Albert Baker d'Isy
Encyclopedia
Albert Baker d'Isy was a French cycling journalist and author and the founder of the Grand Prix des Nations
international time-trial. He is considered, in the French expression, "one of the most beautiful pens" of sports writing. Pierre Chany
a contemporary, called him "The best sporting journalist of his generation."
, who was also foreign correspondent of the British monthly, Sporting Cyclist
. By that time, he was also writing for the larger daily, Paris-Soir
, which he joined in 1931.
With Paris-Soir's sports editor, Gaston Bénac, he created the Critérium National, a road race limited to French riders, and the Grand Prix des Nations.
The Grand Prix began in 1932 to much suspicion among riders, because there had been no tradition of racing against the clock in continental Europe , but the race went on to become the unofficial world time-trial championship. Paris-Soir created both races in competition with L'Auto, the national sports daily which ran the Tour de France
. Rivalry between the publications was so intense that Henri Desgrange
, the organiser, changed the time of race finishes so to make them too late for Paris-Soir
to report.
Baker d'Isy and Bénac got the idea of an international time-trial after watching the world championship road race in Copenhagen
in 1931, which unusually had been run that way . The two decided that the novelty would ensure their paper publicity and that running a time-trial would cost less than a conventional road race. Baker d'Isy came up with the name and he and René de Latour claim to have found the route. Maurice Archambaud
was the first winner. The route started near the Versailles
château and ran round a triangle through Rambouillet
, Maulette
, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse
, Versailles and Boulogne
to finish on the Vélodrome Buffalo
. There were three hills, one in the first 100 km, plenty of cobbles, and the last 40 km went through the woods of the Vallée de Chevreuse
, a popular area for bike riders. The distance was 142 km.
Baker d'Isy moved after World War II
to another Paris
evening paper, Ce Soir. He became deputy to Georges Pagnoud in race organisation. Baker d'Isy also wrote for monthly papers, Sports and Miroir, which had been started by the Communist Party..
Ce Soir failed and Baker d'Isy joined L'Équipe
, which had taken over from L'Auto. He was fired from L'Équipe after being sent to report from Egypt
. Pierre Chany said:
Baker d'Isy then worked at France-Soir, the last newspaper of his career.
Baker d'Isy was a founder of Miroir du Cyclisme, writing about champions he had met. A collection of his reports was published as Le Tour de France. Chroniques de L’Équipe, 1954-1982 (2002, La Table Ronde, Paris).
Pierre Chany wrote of him that he had "a high forehead, a faintly projecting jaw, the dry face of a Breton sailor, a felt hat pushed back to his neck. Cycling was his family and cycling his passion."
Grand Prix des Nations
The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial for professional racing cyclists. Held annually in France, it was instituted in 1932 and often regarded as the unofficial time trial championship of the world and as a Classic cycle race. The race was the idea of a Parisian newspaper editor...
international time-trial. He is considered, in the French expression, "one of the most beautiful pens" of sports writing. Pierre Chany
Pierre Chany
Pierre Chany was a French cycling journalist. He covered the Tour de France 49 times and was for a long time the main cycling writer for the daily newspaper, L'Équipe.- Biography :...
a contemporary, called him "The best sporting journalist of his generation."
Biography
Albert Baker d'Isy worked at L'Echo des Sports, a sports newspaper which appeared erratically between 1904 and 1957. In 1934, he became one of its main cycling writers, along with René de LatourRené de Latour
René de Latour was a Franco-American sports journalist, race director of the Tour de l'Avenir cycle race, and correspondent of the British magazine, Sporting Cyclist, to which he contributed to 120 of the 131 issues.-Background:René de Latour was born in 42nd Street, New York...
, who was also foreign correspondent of the British monthly, Sporting Cyclist
Sporting Cyclist
Sporting Cyclist was a British cycling A4-sized magazine originally called Coureur. It began in 1957 and closed after 131 issues in October 1968.-Coureur:...
. By that time, he was also writing for the larger daily, Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir was a large-circulation daily newspaper in Paris, France from 1923-1944.Its first issue came out in 4 October 1923. After June 11, 1940, the same publisher, Jean Prouvost, continued its publication in Vichy France: Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Marseille, and Vichy while in occupied Paris, it...
, which he joined in 1931.
With Paris-Soir's sports editor, Gaston Bénac, he created the Critérium National, a road race limited to French riders, and the Grand Prix des Nations.
