100 editions of the Tour de France 1913

1913 Peugeot ridden by Philippe Thys BEL

The race follows an anticlockwise course around France and creates the formula that last to today of anticlockwise routes in odd years and clockwise in even years. The Tour also reverts to elapsed time as the way of deciding the winner, rather than points.
Peugeot were to take the first three places plus 5th and 7th.

The 1913 Tour is most famous for the story of Christophe, his broken forks and the penalty he was given when a 7 year old boy help him by pumping the bellows while Christophe worked at the repairs in a blacksmiths forge.
Actually the story seems to have been over emphasized since he was only docked 10 minutes, and even that was later reduced to 3, especially considering that he'd lost over three hours on the repairs. More interesting is the story that after the stage Peugeot took the forks away and claimed that they'd been damaged in an accident with a car, while Christophe made no mention of a crash. Clearly Peugeot thought that there was a better marketing story around a car crash being responsible for the breakage than them giving way due to the stresses of the terrible road conditions.

This was the first Tour where gears started to be used in anger and by 1914 they'd become commonplace, with most riders opting for Eadie two speed hubs. In 1913 Petit-Breton was using a Sturmey-Archer two speed hub but despite being able to shift on the fly he was still outclimbed by riders who were flipping their rear wheels to change between the two gears, notably Thys and Buysse, but it was early days for the geared hub and internal losses cancelled out the time gained. 

Another interesting story is that Tour history states that in 1919 Christophe was the first wearer of the yellow jersey, whereas Thys claimed that he was awarded the jersey during this addition. He says he was initially reluctant to wear it, stating that it made him a more obvious target for his rivals but after pressure from his Peugeot team, who saw the marketing potential, he eventually relented. The garment wasn't the slick tailored item of today and needed a knife taking to it to ensure his head passed through the neck hole.

Firmin Lambert on th Aubisque. Note the road conditions.

Faber and Garrigou on the Galibier

  

100 editions of the Tour de France, 1912

1912 Alcyon ridden by Odile Defraye BEL

1912 followed the formula of the 1911 Tour, which many saw as the first 'modern' Tour, setting the tone for all future editions, though with stages like the marathon 470k and 16 hour haul from La Rochelle to Brest it still owed much to those earlier events. 15 stages and 14 rest days is not something we see today, though at least they lifted the ban of freewheels (some of the facts around this are lost in history because earlier editions allowed freewheels but at some point they were outlawed. Desgrange tinkered with the rules in the same way they do in F1 today).
Jean Alavoine took advantage of the rules change and in fact rode with an early gear changing device which helped him to win three stages.

10 teams of 5 lined up at the start with the rest of the 131 man field being independent riders. Petit-Breton was riding for Peugeot, who were back after their self imposed boycot of the race, though he was again unlucky, this time quitting after crashing into a cow.

Eugène Chrstophe finished second overall, though he could've won if not for the points system that favoured more conservative riders, and on the way took a stage after possibly the longest breakaway in Tour history. Attacking in the Alps and taking in the Télégraphe and Galibier he stayed away for 315k and finished 30 minutes ahead of Defraye.

Riders on the Aubisque during a rain soaked 326k and 14 hour stage

In the end Defraye won easily when the other Belgian riders helped him even though they were on other teams. The French La Française team was so upset by this blatant rule breaking they quit the the race. 

100 editions of the Tour de France 1911

1911 Alcyon ridden by Gustave Garrigou FRA

1911 was the year the Tour hit the Alps, and the organisers didn't mess about, creating a course that took in the Galibier and Télégraphe. It might make us modern day mortals feel better knowing that there was only one rider who managed to ride the whole of the Galibier, but of course he only had the one gear.

Two teams dominated the race with Alcyon and La Français both fielding 2 previous Tour winners.
But there was to be drama before the victor was crowned. Firstly, a challenger to Garrigou, Paul Duboc was heading the race on the queen stage from Luchon to Bayonne, a 326k haul over the Peyresourde, the Aspin, the Tourmalet and finally the Aubisque when he fell ill after taking a drink at the feed station. 

It was assumed that Duboc had been poisoned. At first the suspicions fell on Garrigou because he had the most to lose from a Duboc victory. It is now thought that perhaps the bottle given to Duboc at the sign in contained the poison and that François Lafourcade, who had ridden so well in the mountains of the previous years Tour, may have concocted it. It is now universally accepted that Garrigou was innocent, but at the time the partisan crowds were out fro blood. In the later stages, as the Tour entered Duboc's region around Rouen someone put up signs along the road;

"Citizens of Rouen! If I had not been poisoned, I would be leading the Tour today. You know what to do when the Tour passes through Rouen tomorrow."

Legend has it that Garrigou was given a bodyguard and even wore a false mustache (which seems unlikely since he is sporting a splendid mustache of his own in every photo that I've seen).

despite these difficulties and a strong La Française team, who placed riders in 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall, Garrigou went on to win the Tour with a good points advantage.

