| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Émile Louis Pagie |
| Born | (1883-01-08)January 8, 1883 Wervicq-Sud, France |
| Died | August 1, 1937(1937-08-01) (aged 54) Nogent-sur-Marne, France |
| Height | 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Professional teams | |
| 1899–1902 | Individual |
| 1903 | Pagie Cycles |
| 1903 | La Française |
| 1904 | Individual |
Émile Louis Pagie (8 January 1883 – 1 August 1937) 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 inaugural1903 Tour de France.
Émile Louis Pagie was born on 8 January 1883 (though officially registered on the 9th) inWervicq-Sud, a French town on the border with Belgium, to Belgian parents. He was the younger brother of cyclist Paul Pagie.[1]
In 1903, he rode in the first-everTour de France. During the opening stage fromParis toLyon, Pagie escaped alongsideMaurice Garin andLéon Georget.[2] Georget suffered a puncture before reachingNevers, 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 theCol du Pin-Bouchain [fr], before racing toward Lyon. Near the finish, Garin took advantage of a crash by Pagie just 200 metres (220 yd) from the line to win the stage in a time of 17h 45m 13s.[3] Pagie finished less than a minute behind, while third-placed Georget arrived with a delay of nearly 35 minutes.[4][5]
He also competed in other main cycling races and wonParis-Valenciennes [fr] in 1903 and had three times a top-10 finish atParis–Roubaix.[6]
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.[1]
