It happened on 21 September
The star of *Vel’ d’Hiv* was born in Veneux-les-Sablons
On 21 September 1920, he was born in Veneux-les-Sablons, now a delegated commune of Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne, Roger Godeau.
A professional cyclist from 1943 onwards, specialising in track and middle-distance racing, he rode for Génial Lucifer, Mercier-A. Magne and La Perle-Hutchinson. In the Parisian velodromes of the post-war period, he was a major attraction.
He died on 13 April 2000.
The first two passengers to travel round the Moon were tortoises
On 21 September 1968, the Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft returned to Earth after flying round the Moon, at an altitude of 1,950 kilometres above its far side.
On board, there is no human crew. Just flies, worms, plants and two steppe tortoises. NASA describes them as the first living organisms to have completed a flight around the Moon.
The return journey went badly; the capsule splashed down in the Indian Ocean instead of landing on Soviet territory. The turtles had lost a bit of weight. Nothing more.
The legend that made Godot a cyclist
A persistent rumour has it that the title *Waiting for Godot* comes from a crowd waiting for a runner called Godeau.
She has a point of reference. The critic Hugh Kenner reported that Beckett had described his model to him: A veteran, bald cyclist, a stayer, who often finished in the money in city-to-city races; his first name is uncertain, but his surname is Godeau, pronounced exactly like Godot.
But the claim that he was Roger Godeau doesn’t hold water. He only turned professional in 1943, far too late to be the veteran described. It is a legend. And it remains so.