Garrigou on the Galibier

VELO 2nd gear

The beautiful VELO 2nd gear book popped through my letterbox the other day. I'd be contacted last year and invited to contribute a few photographs, notably of the Peugeot concept bike. It's great for us to be featured in such a superb book, especially one that concentrates on the slightly more alternative and super high end aspects of the cycling world. We'd like to be considered as one of the more imaginative marques but also one with an unequalled history. Anyway, here are a few really bad photographs, non of which do the book any justice? Go out and buy the real thing and enjoy.

Peugeot eDL132 and ONYX

Peugeot DL121

100 editions of the Tour d France, 1910

1910 Alcyon ridden by Octave Lapize FRA

This was the year the big mountains were introduced and the organisers didn't mess around with the choice of summits, creating a course where the riders tackled the Peyresourde, Tourmalet, Aspin and Aubisque. 

Unrelated to the mountains, it was also the year of the first TdF death, with Adolphe Heliere drowning in the med during a rest day dip!

The decision to include the high mountains was famously proceeded by Desgrange sending one of his staff to check out the route, 2 months before the event. Although in trying to cross the Tourmalet Desgrange employee Steinès become stuck in a snow drift before becoming lost in the snow after abandoning his car on the mountain side. Eventually he was rescued in the early hours by locals who found him trapped in a ravine after falling from an icy ledge. 

His famous telegram to the boss read, 

" No trouble crossing the Tourmalet. Roads satisfactory. No problem for cyclists. Stienés".

This wasn't the only famous quote from the 1910 Tour. On the 'Queen' stage the riders tackled four big mountains, concluding with the Aubisque, where Lapize was found by the organisers pushing his bike in second place, 15mins behind the lone and unknown leader. Lapize, through in a haze of fatique, uttered the words "Vous être des assassins!" and promised to quit at the next village.

But he didn't quit, he continued and sealed the win that would see him beat team mate, favorite and close rival Faber to his only Tour victory. Indeed he was never to even finish the Tour agin despite trying 4 more times though he did win many other prestigious events. 

Like many riders of this time he died during the war when his fighter plane was shot down near Verdun. He was 29.

Lapize on the Tourmalet

100 editions of the Tour de France, 1909

1909 Alcyon ridden by Français Faber LUX

If the 1908 race was all about Peugeot then the 1909 edition was all about Alcyon and more specifically, Français Faber.

Faber was a big man, 1.86m and 91kg apparently and he clearly had the heart of a lion. As a Luxembourger he was also the first 'foreigner' to win the Tour.

Some say that the 1909 Tour had the worst weather ever but it didn't stop Faber winning 5 stages in a row, which has yet to be equalled. 

Stage 2 was run off in freezing rain for the entire 398k and Faber rode the second half on his own to finish over 30 mins ahead of the second place man, a feat he replicated on stage 3. Since the points system was still in play he gained no more than if he'd won a sprint by half a wheel.

As you can see in the photograph he won stage 4 on foot after to braking his chain as he entered Lyon.

Stage 5 was equally eventful, due to tremendous winds which knocked him from his bike twice and then a horse joined the act, also knocking him to the ground. 

In the end Alcyon took the first 5 places but it should be noted that from 1909 to 1911 Peugeot, for a reason I have yet to find, boycotted the race so many of it's star riders switched to Alcyon.

A sad footnote, but one that sums up Faber, is that he was killed in 1915 as he carried a wounded comrade through no mans land as he fought in the First World War. 

100 editions of the Tour de France 1908

1908 Peugeot ridden by Lucien Petit-Breton FRA

The 1908 race can only be seen as one thing, a tribute to the Peugeot team. To this day the most successful team ever and winners of more Tours than any other team.

This year, not only did they win overall with Petit-Breton but they also took the first 4 places (and 6th and 8th) and won EVERY stage.

It's hardly surprising when the team included, alongside Petit-Breton, who had won the previous year, Français Faber who would win the following year and go on to take the Paris-Roubaix, Henri Cornet the 1904 winner, Georges Passerieu who had a 2nd in the Tour to his name and was also a Paris-Roubaix winner, Hippolyte Aucouturier, another Tour runner up and double Paris-Roubaix victor and Gustave Garrigou, second again in 1908 and winner in 1911. Even the lesser know team members were, or would go on to be, stage winners.

Petit-Breton himself was considered the perfect bike racer. He had great endurance, yet he had a formidable sprint which was useful at a time when the Tour was decided on points, meaning that losing minutes in the mountains was no more of a penalty than missing out in the sprint by a bikes length. This was important when you realise that when they crossed the Ballon d'Alsace, which is by no means the hardest climb in France, only one rider managed it without getting off and pushing.

His other great strength was that as a bicycle mechanic, which also shouldn't be underestimated in the days when riders had to do all their own repairs, without outside assistance.