Daily Cycling Facts 08.07.2014

The Tour de France has started on the date twice, in 1907 and 1954.

1907

Stage 3, 1907

14 stages, 4,488km.
In any Tour, the winner of the last edition is usually considered the favourite; in 1907 René Pottier could not be due to tragic circumstances - some time around Christmas and the New Year, he'd discovered that while he was away winning the 1906 Tour his wife had been having an affair and, on the 25th of January, he hanged himself. Louis Trousselier, Emile Georget and François Faber were considered most likely to replace him and, for the first time, favourites achieved something like modern celebrity status with newspapers and magazines publishing biographies, back stories and gossip. For the second time, the race ventured outside France - in 1906 it had gone into German-controlled Alsace-Lorraine, it did so again when it visited Metz but under notably different conditions: with relations between Europe's great powers deteriorating fast, the French flag was strictly banned once the race passed the border and the official cars were not permitted to go with the riders. Curiously, one of the biggest problems was caused on the way back into France - French customs held the riders up for so long that the race had to be halted and restarted once they'd finished. During Stage 4 from Belfort to Lyon, the race passed through Romandy - the first time it had ever been to Switzerland. It was also the first time that the Alps were specifically included for the challenge they presented, rather than simply because they happened to be between stage towns, Henri Desgrange having been persuaded by the popularity of the Vosges and Massif Central stages in the previous two years that his fears the riders would be attacked by bandits or eaten by bears was worth the risk. Because of this added hardship, the coureurs de vitesse (riders sponsored by trade teams, but expected to ride for themselves alone) were permitted to receive help from mechanics following the race in cars and could even continue on a replacement bike if their machine was declared beyond repair by a course official. Coureurs sur machines poinçonnées (later known as touriste-routiers and then independents before being barred from entry) received either limited sponsorship, perhaps being supplied with a bike, or none at all and were expected to carry out all repairs themselves and to complete the race with only one bike.

Georget's crash, 1907

Trousselier won the first stage by 3'30; Georget beat him by a tiny margin and moved into third overall on Stage 2 in Metz but judges decided for unclear reasons that they should be awarded joint first place. Trousselier nevertheless remained in first place overall with a four point advantage (Cadolle, in second place, was three points down). When Georget won Stage 3 he moved into first, leading Trousselier by a point. Cadolle was now third with a three point disadvantage and thus remained in second place after Stage 4, despite beating Georget by a second. On Stage 5 Georget and Faber led the race together over the 500m Les Eschelles, but when they arrived at 1,326, Col du Porte Faber, who was much bigger and heavier, found himself outclassed; Georget left him behind and won the stage by 7', increasing his lead to seven points. He then came second behind Georges Passerieu on Stage 6, but Passerieu was too far down in the General Classification for a stage victory to make any meaningful difference - Cadolle was fifth, crossing the line 27' later and Georget's advantage rose to ten points. On the next stage, Cadolle crashed and fell onto his bike, ending up with a piece of flesh ripped from his knee by the handlebars. With his biggest rival gone, Georget won that stage and the next - by the end of Stage 8, his advantage was 16 points.

During Stage 9, Georget arrived at a checkpoint where riders had to stop and sign their names to prove they'd followed the route and not taken shortcuts (or, as was quite common in the early Tours, a train), and just as he arrived his frame snapped. What happened next is slightly mysterious: despite the race officials around the checkpoint meaning that any sort of rule-breaking would be spotted and punished, he decided that rather than losing time by waiting while his damaged bike was declared irreparable he'd just take one from his Peugeot-Wolver team mate Pierre Gonzague-Privat, who was so far behind overall that waiting for a decision and a replacement made little difference - was he completely ignorant of the rule, did he think that it would be overlooked (and anyone who knew anything about Tour officials and their legendary officiousness would surely be well aware that it would most definitely not) or was he told by an unknown person, perhaps an official bribed by another rider or team manager, that he could take his team mate's bike? More than a century later, we will probably never know. He was fined 500 francs, but ended with a 19.5 point advantage over Lucien Petit-Breton who moved into second place by winning the stage.

At Ville d'Avray, 1907

After Stage 9, Trousselier declared his belief that Georget's punishment was too light and left the race in protest, taking the entire Alcyon team with him. Organisers apparently felt the same because they then decided to relegate him from first place to last for that stage which, once his points for coming third on Stage 10 had been taken in account, gave him a 25.5 point overall disadvantage to new leader Petit-Breton who led stage winner and new General Classification second place Gustave Garrigou by 15 points. With four stages left, Georget's chances of winning were completely lost, and when Petit-Breton won Stage 11 and increased his lead to 17 points it began to look very much as though he was the most likely winner - he could only lose now if he abandoned.

Lucien Petit-Breton

Garrigou won Stage 12 but Petit-Breton was second, so his lead only dropped to 16 points. Georget had given up hope of overall victory but still crossed the finish line first in Stage 13, Petit-Breton was second again and so his advantage rose once more to 17 points; then he was third on the final stage and finished the race 19 points ahead. He was the first coureur sur machines poinçonnée to win a Tour, and the next year he became the first man to win a second Tour.

The majority of coureurs sur machines poinçonnée were poor and would sleep anywhere they could during the race, often spending the night in a barn or, sometimes, in a hedge; they would also eat whatever they could find along the way - in those days, when many of them would have been used to living as peasants, they'd have been adept at catching rabbits and birds and foraging for edible plants but they also sometimes lived on what the sponsored riders discarded (as happened in 1914, when a hungry poinçonnée eagerly pounced upon and devoured a half-eaten sandwich thrown away by a sponsored rider - who was promptly penalised by officials for providing assistance to a rider that wasn't part of his own team). Some, meanwhile, were wealthy men who entered the Tour for the adventure - and the most famous of them all was Henri Pépin. Pépin had no intention of winning the Tour and treated it all as a jolly jaunt around the countryside, taking with him a pair of men named Henri Gauban and Jean Dargassies (actually Dargaties, but Tour organisers misheard him and it stuck) whom he had hired to support him and act as manservants (and who, as a result, are the first riders to have ridden a Tour purely to support another rider rather than to attempt a win for themselves - the first domestiques, no less). Each night, at his expense, they slept in the finest hotel the stage town had to offer and every day they would select a restaurant along the route and dine in style. They were, therefore, far from the first riders over the line every day; in fact, they finished Stage 2 twelve hours and twenty minutes after winner Emile Georget, the more serious riders having set off at 5.30am while Pépin was engaged in what journalist Pierre Chany delicately termed "conversation with a lady" - they were not, however, last; four men finished after them. By all accounts, Desgrange was not impressed, but as the race was decided on points rather than times (hence no time limits) there was nothing he could do.

