For that reason, when Henri Desgrange, the first organiser of the Tour, sought to popularise competitors by giving them nicknames, he referred to Trousselier as "the florist".

[1] He rode his first Tour de France in 1905, taking a few days' official leave from his service as a soldier and depending on doing well to save himself from too strong a penalty - potentially as a deserter - when he got back much later.

But that night, in a trackside cabin in Paris, he lost the whole lot playing dice with friends.

He rode the Tour well again in 1906 but never to the level of the previous year, nevertheless winning stages and finishing third.

He became a specialist in long-distance racing, in 1908 winning Bordeaux–Paris 26 minutes ahead of the next rider, Cyrille van Hauwaert.

Towards the end of the meal, they would start a mock argument in which their raised voices attracted the attention of the restaurateur.