When the cyclists of the Tour de France pedal over the 6,400-foot summit of the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees next July, they will pass a newly-erected monument to one of the fathers of the world's biggest annual sporting event, Jacques Goddet, who died on December 15th aged 95.
Jacques Goddet ran the tour from 1936 to 1987 and, as founder of the French sports newspaper l'Equipe, and a prime mover in the foundation of the European Football Clubs' Cup (a precursor of the Champions League), athletics' European Nations' Cup and skiing's world cup, he was a definitive figure of French sport in the 20th century.
There was little chance of his ever moving in a direction other than sport or journalism, given that his father, Victor, founded the newspaper l'Auto and, with its co-owner Henri Desgrange, was behind the birth of the Tour de France in 1903. Jacques Goddet began writing about the tour for the paper in 1928. Eight years later, when Desgrange was taken ill, he inherited the race organisation, together with the direction of the newspaper, and, like the man he referred to as "my master", continued writing editorials in the sonorous, quasi-classical style which is the language of cycling in l'Equipe, after each day's stage was over.
Even before he took over the race, Jacques Goddet had pressed Desgrange "to bring coherence to this monumental event, which is threatened by the fact that it lasts a month and moves through a human corridor 5,000 km long with no limits".
The tour was shortened, national teams were introduced and the format made more media-friendly.
Jacques Goddet's organisational style ere newspaper, was imperious, and he was a distinctive figure in his Indian army garb - khaki shorts and a pith helmet, which, he said, "I put on by chance as the tour went south one year. It proved popular, so I kept wearing it. It was cool and added colour to the race".
He used the sprawling event as a test-bed for radio and television, finishing the race high on mountain-tops in the Alps and Pyrenees. He took it outside France and never ceased to encourage the internationalisation of the field. He created the philosophy that, as well as holding on to its traditions, the tour must be of its time, a keystone of its enduring success.
As recently as two months ago, Jacques Goddet was urging that the race be shortened; at the turn of the year, he called for the creation of a sports equivalent of the United Nations to wipe out doping, and for cycling to look for new talent among the endurance athletes of sub-Saharan Africa.
During the Occupation, l'Auto continued to appear, although its print works produced posters, speeches and material for the Resistance. The Tour de France, however, stopped. Jacques Goddet said: "The occupying authorities and the Vichy regime wanted the tour to take place at any price to make the world believe that France was a normal, happy place. I refused, in spite of the fact that, in a time of shortages, any resources we needed - food, petrol, vehicles - would be made available. I saved the tour from being sullied, and that was important for its post-war future."
Two years after l'Auto closed in August 1944, Jacques Goddet founded l'Equipe; he remained a director until his death and ran the paper with the same imperiousness he brought to the tour. Even after retirement, his influence remained; the current Tour de France organiser, Jean-Marie Leblanc, would visit him before presenting the route.
However, the tribute that would have meant the most came from a former tour winner: "Above all else, he loved sport and those who practise it."
Jacques Jean Francois Goddet: born 1905; died, December 2000