Henri  Pépin

The crowd didn't declare Pépin nothing but a useless, spoiled playboy as he was already well known to them and had proved himself an able cyclist many years earlier - he had been featured on the cover of Le Cycle magazine, when he was a member of Veloce Club de Marmande, and in 1897 he was vice-consul of the French cycling federation. Their good nature towards him, however, was deserved, even though he seems to have been rather keen to pass himself off as an aristocrat when he was not one: one day, he and his two comrades came across a rider named Jean-Marie Teychenne who had hit la fringale, then fallen into a ditch and was too hungry to pull himself out and continue. The man explained that he was finished and could be left until the broom wagon came for him.

"Nonsense!" Pépin told him, instructing Gauban and Dargassies to pull the man out of the ditch. "We are but three but we live well and we shall finish this race. We may not win, but we shall see France!" The three were now four, with Pépin happily paying for Teychenne to get a taste of the  highlife with them.

In Stage 5, Pépin decided he'd had enough of the game and paid his assistants a sum equal to the prize awarded to the race winner, then caught a train home. Dargassies - who, it appears, knew Pépin from the 1905 Tour which they had both ridden - went with him while Gauban elected to continue and did rather well for a while, narrowing the enormous gap between himself and the race leader to just 36 minutes, but was then beset by misfortune and abandoned during Stage 11. He had entered every Tour since it began, but this was his last. Dargassies also never entered again, but Pépin returned at the age of 49 and raced again in 1914, the year that he died of what was then termed "athleticism" - probably a coronary caused by an undetected heart defect.

Top Ten Final General Classification
1 Lucien Petit-Breton (FRA) Peugeot-Wolber 47 Poinçonnées
2 Gustave Garrigou (FRA) Peugeot-Wolber 66 Vitesse
3 Emile Georget (FRA) Peugeot-Wolber 74 Vitesse
4 Georges Passerieu (FRA) Peugeot-Wolber 85 Vitesse
5 François Beaugendre (FRA) Peugeot-Wolber 123 Poinçonnées
6 Eberardo Pavesi (ITA) Otav 150 Poinçonnées
7 François Faber (LUX) Labor-Dunlop 156 Poinçonnées
8 Augustin Ringeval (FRA) Labor-Dunlop 184 Vitesse
9 Aloïs Catteau (BEL) – 196 Poinçonnées
10 Ferdinand Payan (FRA) – 227 Poinçonnées


1954
23 stages (Stages 4 and 21 split into parts A and B), 4,656km.

Wagtmans, 1954

Two new features made their first appearance this year: split stages and team time trials - a few stages in the past had started with teams being sent off separately, but this was the first time that the time they recorded counted towards the General Classification. It was also the first time that the Tour started outside France, the Grand Départ being hosted by Amsterdam and the Stage 1 finish line by Brasschaat, also in the Netherlands - the Dutch national team were therefore determined to do well, and got their wish when Wout Wagtmans won on the first day and then remained in the yellow jersey until Stage 4a, the team time trial - which Switzerland won but saw the French team take back enough time to get Louison Bobet into the overall lead.

Bobet had won Stage 2, but the Swiss riders Ferdy Kübler and Hugo Koblet were right behind him: Koblet, who had won in 1951, was only a minute down in the General Classification at the end of the stage and Gilbert Bauvin just 30". However, it was early days yet and Bobet was a wise rider; he had, therefore, no intention of taking the lead just yet as defending it would require energy best saved for later on - and was probably quite surprised that the maillot jaune remained his when he finished outside the top ten for Stages 4b (during which the strange little climber Jean Robic collided with a photographer and abandoned the race) and 5, then ninth on Stages 6 and 7. In fact, it took until Stage 8 before Wagtmans managed to get into a breakaway and made up enough time to win it back.

Bahamontes on Tourmalet, 1954

Bauvin won Stage 10, the last plain parcours before the Pyrenees, and jumped from ninth to second overall. The next day, Wagtmans crashed - he finished the stage, but had noticeably lost all enthusiasm from that point and it was only by luck that he retained a 9" lead by the end. It didn't last long the next day, because Bauvin, Jean Malléjac and Federico Bahamontes were on him like a pride of lions with a wounded zebra, breaking away and heading off up the infamous Tourmalet/Aspin/Peyresourde Circle of Death like rocketships: by the end of Stage 12 Wagtmans  was 19'20" behind new leader Bauvin. That stage didn't go well for Koblet, either - he'd been a phenomenally talented rider at his best, but he was destined to be one of those riders that gets only a year or two at the top: he crashed, lost 27' and abandoned the following day. Ten years later, when he was 39, he was killed in a car crash that may have been suicide.

Ferdinand Kübler

Despite the loss of their leader, the Swiss team remained highly competitive and set a high pace in Stage 13 with the fiery Kübler driving the peloton at breakneck speed. Bauvin soon discovered that he'd used up far too much energy keeping up with Bahamontes (one of the greatest climbers of all time) the day before and found himself unable to keep up, losing significant time. Bobet could, and when the stage came to an end he'd moved back into first place overall with a 4'33" advantage. Over the coming days it became apparent that Kübler, who had won in 1950, meant to do so again and Bobet faced frequent, savage attacks when the Swiss team went to work on him, not even bothering to chase down the breakaway of also-rans that won the stage. With the average speed pushed high for the second consecutive day, Bauvin lost another 20' and was no longer a contender; meanwhile, Bobet responded to each and every attack - his advantage over Fritz Schär, who had been third after stage 15, remained 10'18" after Stage 16. Kübler and Schär both won back time during Stage 17, but then Bobet repeated his stunning 1953 ride over Izoard, dropping the entire peloton and upping his overall advantage to 12'49" - enough to have won the Tour, especially now that the Swiss were tiring after all that Kübler had asked of them (Kübler was a wonderfully impulsive rider who would throw everything away on a whim; riders like him have long since vanished). He didn't need to win the Stage 21b individual time trial, but when he did he beat Kübler by 2'30"; when the race came to an end two stages later his overall lead was 15'49".

