I usually click my mouse on to this site to be cheered up and to spend some time wallowing in a sport and a trade that has served me well for almost sixty years. I saw my first Tour de France in 1952, and in 1953 my brother and I were watching the Tour in Orleans, where we were stopping in the Youth Hostel. We did not know it at the time but our club jersey, with the two front pockets and three at the rear ( yes I've still got it but either it has shrunk or I have got bigger) resembled that of the Dutch team. Having decide to spend some time in the Loire valley we had taken off our saddlebags and guards ..as we used to do in order to use the bikes for time-trialling or road racing - only one do-it-all bike in those days - so we must have looked very sporty on that day in Orleans. So much so in fact that a group of spectators decided that we were in fact members of the Dutch team who had chosen to pack in the race in Orleans and wait for the broom wagon..so we were whipped off to commiserate with them in a local bar.
At that time I was a member of the same club as Brian Robinson who was later to ride with Charly in the International team. A few years ago I met up with Brian during the Leeds Classic and we chewed over old times. He told me that he still met up, once every year in Provence, with a large group of the Pros who used to ride way back in the 50s, including Darrigade ( who appeared again on the Tour last year in a PR role) Bauvin, Geminiani etc. He said that Charly never attended, although invited.
Aboout twelve years ago I placed a large static caravan on a camp site in Northern Provence, just on a hilltop near Montelimar, The site, La Magerie, is owned and run by a family of Luxembourgeois, all of whom are keen cyclists and the site itself is registered with the FFCT as a training camp. It is a mecca for cyclists from all over Europe and among the regulars are former Tour riders from the Luxemburg team Johnny Schleck, and Kirchen..both accomplished riders who's sons are now following in their footsteps. Although Charly was invited down he has never arrived due largely to his depressive and reclusive nature.
Two close friends from Bettembourg, a district of the Grand Duchy are/ were very close friends of Charly who has in recent yaers returned from his despair and was starting to take part in the sporting life of the city and was, along with Renee my friends wife ,planning a new Randonnee around the countryside.
Knowing that I am a collector of bikes Guy, the close friend, asked me if I might be interested in one of Charly's bikes, I think it was a Genial-Lucifer or a Magnat-Debon, as he thought that Gaul was clearing away some of his past life and the bikes were to be sold. Charly and I are/ were about the same size, but he had put on an enormous amount of weight in later years. Each Easter I go to the camp site crossing the Channel to Zeebrugge and then taking the side roads to Ghent, , Grammont, Liege and down through the Ardennes , Luxemburg and into France.
Guy suggested that on the return trip I should call at his home because Charly was going to be there working with Renee on the route for the Randonnee. I even borrowed a biography of Charly to read up on the campsite so that I would be au fait with his exploits.
However, came the long anticipated day! Packing up a caravan always takes longer than expected..the 10am departure reaches out to 11am..the site and the company is tremendous..the sun is spreading over the nearby jagged peaks of the Vercors plateau - site of so many exploits in the Tour - and the farewell kisses on both cheeks go on and on and on...lovely habit.
We finally got on to the motorway..Lyon was just up the road..but my wife's mind was on the checking - in time in Zeebrugge..and the mandatory stop in Brugges for coffee and shoe-shops... I feared the worst..no time to stop at Guy's this year..there's always next year....must clock in at the dock two hours before sailing. I remonstrated.."But we ALWAYS stop in Luxemburg to fill up with diesel..you KNOW it's the cheapest in Europe...and Guy's is only five minutes away...and it will only take fifteen minutes to call, say Hello, meet Charly, talk bikes..and then off again!"
But there is no dissuading my wife when the lure of shoe and handbag shops draws her..she wouldn't even have stopped for a couple of Herses at 40 euros a- piece in that frame of mind. So you guessed it...I didn't get to meet Charly...and although that was sad for me, it was worse in a sense because he knew that I knew Brian..and we were to try to make arrangements for a big get-together.
The first time I ate dinner under the spreading canopy of vine leaves with 40 other campers, in 1993, at La Magerie, the name "Charly" buzzed around the tables...it was the common language of the Europeans at that meal, and I have no doubt that when I return next Easter, his name will continue to punctuate many more conversations..and at the same time draw us all together in a cloud of wonderful nostalgia.
In an recent earlier post to the List I suggested that any CR members who are intending to visit the Tour 2006 in the Alps should drop in at Routens shop. If anyone is looking for a wonderful place to stop in the area, particularly with the Tour finishing a stage and starting another from Montelimar just a 20 kms ride down the hillside, and Grenoble a hard day's ride across the Vercors plateau ( but just 1.5 hrs by car), La Magerie will be one of those great places to be..whether you are looking to camp, sleep in the dormitory, hire a caravan or a chambre d'hote., or try to cadge a night's kip under my awning. (You would be very welcome!)
Check it out at http://www.lamagerie.com and be there..you can toast Charly's memory with some of his close friends and cycling buddies. And if you check out the website..look on the 2005 page for photos..there's a great looking tanned guy there, sporting his Bianchi bandanna and getting steadily merry on the free Cotes du Rhone wine.
Norris Lockley..it's a sad day.. Settle, UK ( must send an email to Guy and Renee!)