The Grand Prix began in 1932 to much suspicion among riders, because there had been no tradition of racing against the clock in continental Europe , but the race went on to become the unofficial world time-trial championship. Paris-Soir created both races in competition with L'Auto, the national sports daily which ran the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
. Rivalry between the publications was so intense that Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set 12 world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.-Origins:Henri Desgrange was one of two brothers, twins...
, the organiser, changed the time of race finishes so to make them too late for Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir was a large-circulation daily newspaper in Paris, France from 1923-1944.Its first issue came out in 4 October 1923. After June 11, 1940, the same publisher, Jean Prouvost, continued its publication in Vichy France: Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Marseille, and Vichy while in occupied Paris, it...
to report.
Baker d'Isy and Bénac got the idea of an international time-trial after watching the world championship road race in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in 1931, which unusually had been run that way . The two decided that the novelty would ensure their paper publicity and that running a time-trial would cost less than a conventional road race. Baker d'Isy came up with the name and he and René de Latour claim to have found the route. Maurice Archambaud
Maurice Archambaud
Maurice Archambaud was a French professional cyclist from 1932 to 1944. His short stature earned him the nickname of le nabot, or "the dwarf", but colossal thighs made him an exceptional rider....
was the first winner. The route started near the Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
château and ran round a triangle through Rambouillet
Rambouillet
Rambouillet is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.It is located in the suburbs of Paris southwest from the center...
, Maulette
Maulette
Maulette is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-References:*...
, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse
Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse
Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.It is the southernmost station and endpoint of the RER B line.-References:**...
, Versailles and Boulogne
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Boulogne-Billancourt is a sub-prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt....
to finish on the Vélodrome Buffalo
Vélodrome Buffalo
The Vélodrome Buffalo and Stade Buffalo were cycling tracks in Paris. The first existed from 1893 until World War I, the second from 1922 until 1957....
. There were three hills, one in the first 100 km, plenty of cobbles, and the last 40 km went through the woods of the Vallée de Chevreuse
Vallée de Chevreuse
Vallée de Chevreuse is the name given to the valley of the Yvette River, flowing though the Yvelines and Essonne departments....
, a popular area for bike riders. The distance was 142 km.
Baker d'Isy moved after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to another Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
evening paper, Ce Soir. He became deputy to Georges Pagnoud in race organisation. Baker d'Isy also wrote for monthly papers, Sports and Miroir, which had been started by the Communist Party..
Ce Soir failed and Baker d'Isy joined L'Équipe
L'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...
, which had taken over from L'Auto. He was fired from L'Équipe after being sent to report from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Pierre Chany said:
The problem was that Albert always went that bit too far. When he was fired, he had just returned from a long reporting tour of Egypt. He had promised 12 articles but he only ever wrote the first. The paper had announced that the next 11 instalments were to follow, but they never appeared. Baker just wrote 11 titles on a sheet of paper. For the rest, he left a blank page. Out of respect for his readers, Jacques GoddetJacques GoddetJacques Goddet was a French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France from 1936 to 1986....
[the editor] could do nothing else than show him the door.
Baker d'Isy then worked at France-Soir, the last newspaper of his career.
Baker d'Isy was a founder of Miroir du Cyclisme, writing about champions he had met. A collection of his reports was published as Le Tour de France. Chroniques de L’Équipe, 1954-1982 (2002, La Table Ronde, Paris).
Pierre Chany wrote of him that he had "a high forehead, a faintly projecting jaw, the dry face of a Breton sailor, a felt hat pushed back to his neck. Cycling was his family and cycling his passion."
Decline and death
Baker d'Isy died in 1968 after a life of excess. He once drank a bottle of ink to show he had ink in his veins. He threw it back up on the office carpet. Chany, who told that story, also said:Albert degenerated [in his writing]. His writing faded. The last papers he submitted didn't have the brilliance that we used to admire. He drank. He slept in the métro. We tried to help him but he wouldn't be helped and he insulted anyone who tried to alleviate his misery. At the Courrier de Lyon, a restaurant run by Aimé and Lucette Savy, those wonderful people, they kept an open table. When it wasn't Antoine Blondin it was me or one or two others who used to settle his bill as we passed.
We tried to look after him. I remember that Jacques Couvrat, who started the Super Prestige Pernod, a man who was always very attentive to others, he urged him to write a book. He found him a retreat, a monastery on the bank of the LoireLoireLoire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
I think, but nothing happened. Albert was stubborn. Albert degerated. One morning, after he'd eaten with me the previous day, he was found stretched out on the pavement in the rue Montmartre. He had no papers on him. He was taken to the Hôtel-Dieu. He died a few months later.