Bobet on Izoard

Bahamontes won the King of the Mountains, the first of six (and he won overall in 1959 too); Kübler won the Points competition. Bobet was the fifth rider to have won two consecutive Tours and, later in the year, became the second man to have won both a Tour and the World Championships in a single season (the first was Georges Speicher in 1933). In a year's time, he would be the first to win three Tours consecutively.

Top Ten Final General Classification
1 Louison Bobet (FRA) France 140h 06' 05"
2 Ferdi Kübler (SUI) Switzerland +15' 49"
3 Fritz Schär (SUI) Switzerland +21' 46"
4 Jean Dotto (FRA) South East +28' 21"
5 Jean Malléjac (FRA) West +31' 38"
6 Stan Ockers (BEL) Belgium +36' 02"
7 Louis Bergaud (FRA) South West +37' 55"
8 Vincent Vitetta (FRA) South East +41' 14"
9 Jean Brankart (BEL) Belgium +42' 08"
10 Gilbert Bauvin (FRA) Center-North East +42' 21"


Cyclists born on this day: Jesse Sergent (New Zealand, 1988); Smaisuk Krisansuwan (Thailand, 1943); Christel Ferrier Bruneau (France, 1979); Mark Bristow (Great Britain, 1962); Jenny McCauley (Ireland, 1974); Otto Luedeke (USA, 1916, died 2005); James Jackson (Canada, 1908); Roberto Pagnin (Italy, 1962); Werner Karlsson (Sweden, 1887, died 1946); Paolo Tiralongo (Italy, 1977); Ivonne Kraft (West Germany, 1970); Bärbel Jungmeier (Austria, 1975); Bernard van de Kerckhove (Belgium, 1941); Stefano Colage (Italy, 1962); Jean-René Bernaudeau (France, 1956); Sven Johansson (Sweden, 1914, died 1982); Bill Messer (Great Britain, 1915); Serge Proulx (Canada, 1953).

Daily Cycling Facts 07.07.2014

The Tour de France started on this day four times - 1936, 1955, 2001 and 2007.

1936
21 stages (Stages 13, 14, 18 and 20 split into parts A and B, Stage 19 split into parts A, B and C), 4,418km.

Desgrange didn't invent the Tour, but he made it what it is.
1936 was his final year as director.

For the very first time, teams from the Netherlands, Romania and Yugoslavia took part - there had also been a team made up of Italians resident in France but, very shortly before the race was due to begin, it was decided that they would not be permitted to take part. It was very noticeable that many more spectators turned out than in previous years, largely due to fine weather and the introduction of a summer public holiday.

Now aged 71, Tour director Henri Desgrange underwent surgery on his prostate a few weeks before the Tour and was due to have another one afterwards, but convinced his reluctant surgeon to agree to him attending in a car padded out with cushions and with a doctor in attendance. At that time, many roads outside of the centre of Paris were primitive, at best cobbled and at worst, unsurfaced tracks full of potholes and gulleys (in rural areas, they would remain as such until the Tour became televised, at which point local mayors began to find the money to modernise them so that the world wouldn't think their communities backward) and even in the first stage it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to continue. He attempted to continue through Stage 2, with a fever and in great pain, but was forced to give up. He retired that day, handing over L'Auto's editorship and the role of Tour director to Jacques Goddet, then traveled to his chateau. He died four years later at his villa on the Mediterranean.

Theo Middelkamp, 1936

Paul Egli won Stage 1 in torrential rain and thus became the first Swiss rider to have ever led the Tour; after that the first week was uneventful until Stage 7 when Theo Middelkamp became the first ever Dutch rider to win a stage - prior to this Tour, he had never left the Netherlands and Ballon d'Alsace in Stage 4 was the first mountain he'd ever seen. During Stage 7, 1935 winner Romain Maes abandoned with bronchitis; 1930 winner Georges Speicher also left a short while later. Maurice Archambaud took the maillot jaune in Stage 4 but, with the race still at an early point, could not defend it for long and it passed to Sylvère Maes (who wasn't related to Romain) in Stage 8. French team leader Antonin Magne expected Maes to beat him in the Stage 13b and 14b individual time trials but he lost a lot more time that he'd hoped - after 13a he was 3'49" behind overall, after 14b the gap had risen to 8'90". Then he tried to attack in the mountains, but Maes was better than expected there as well: Magne moved into second place overall from third in Stage 16 but by the end of Stage 17 he was 26'13" behind. Belgium would also win the two remaining team time trials so, by the end of the race, Maes' lead was 26'55".

Sylvere Mais

The Dutch team finished the race with three riders, the minimum number that permitted them to remain in the teams competition. The Swiss ended up with one remaining rider, Leo Amberg in eighth place; the entire Austrian, Yugoslavian, German and Romanian teams abandoned.

