His cycling career started when he won a bike in a lottery at the age of sixteen.

In 1906, he won the third Paris–Tours race and improved on his previous performance by finishing fourth in the Tour.

Losing contact with the leading riders on the Col de Porte, he could only manage a tenth place, twenty eight minutes behind Emile Georget who won his third stage.

As part of the all-conquering Peugeot team that took the first four places, Petit-Breton won the Tour even more easily with just 36 points, finishing outside the first four in just one stage.

The French TV series Les Brigades du Tigre was a popular crime drama focusing on an elite squad of police detectives in the early 20th century.