A professional from 1905 to 1919, he won many local events but also shone on the velodromes of Paris, where he gained a great reputation in middle-distance races, notably taking third place in the French championship in 1914.

He retired to La Flèche to run a cycle repair shop and became so involved in local life that he was elected town councilor in his final years.

[4] Back in La Flèche in September, he took second place in the UVF speed championship behind clubmate Albert Leroy, who had just taken part in the Tour de France.

[5] He also distinguished himself in more modest competitions, such as the 4-kilometer cantonal race he won in Verron in early October 5,[5] or at folklore events: the Pinder Circus was visiting La Flèche, and Germain competed with several Fléchois amateurs on the “Canadian track”, a 6.5-meter-diameter construction of wooden rungs spaced ten centimeters apart and inclined at 75 degrees.

Along with Georges Parent, he was chosen to join the coaching team of Henri Cornet, winner of the 1904 Tour de France, in a 50-kilometer tandem match[notes 1] against Karl Ingold.

[8] The following week, in Tours, he won the 50-kilometer race behind motorcycles, again ahead of Pasquier, then shared victory with Jean Gougoltz in the Grand Prix du Conseil Général in Nantes on May 6.

[8] On June 3, he discovered the Parc des Princes track and took third place in the 30-kilometer race behind Antoine Dussot and Henri Lautier, which earned him selection by the organizers of the Grand Prix de Paris.

Thanks to the financial support of Viscount de Lesseville, head of the Union Vélocipédique Fléchoise, he was able to employ several trainers to compete in the one-hour race behind tandems.

Competing against two of the best cyclists of the time, Henri Cornet and René Pottier, he was soundly beaten, but as with every one of his outings, his attitude was widely praised by the specialists, and Germain became one of the public's most popular riders.

[9] At the end of August, he was the only rider to hold off César Simar over 30 kilometers at Le Buffalo, then clearly dominated Émile Bouhours over the same distance at Tours in early September.

[13] Germain then took part in the Six Jours de Toulouse, the first race of its kind in Europe, held on the Bazacle velodrome, where he teamed up with local rider Jean Gauban.

[16][17] Germain was rarely granted leave, but managed to take part in a few races in 1907: beaten by Arthur Pasquier over 40 kilometers in Tours on April 21, he took his revenge and beat him the following week in La Flèche at the Grand Prix du Printemps.

[18] On the velodrome track in La Flèche, in early April, he won the Sarthe speed championship, then finished second to Pasquier in the Grand Prix du Printemps.

[notes 2] This encouraging participation earned him the congratulations of many specialists, such as L'Auto journalist Charles Ravaud, who considered him capable of achieving excellent results if he chose to devote himself even more to the road.

[20] His participation in the Grande Boucle further boosted his popularity: he was carried in triumph on his return to La Flèche station and welcomed into town by over 2,000 people.

[21] Beaten in Angers by Daniel Lavalade over 40 kilometers behind motorcycles,[21] he distinguished himself at the end of May by taking second place in the Circuit de la Loire road race, run over two stages, having won the first in Loudun.

[22] Invited to take part in the eighth stage of the Wolber Grand Prix, organized by Peugeot on June 13 between Paris and La Flèche, Germain placed sixth and, according to L'Auto, earned “his stripes as a great road racer”.

In the last quarter of the race, Germain overtook two rivals and finally finished fifth with a total of 681.6 kilometers, a long way from three-time winner Léon Georget.

His eighteenth-place finish was anecdotal, just as his last few outings on the track were hardly conclusive: he failed twice in his attempt to set the record for the hour without a trainer at La Flèche.

[26] After a detour to the track and a success in Brest over 25 kilometers at the expense of César Simar, he returned to the road to take tenth place in Paris-Le Mans.

[27] During the summer, Germain took several places of honor on the velodromes, coming second in the Grand Prix d'inauguration du vélodrome d'Angers, the Challenge Cointreau in the same town, and the Huit heures de Tours, which earned him selection for the Bol d'or.

[1] At the same time, the J.B. Louvet team hired him to race on the road, but after his withdrawal from Paris-Tours, he gave up on Paris-Roubaix, preferring to take part in a track event in Angers.

[1] After several middle-distance successes in Angers and Nantes, notably at the expense of American Woody Headspeth, he returned to the road for Paris-Brest-Paris in the road-tourist category.

[28] Germain not only raced for his account but also regularly acted as a trainer for other riders, as in the Prix de Madison Square at the beginning of the following January, in which American Joe Fogler owed his victory in part to him.

On June 9, on the Parc des Princes track, he took fourth place in the French middle-distance championship, running over 100 kilometers, finishing fifteen laps behind the winner Paul Guignard and seven off the podium.

After successes in Angers in March, he made a strong impression on April 13, winning a 30-kilometer race ahead of Daniel Lavalade and César Simar at the Buffalo.

[33] After a series of fine performances at the Paris meetings and a major success at the Grand Prix du Printemps de Limoges, he achieved the best result of his career at the French middle-distance championship on July 19, finishing third in the event, won once again by Paul Guignard.

Very involved in local life, he invited his friend Robert Spears, world track speed champion, to lay a wreath at the cemetery to commemorate the Armistice on November 11, 1920.

[37] In 1922, to pay tribute to the veterans of the Great War, he inaugurated a commemorative plaque on the birthplace of Fléchois aviator Charles Godefroy, made famous by his flight under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on August 7, 1919.

After several months of negotiation, work began on a plot of land adjacent to the Route d'Angers: the stadium was inaugurated in November 1921 for a soccer match, while the track was built in early 1922 thanks to the financial support of several great champions, including Robert Spears, Oscar Egg, Maurice Brocco, aviator Georges Kirsch and boxer Georges Carpentier.