Top Ten Final General Classification
1 Sylvère Maes (BEL) Belgium 142h 47' 32"
2 Antonin Magne (FRA) France +26' 55"
3 Félicien Vervaecke (BEL) Belgium +27' 53"
4 Pierre Clemens (LUX) Spain/Luxembourg +42' 42"
5 Arsène Mersch (LUX) Spain/Luxembourg +52' 52"
6 Mariano Cañardo (ESP) Spain/Luxembourg +1h 03' 04"
7 Mathias Clemens (LUX) Spain/Luxembourg +1h 10' 44"
8 Leo Amberg (SUI) Switzerland +1h 19' 13"
9 Marcel Kint (BEL) Belgium +1h 22' 25"
10 Léon Level (FRA) Touriste-routier +1h 27' 57"


1955

Miguel Poblet

22 stages (Stage 1 split into parts A and B), 4,495km.
Unusually, the prologue was replaced with a two-parter first stage featuring a 102km mass start road race and a 12.5km team time trial. For the first time, photo finish technology was used, finally replacing the mirador tower from which judges watched the riders crossing the finish line, the opportunity for human error - and good old-fashioned corruption - having caused many an argument in the past. It was also the first time since the Second World War that German riders took part, not so much due to any hatred the organisers felt for German riders after the war but because riders and organisers alike knew that their safety could not be guaranteed should any members of the public wish to attack them. Now that it had been a decade since the war, the majority realised that any German rider would have been either a child or of very junior rank in the military and, thankfully, no such attack took place. They rode as part of a mixed team that was also home to riders from Australia, Austria and Luxembourg. In addition to them and the French national team there were five French regional teams and one team each from Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and - for the first time in Tour history - Great Britain (the 1937 team made up of Britons Charles Holland and Bill Burl, along with Canadian Pierre Gachon, represented the British Empire rather than just Great Britain).

Miguel Poblet won Stage 1a and became the first Spaniard to have ever worn the maillot jaune, which is quite remarkable considering Spain had sent a team as long ago as 1930 and the enormous popularity of the sport over the Pyrenees, but then he lost it that very afternoon when the Netherlands won the Stage 1b team time trial and the leader's jersey passed to Wout Wagtmans. He kept it after Stage 3, which French team leader and popular favourite for overall victory Louison Bobet won, but lost it the next day to France's Antonin Rolland who got away with a group that finished five minutes ahead of the first favourites (and nine-and-a-half minutes ahead of Bobet) and earned an overall advantage of 9'21". He lost it the next day when Wim van Est joined a break that managed to finish 17'33" ahead of the bunch, but with only 25" to make up he had little difficulty winning it back on Stage 8 - not least of all because van Est was hopelessly outclassed in the mountains which made their first appearance that day.


The mountains were what Charly Gaul had been waiting for - because when the weather was cold enough for him, nobody in the world could climb like he did. He attacked early and was the first man over Les Aravis and the Cols du Telegraphe and Galibier, finishing the stage with 13'47" over second place Ferdinand Kübler; though he was now third overall he'd started the stage 25' behind Rolland and so remained 10'17" down in the General Classification. If he'd been able to do the same on Stage 9 he might well have won the Tour: he came close, attacking early again and being the first over Vars, Cayolle and Vasson but, because of a crash, he lost time and dropped to fourth overall with a disadvantage of 11'53". Meanwhile, Bobet moved into third, 11'33" behind Rolland.

Bobet was favourite - he'd won in 1953 and 1954, was World Champion and had trained aggressively, using the Classics as preparation; his campaign unexpectedly began on Stage 11 when the race climbed Mont Ventoux for the second time in its history. Three years later, when Gaul came to the Tour with the best form he would ever realise, he was so good that Ventoux seemed to welome his presence and he won the Tour; this time it did not and he came 13th, dropping to fifth overall. The old volcano wasn't in the mood to go easy on anyone that day - as Jean Malléjac and  Kübler discovered: Malléjac hadn't even realised he'd collapsed when the doctors got to him, lying flat on the stony ground with one leg still trying to turn the pedals; and he didn't regain consciousness for a quarter of an hour (he was one of six men to collapse that day). Kübler had believed himself able to tame the mountain. Raphaël Géminiani tried to warn him: "Watch out, Ferdy - the Ventoux is not like any other col." Kübler, with his curious habit of referring to himself in the third person, replied: "Ferdy is not like any other rider." Then he tried to sprint to the summit, and hadn't got very far before he was reduced to begging for a push from spectators to get over. On the way down, ashen-faced and in a cold sweat, he found a bar and started drinking heavily. "Ferdy has killed himelf on the Ventoux," he told a press conference that night, then abandoned and never returned to the Tour. Bobet, though, was able to deal with the heat, and he was cleverer than Malléjac and  Kübler - when he saw that Gaul was suffering he realised that an unmissable opportunity had come his way and that if he rode calmly and carefully he could win the stage. He finished in second place overall, now 4'53" behind Rolland, and then waited as his batteries recharged.

Louison Bobet

As a result, Bobet was the only man able to stay anywhere near Gaul when he attacked hard on Aspin and Peyresourde in Stage 17, finishing 1'24" after him while the rest came in with +3'18" or more and becoming race leader with an advantage of 3'08" on Rolland. Gaul attacked again the next day, but this time Bobet recruited a small chase group rather than trying to work alone and after following him over the Aubisque was able to catch and then pass him; his lead now grew to 6'04" - and with only four stages to go, the Tour was his even when he lost time in the time trial.

Bobet thus became the second man to have won three Tours (the first had been Philippe Thys, in 1913, 1914 and 1920) and the first to have won three consecutively, but he suffered for it: a saddle sore that had plagued him throughout the race led to necrosis, and after the race a large quantity of rotting flesh had to be cut away from his groin, in some cases stopping just short of "important organs." He knew that he had destroyed his chances of winning again and while he entered again in 1958 he was visibly unwell throughout the race, yet drove himself on and somehow finished in 7th place overall. He never finished another Tour after that.

Top Ten Final General Classification
1 Louison Bobet (FRA) France 130h 29' 26"
2 Jean Brankart (BEL) Belgium +4' 53"
3 Charly Gaul (LUX) Luxembourg/Mixed +11' 30"
4 Pasquale Fornara (ITA) Italy +12' 44"
5 Antonin Rolland (FRA) France +13' 18"
6 Raphaël Géminiani (FRA) France +15' 01"
7 Giancarlo Astrua (ITA) Italy +18' 13"
8 Stan Ockers (BEL) Belgium +27' 13"
9 Alex Close (BEL) Belgium +31' 10"
10 François Mahé (FRA) France +36' 27


2001

Jan Ullrich

20 stages + prologue, 3,455.2km.
French fans had complained that there were too few French teams in the 2000 Tour, so the selection procedure was altered slightly so as to admit more whilst also continuing to admit teams that had earned their places. It was one of the hardest Tours for some time - though it had only one Alpine stage, this was followed by an individual mountain time trial, then a rest day transfer straight to the Pyrenees; this meant that were five consecutive summit finishes. Two of the time trials were also longer than usual - Stage 5, contested by the teams, was 67km; Stage 18, contested by individuals, was 61km (the prologue would nowadays have to be classed as Stage 1 - at 8.2km it was longer than the maximum length currently permitted for a prologue, 8km).

