buried this weekend in his town, in privacy.