François Faber François Faber ( ; 26 January 1887 – 9 May 1915 ) was a Luxembourgian / French racing cyclist . He was born in France . He was the first foreigner to win the Tour de France in 1909 , and his record of winning 5 consecutive stages still stands . He died in World War I while fighting for France . Origins . Faber ' s father , Jean - François , was born in Wiltz , Luxembourg , which gave his son Luxembourg nationality . His mother , Marie - Paule , was born in Lorraine . François Faber had a Luxembourg passport but lived in France and considered himself French . His half - brother was another cyclist , Ernest Paul . Faber worked as a furniture - remover and as a docker when he raced as an amateur . Racing career . Faber was a professional from 1906 to 1914 . He won 27 races . His size — and — and his suburb of Paris gave him the nickname " The Giant of Colombes " . He rode for Labor in 1906 and 1907 , moved to Peugeot in 1908 , then Alcyon from 1909 to 1911 . He joined Automoto for 1912 before returning to Peugeot in 1913 and 1914 . He rode the Tour de France for the first time in 1906 but didn ' t finish and the next year , he came seventh . In 1908 as part of the all - conquering Peugeot team , he finished second , winning four stages . He dominated the 1909 Tour de France , winning five consecutive stages , which is still a record . The 1909 Tour had the worst weather the race had seen . Fifty riders dropped out in six days when rain , snow , thick mud , frost and deeply rutted , unsurfaced roads dogged the race from 7 to 13 July . The worse things got , the better Faber rode . He led the race alone for 200 km to win the 398 km stage from Roubaix to Metz on the second day . The third day started at three degrees above freezing and the weather became even worse . The race set off for Belfort and again Faber broke clear going over the Ballon d ' Alsace and , after leading alone for 110 km , he finished covered in mud with his main challenger , Gustave Garrigou , 33 minutes behind . Still the weather got worse as the next stage left at 2am to ride to Lyon . Faber ' s riding attracted a crowd of 3 , 000 to see him leave and what was said to be 20 , 000 to see him finish . He won again after riding the last 62 km alone after a day of potholes and knee - high water . He climbed the col de Porte in a wind that twice blew him off his bike and being knocked down by a horse . His chain broke on the approach to Lyon and he ran a kilometre to the finish , pushing his bike . He won all five stages from Metz to Nice , all of them by himself , the final one after attacking Garrigou when he stopped due to a puncture . At the end of the race , the race official , Alphonse Steinès , asked Faber what he planned to do next . Faber said : Lucien Petit - Breton said of him : I told you he ' d be head and shoulders better . Not only did he show I was right but he let his pals Garrigou , Alavoine , Duboc and van Hauwaert take the first six places . And he went even further [ " il a même forcé la note " ] in giving seventh place to his half - brother ! I can still recall when he started , in 1906 , with the " isolés " . He set off from the start with his handlebars up high and he stayed at the back of the group all the time , riding on the wheel of the best riders . He was young , with no confidence in himself . His only wish was to be the last of the " isolés " to stay with the champions . Sometimes he stopped at a bar and ate his sandwiches as he waited for his ' colleagues ' , to finish the day in their company , because he didn ' t like being alone . After last year ' s Tour , I hadn ' t any doubts about his immense possibilities . In the 1910 Tour , Fabor was leading his Alcyon teammate Octave Lapize in the overall general classification when in Stage 7 , a collision with dog at the foot of the Pyrenees left him seriously injured . Despite winning the stage at Nîmes , the injury cost him the tour . Lapize attacked and took the tour with a last gasp attack from Faber on the final stage from Caen to Paris ending with a number of puctures . He continued to compete in the Tour de France with moderate success until his cycling career , like many of his peers , was curtailed with the start of World War I . Faber won 19 Tour de France stages , Paris – Brussels , Bordeaux – Paris , Sedan - Brussels , Paris – Tours twice , Paris – Roubaix and the Giro di Lombardia . Death . Faber joined the French Foreign Legion when the First World War broke out . He was assigned to the 2nd Régiment de Marche of the 1st FFL , at Bayonne on 22 August 1914 . He was promoted to corporal . On 9 May 1915 , the first day of the Battle of Artois at Carency near Arras he received a telegram saying his wife had given birth to a daughter . One story says that , cheering , he jumped out of the trench and was killed by a German bullet . Another , more commonly accepted , is that he was shot while carrying an injured colleague back from no - man ' s land during fighting between Carency and Mont - Saint - Éloi . His regiment lost 1 , 950 of 2 , 900 in their attack . Faber was posthumously awarded the Médaille militaire . The GP François Faber , a small race in Luxembourg , is named after him . There is also a plaque in his memory in the church of Notre Dame de Lorette in the French national war cemetery near Arras .