Lance Armstrong was widely expected to win for the third time and, since Marco Pantani's Mercatone-Uno team hadn't be invited after a police raid turned up a syringe containing traces of insulin in his room (the eight-month ban he received as a result was later overturned when it was shown that the syringe couldn't be proven to be his), Jan Ullrich was considered the only man capable of challenging him and it was noted that the German was looking fitter than he had done since he'd won in 1997.

Armstrong sat back and took it easy for the first nine stages - a plan that could very easily have become a disaster because a 14-man break got away during Stage 8, driven on by a desire to get out of the appalling weather as much as a desire for victory: as a result, he ended Stage 9 35'19" down in the General Classification, which was far greater than he'd have liked. What was more important, however, was that he was ahead of Ullrich who was 35'46" down - after all, many a Tour has been won in the mountains, and the mountains didn't start until the next day. On Stage 10, he began playing mind games, hovering around the back of the peloton and looking as though he was sick; knowing full well that the other team's managers would be watching with great interest on the televisions fitted inside their team cars. He did nothing as Laurent Roux led over La Madeleine and the Col du Glandon. For a while, he allowed the bunch to get a short way ahead of him; then when the race began climbing the Alpe d'Huez, he caught up and looked Ullrich in the eyes before dropping the entire Tour and winning the stage by 1'59". His time on the Alpe that day - 38'01" - was the third fastest ever recorded, eleven years later it remains fourth fastest ever (and the man who beat it since then was... Lance Armstrong, in 2004).

Armstrong on hairpin #5, Alpe d'Huez, 2001

He was, though, still 20'07" behind overall, and that meant that there was work to do. Fortunately, the next day was the mountain time trial and while he wasn't the last man down the ramp (as riders prefer, since they then know the times they need to beat and how much they can hold back, saving energy), he won with a 1' lead on Ullrich and shaved seven minutes off his overall time. He beat Ullrich by a minute again on Stage 13 and this time the maillot jaune was his - Andrei Kivilev was second overall, 3'54" behind him. Ullrich trailed in fourth with +5'13" and knew that despite his form he was beaten, yet the next day when they crossed the finish line atop Luz-Ardiden he held out his hand and the two men finished with arms linked. During that stage Jonathan Vaughters - who is now the manager of the Garmin-Sharp team but was then a rider for Crédit Agricole - was stung on the face by a wasp and suffered a reaction that caused his right eye to swell so much he couldn't open it. He was prescribed a medicated cream but team manager Roger Legeay was told by the UCI that it couldn't be used as it contained cortisone - a steroid that has no recognised performance-enhancing of its own but, since it can be used to mask the presence of other steroids that do, is on the list of banned drugs. In most cases, medical exemption will be given provided a genuine prescription can be shown; this time, for reasons not entirely clear (more than one argument suggests that it was prejudice on the part of Tour organisers towards an American rider because they were angry at Armstrong's domonation of the race), it was refused. Vaughters had no option but to abandon the race.

From this point, Armstrong's lead was unassailable, especially once he increased it to 6'44" in the Stage 18 time trial. The rest of the race, therefore, passed without incident; his final advantage was 6'44".

Top Ten Final General Classification
1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 86h 17' 28"
2 Jan Ullrich (GER) Telekom +6' 44"
3 Joseba Beloki (ESP) ONCE +9' 05"
4 Andrei Kivilev (KAZ) Cofidis +9' 53"
5 Igor González (ESP) ONCE +13' 28"
6 François Simon (FRA) Bonjour +17' 22"
7 Óscar Sevilla (ESP) Kelme +18' 30"
8 Santiago Botero (COL) Kelme +20' 55"
9 Marcos Antonio Serrano (ESP) ONCE +21' 45"
10 Michael Boogerd (NED) Rabobank +22' 38"


2007

Cancellara, 2007

20 stages + prologue, 3,569.9km.
For the third time in its history, the Tour visited Britain - this time, the prologue took place in London (and was held in memory of the victims of the 7th of July bombings two years earlier) and was followed by a road race from London to Canterbury the following day. Unfortunately, this edition was hit hard by doping scandals with three riders and two teams being withdrawn. Michael Rasmussen, who had been leading the race, was removed by Rabobank in line with the team's strict zero-tolerance doping policy after evidence was found to suggest that he'd lied about his whereabouts during tests prior to the Tour.

Fabian Cancellara won the prologue by 13", then survived a large crash in Stage 2 before increasing his overall advantage to 33" by winning Stage 3. He managed to maintain it at about that level with consistent good results through the first week, only letting go of the maillot jaune when the race reached the mountains in Stage 7 and he came 148th, dropping to 108th overall with a disadvantage of 22'15". Linus Gerdemann, who would later become Cancellara's team mate at Leopard Trek, became race leader with an advantage of 1'24". He didn't have it for long - Rasmussen won the next day and took the jersey from him.

Stage 13 was won by Alexander Vinokourov, who had started the race as favourite but then injured both his knees in a crash and lost a lot of time in the Alps: this placed him 5'10" behind Rasmussen and fans began to wonder if he might just win after all. However, the sample he provided to doping control after his victory turned out to have a suspiciously high level of red blood cells, evidence that he might have had a homologous transfusion (ie, one using his own preserved blood). He was, therefore, removed from the Tour and disqualified from his Stage 13 and 15 wins(later, he was banned from competition for one year; there are those, however, who still argue that he might also have been innocent - he knew that he was already under suspicion due to his links with the infamous Dr. Michele Ferrari and would be tested regularly, they point out, so why would be cheat?)

