Les Archives de Cyclisme Ségala 81. André Lhermet

Hello everyone! The cyclists interviewed by Cyclisme Ségala 81 who agreed to be featured on the website were from 2019 to 2023. We honor those who have made their mark on the history of cycling in our region. Here is our interview with André Lhermet. Better known today as a painter, André Lhermet is also a passionate cyclist. Cyclisme Ségala 81 met this former amateur cyclist, a multiple champion, in June 2019. Here is the article as it was published in 2019. Born in Cagnac-les-Mines in 1938, André warmly welcomed us into his home. Surrounded by a stack of meticulously preserved files, we listened with great pleasure as he recounted anecdotes from his racing days. André still remembers all his races and tells them with passion. It is with photos and articles from the newspaper La Dépêche, which his mother kept for him, that he recounts his cycling career. Having been a member of several clubs in the Tarn department, as well as USC Carmaux and St. Juéry Olympique, he primarily raced with the Union Cycliste Albigeoise. A great sprinter, he owes his victories to his impressive top speed, but emphasizes that all his achievements are linked to exemplary training under the guidance of an exceptional coach, none other than former cyclist Gaston Bruel (see video from the Carmaux Archives). To our great delight, he lent us some of his articles and photos from that era. The number of these documents is enormous (and this is only half of his archive), so we were obliged to dedicate a single page to him on the website. Cyclisme Ségala 81 thanks him for this donation, which enriches the Carmaux Archive project, and thanks him for his warm welcome and kindness. Faced with all these documents, it wasn't easy to sort through all these treasures, and to do so, we first published the articles from Dépêches and then created a photo album. André Lhermet, a painter from the Tarn region, is an artist who defies categorization. His paintings are as warm as his personality. His canvases have traveled the world in exhibitions where he celebrates the landscapes of the Tarn and the Luberon. He began painting for pleasure in a mining environment and held his first exhibition at the Saint Marc workshop. A landscape painter, he prioritizes light: "bringing sunshine through" is his motto, and he prefers, in his own words, "to be nature's confidant." Some say that we must move forward and not look back! Yet, what we learn and what we have learned is most certainly thanks to the legacy of knowledge left to us by our ancestors. We will not forget them. "Years go by, but the memories remain forever intact." Robert Dlr, Cyclisme Ségala 81.