Alberto Contador

Rasmussen remained in yellow all the way through the Alps and into the Pyrenees despite an attempt Alberto Contador to take it from him in Stage 14. At the end of Stage 15, Contador was 2'23" behind overall; this rode to 3'10" when Rasmussen won Stage 16, meaning that it's possible he'd have won the Tour had he not then have been removed. However, several riders were judged likely to beat him in the Stage 19 time trial - the biggest threats being Contador and, especially, Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer - it's also very possible that he would not, even if he was cheating (Evans has never been connected to any doping case. Contador was later banned for doping in a highly controversial case, Leipheimer had "unintentionally doped" in 1996 - and, if rumours surrounding the investigation into Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel at the time of writing are to be believed, may be about to reveal more; but there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that either man was cheating in the 2007 Tour. For the majority of fans, then, there is no question of whether Rasmussen might have won or not - he doped, therefore he could never have been a true winner).

Leipheimer and Evans both beat Contador in the time trial, Leipheimer by 2'18" (which won him the stage) and Evans by 1'27", which left the Spaniard in first place overall but with an advantage of just 23" over Evans and 31" over Leipheimer. There was still one stage to go but, by gentleman's agreement, the Tour is decided at the end of the penultimate stage, the final run into Paris is largely ceremonial for everyone except the domestiques and also-rans who try to grab any last opportunity to please their sponsors while the main contenders mug it up for the press. It could have been contested and the eventual outcome could have changed completely, but neither Evans nor Leipheimer were about to break with tradition and they accepted Contador as winner.

Top Ten Final General Classification
1 Alberto Contador (ESP) Discovery Channel 91h 00' 26"
2 Cadel Evans (AUS) Predictor-Lotto + 23"
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel + 31"
4 Carlos Sastre (ESP) Team CSC + 7' 08"
5 Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) Euskaltel-Euskadi + 8' 17"
6 Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne + 11' 37"
7 Kim Kirchen (LUX) T-Mobile Team + 12' 18"
8 Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) Discovery Channel + 12' 25"
9 Mikel Astarloza (ESP) Euskaltel-Euskadi + 14' 14"
10 Óscar Pereiro (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne + 14' 25"

Llangollen-Wolverhampton

Percy Stallard

Britain's first modern-era mass start cycling road race took place on this day in 1942, organised by Percy Stallard and without the approval of the National Cycling Union which had strictly banned all racing (other than time trials) on British roads since 1890 due to a belief that racing would lead to a ban on all bicycles on public roads. Stallard was inspired by a race on the Isle of Man (which, having its own parliament and passports, was not subject to NCU rules) and approached the police to gauge their reaction: contrary to the NCU's fears, the police were supportive and offered to help.

The NCU were livid, especially when the race passed without incident and was even quite successful - Stallard and fifteen others involved in organising the race were handed a sine die ban: one without a specific date upon which it would end but which could be lifted at any time if the subject either successfully appealed or, as the organisation presumably hoped would be the case in this instance, apologised and did as he or she was told. Yet still Stallard would not back down, especially now that he had proved mass-start races could be held on British roads, so in November he helped launch the British League of Racing Cyclists - an organisation of like-minded riders that act as an umbrella body co-ordinating a number of pre-existing groups and would go head-to-head with the cycling establishment. In 1945 they organised the Victory Race to celebrate the end of the war - after growing, vanishing, reappearing and growing once again, it eventually became the modern Tour of Britain.

Cyclists born on this day: Sharon Laws (born Kenya, British nationality, 1974); Werner Riebenbauer (Austria, 1974); Nigel Donnelly (New Zealand, 1968); Elizabeth Hepple (Australia, 1959); Brian Smith (Great Britain, 1967); Fabrizio Trezzi (Italy, 1967); Mirco Gualdi (Italy, 1968); Sergey Klimov (USSR, 1980); Sataporn Kantasa-Ard (Thailand, 1950); Fernand Decanali (France, 1925); Erik Zabel (East Germany, 1970); Robert Vidal (France, 1933); Hans-Jürgen Geschke (East Germany, 1943); Angelo Ciccone (Italy, 1980); Guido Fulst (West Germany, 1970); Børge Gissel (Denmark, 1915); Héctor Pérez (Mexico, 1959).

Daily Cycling Facts 06.07.2014

Maurice Moritz

The eighth edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest of the Monuments that make up the five most prestigious Classic races, was held on this day in 1913. The winner was Maurice Moritz who crossed the line just ahead of the twelve other men in the final sprint and recorded a time of 7h23' - virtually nothing else is known about him. This was the only time the race was ever held in July and it was the last edition until 1919, racing in Europe being brought to a temporary halt by the First World War.


The Tour de France has started on this date three times - 1932, 1991 and 2002.

1932
21 stages, 4,479km.
The number of stages and overall distance was reduced. Henri Desgrange was still concerned that the sprinters suffered more in the mountains than the climbers did on the plain stages, so the bonification system was overhauled once again - whereas the previous year the winner had received a bonus of three minutes, now he would receive four minutes plus an extra three if he finished more than three minutes ahead of second place, while second place earned two minutes and third one minute. This had been done largely because Degrange felt that Charles Pélissier deserved a chance at winning a Tour.  Pélissier was a sprinter who had won fourteen stages over the course of the last three years, including an incredible eight in 1930 (a record that would not be equaled until Merckx managed to do it in 1970, and which has never been bettered - though Merckx did it again in 1974) and Desgrange seems to have liked him tremendously (not so Charles' brother, 1923 Tour winner Henri, with whom Desgrange had a long feud and hated; though he would admit that he was a great rider) - the era of specialist riders such as modern-day sprinter Mark Cavendish who knows he'll never win a Tour had not yet arrived.

Jean Aerts

In the end, though, Pélissier stayed away that year, as did Antonin Magne; but with a team that included André Leducq, Marcel Bidot, Maurice Archambaud and Georges Speicher the French remained favourites. Their biggest rivals were the Belgians, whose Jean Aerts won the first stage; the team suffered however from internal rivalry between the French-speaking Walloons and the Flemish - when the Walloons failed to support Aerts in Stage 2 the maillot jaune passed to Kurt Stöpel (thanks to bonification), who thus became the first German rider to have ever led the Tour. The next day, Stöpel was 57th but didn't lose a great deal of time as 52 of those riders finished together, finding himself 1'45" behind stage winner Leducq, who now held the yellow jersey and, with help from his team and by making good use of his excellent descending skills to regain time lost on the climbs to come, kept it throughout the remainder of the race. Leducq finished 1'09" after Stage 4 winner Georges Ronsse, but his advantage over Stöpel remained intact and then grew by 10" on Stage 5 despite Leducq finishing 3'53" after the winner. During that stage, Spanish Vicente Trueba - who would become the very first King of the Mountains the following year - was first over the Aubisque. Like many climbers he disliked descending, lacking the weight required to prevent the bike skipping all over the road at high speed, so French touriste-routier Benoît Fauré was able to catch him on the way to the Tourmalet and got to the top first - but was denied a stage win by the Italian Antonio Pesento who caught him on the way down and then beat him in a sprint to the finish.

In the mountains, 1932

Leducq got into difficulties during Stage 6 when the race climbed Les Ares, Portet d'Aspet, Port and Puymorens, but once again he was able to use his descending skills and managed to come second with the same time as winner Frans Bonduel, thus adding another minute to his lead over Stöpel. Bonduel and Leducq were first and second on Stage 7 too, so Leducq got another minute, then increased it to 6'05"despite finishing in the same time group as the German on Stage 8 and it remained the same after Stage 9. On Stage 10, Francesco Camusso got away (and became virtual leader for a while) on the Braus and Castillon climbs and won the stage. Stöpel went after him but tired, eventually finishing in fourth place with a time 2'38" greater, but Leducq was 16th and 5'30" down - his overall lead dropped to 3'13", but on Stage 11 it increased to 7'13". He could have won now by riding safely, remaining with the peloton and making sure he had his team around him ready to chase down any breaks that might have a chance of putting a dent in his lead, but he'd developed a taste for the ecstatic French fans that greeted him with every win so he chose to go for a more glorious win and kept contesting stages - he won Stage 13, once again through his descending skills which he used this time to catch Camusso who had escaped in a snowstorm on Galibier, after which he led by 13'03"; then came third on Stage 14 to increase it by another minute. He won Stage 15 too, adding another four, and he would have won even more when he was first over the line on Sage 18 had judges not have noticed that he'd received illegal help in the form of a push from Albert Barthélemy (who was not, as many people imagine, related to Honore Barthélémy - note the very small variation in their surnames). As punishment he was relegated to 21st, taking a place among a group of riders that received the same stage time as new winner Rafaele di Paco but missed out of bonuses. Stöpel was third and won back a minute, but with three stages to go it made no difference; especially when Leducq won Stages 20 and 21 as well, taking his eventual overall advantage to 24'03".

1932 wasn't the only time Leducq got a helpful push from a
team mate - he's seen here in 1933 receiving assistance from
Georges Speicher

Organisers could not miss the fact that all 24 of those minutes came from the total of 31 awarded to Leducq; since Stöpel had been awarded seven, without the bonus system the gap between the two riders would have been just 3", which would have been the smallest winning margin before or since. This, they felt, would have been fairer; perhaps more importantly it might have made for a more exciting race - the following year, it was changed again and the winner alone received a bonus, reduced to two minutes.

Top Ten Final General Classification
1  André Leducq (FRA) France 154h 11' 49"
2  Kurt Stöpel (GER) Germany/Austria +24' 03"
3  Francesco Camusso (ITA) Italy +26' 21"
4  Antonio Pesenti (ITA) Italy +37' 08"
5  Georges Ronsse (BEL) Belgium +41' 04"
6  Frans Bonduel (BEL) Belgium +45' 13"
7  Oskar Thierbach (GER) Germany/Austria +58' 44"
8  Jef Demuysere (BEL) Belgium +1h 03' 24"
9  Luigi Barral (ITA) Touriste-routier +1h 06' 57"
10  Georges Speicher (FRA) France +1h 08' 37"


1991
22 stages (Stages 1 and 2 held on the same day) + prologue, 3,914.4km.

Thierry Marie

Thierry Marie wore the maillot jaune in Stage 1 after winning the prologue, but nobody was surprised when Greg Lemond got into a breakaway on Stage 1 and grabbed sufficient time bonuses to take it away. Having won in 1986 and then, after making an incredible come-back following a near-fatal shotgun accident, in 1989 and 1991 as well, Lemond was favourite among the public and riders; all that remained to be seen was whether he'd now keep the jersey for as much of the race as possible or let it go in a few days and then take it back later on in the race. In fact, he had it for only 42 minutes - that very afternoon, the Ariostea team beat his Z team in the team time trial and the jersey went to Rolf Sørensen. Sørensen  lost it again in Stage 5 when he crashed hard enough to destroy his bike. A domestique was on hand to supply him with a new one but, very obviously in a great deal of pain, he finished in 90th place. X-rays revealed that he'd smashed his collarbone. Marie got another two days in yellow after breaking away after 25km in Stage 6 and then staying away for the rest of the day. At 234km, it's the second longest solo break in the history of the Tour.

Stage 8, the first of two individual time trials, was expected to the where the General Classifications contenders would begin their assualts on overall victory and this proved to be the case: all of them (with the exception of Claudio Chiappucci who, if he was going to win, would do so in the mountains) fought hard for good times. Miguel Indurain used his enormous physical strength to win, but Lemond came in just 8" slower and became race leader with an advantage of 1'13". That remained the same the next day, then dropped 4" after Stage 10, the stage in which the PDM's team Tour came to a premature end: Nico Verhoeven and Uwe Raab were both unable to start due to a fever, then three of their team mates abandoned later that day. On Stage 11, the remaining four PDM riders also left the race; which immediately led to allegations of doping. However, no proof was ever found; we must, therefore, accept the official line that their illness was caused by an injection of a contaminated but legal food supplement.

Urs Zimmerman

Stage 12 started with a protest as riders refused to move for forty minutes after the race was officially started, showing solidarity for Urs Zimmermann who had been rather pettily disqualified for travelling between Stage 11 and Stage 12 by car rather than aeroplane because flying frightened him. Eventually officials relented - Zimmermann was allowed back into the race and his Motorola team manager was barred instead for failing to get permission from race organisers. The riders were also not happy about a new rule requiring them to wear helmets: there had been a strike at Paris-Nice earlier in the year, now two thirds of the peloton handed their helmets over to race officials at the start of the stage and refused to take them back until the end - which doesn't sound a particularly effective protest unless one remembers that this meant the organisers now had to look after 150 helmets and transport them from the start town to the finish. Over the last few days it had become apparent that all was not well with Lemond - and the other riders spotted it, just as any predator notices weakness: when a break consisting of Luc Leblanc, Pascal Richard and Charly Mottet looked to have a good chance of staying away in Stage 12, he found that nobody was willing to help him catch them - three stages earlier he was still le patron, but now he was an also-ran and his word no longer carried weight. Mottet took the maillot jaune, Leblanc the stage. Meanwhile, a Spanish rider named Miguel Indurain who had come tenth the year before clawed back 8". It got worse the next day: Lemond somehow got to the top of Tourmalet only a few seconds behind the race leaders, but Indurain was already long gone and even managed to catch Chiappucci on the final climb up Val Louron. As the better climber, the climb took less of a toll on Chiappucci and he was able to get back ahead and win the stage by 1", but Indurain was now in yellow - with an advantage of 3'.

Indurain on his way home, with trophy

Lemond won back a few seconds later in the race. It wasn't enough to make any meaningful difference in the General Classification, but it turned the race into a defeat rather than a crushing one. Indurain had as good as won now and could have taken things relatively easy, but instead he kept on increasing his overall time by first managing to stay within 1" of Gianni Bugno when he launched a blistering attack on the hallowed Alpe d'Huez, then won the Stage 21 time trial by 27". Never in Tour history has there been such a sharply-defined transfer between two eras.

Top Ten Final General Classificiation
1  Miguel Indurain (ESP) Banesto 101h 01' 20"
2  Gianni Bugno (ITA) Gatorade-Chateau d'Ax +3' 36"
3  Claudio Chiappucci (ITA) Carrera +5' 56"
4  Charly Mottet (FRA) RMO +7' 37"
5  Luc Leblanc (FRA) Castorama +10' 10"
6  Laurent Fignon (FRA) Castorama +11' 27"
7  Greg LeMond (USA) Z +13' 13"
8  Andrew Hampsten (USA) Motorola +13' 40"
9  Pedro Delgado (ESP) Banesto +20' 10"
10  Gerard Rué (FRA) Helvetia +20' 13"


2002
20 stages + prologue, 3,277.5km.
The Saeco team's wildcard invite was revoked shortly before the race began when news emerged that Gilberto Simoni, who had won the Giro d'Italia in 2001, had tested positive for cocaine on two occasions; Jean Delatour being invited in their place.

Ventoux, 2002

Lance Armstrong won the prologue, then settled back into the prologue for the first week with absolutely no concern when the maillot jaune went to Rubens Bertogliati after Stage 1, then Erik Zabel and then Igor González. Everyone expected him to take the lead in the Stage 9 time trial, despite the time he'd lost when he got stuck behind a crash earlier in the race. In fact he came second, making up only 8"; which, had it have been any other rider, would not have drawn comment - but it wasn't any other rider; it was Lance. Did this mean - could this mean - that after three victories his reign was coming to an end? Armstrong couldn't explain it, he chose instead to wait for the Pyrenees in Stages 11 and 12.

He won both, taking back the yellow jersey on the first day and soaring past Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque on the final climbs as they fought one another in their own private battle for King of the Mountains. The peloton had seriously understimated him - Lance wasn't finished, he was just getting started.

Richard Virenque

Stage 14 climbed Mont Ventoux, an opportunity for Virenque - his best years were gone, but a decisive victory on the most hallowed mountain in cycling would secure him his position among the greatest climbers of all time. He won the stage by 1'58", which was a good result but not the sort of glorious mountain triumph enjoyed by the likes of Gaul and Bahamontes. He'd won the King of the Mountains five times by this point and he'd win it two more times; but he wasn't in the same league as the Angel and the Eagle. What's more, Ventoux had tested him and he had been found lacking - he didn't look well when he arrived at the finish line. Armstrong rode wisely - he knew that Ventoux can end a rider's Tour, career and even life, so he got himself up without demanding too much from his body and finishing 2'20" later in third place. It was more than sufficient and he added almost two minutes to his lead over second place Joseba Beloki in the General Classification, then when the race left the mountains behind and went to the last time trial he won and his advantage went up to 7'17" - the time by which he won overall a day later.

Armstrong would, in 2012, be stripped of this victory and his six other Tour wins following a USADA investigation into doping at the US Postal team. Levi Leipheimer gave evidence against him and, in doing so, admitted that he too had doped.

Top Ten Overall General Classification
1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 82h 05' 12" (disqualified)
2 Joseba Beloki (ESP) ONCE +7' 17"
3 Raimondas Rumsas (LIT) Lampre +8' 17"
4 Santiago Botero (COL) Kelme +13' 10"
5 Igor González (ESP) ONCE +13' 54"
6 José Azevedo (POR) ONCE +15' 44"
7 Francisco Mancebo (ESP) iBanesto.com +16' 05"
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank +17' 11" (disqualified)
9 Roberto Heras (ESP) US Postal Service +17' 12"
10 Carlos Sastre (ESP) Team CSC +19' 05"



Cyclists born on this day:Tiffany Cromwell (Australia, 1988); Tea Vikstedt-Nyman (Finland, 1959 Jeremy Yates (New Zealand, 1982); Henry Anglade (France, 1933); Jeremy Yates (New Zealand, 1982); Fortunato Baliani (Italy, 1974); René Le Grèves (France, 1910); Phạm Văn Sau (South Vietnam, 1939); Marcin Karczyński (Poland, 1978); Tiemen Groen (Netherlands, 1946); Son Hui-Jeong (South Korea, 1987); Adam Laurent (USA, 1971); Fitzroy Hoyte (Trinidad and Tobago, 1940, died 2008); Joseph Geurts (Belgium, 1939); Luis Laverde (Colombia, 1979); Al Sellinger (USA, 1914, died 1986).