Tour de France: An alternative view of the ultimate road race

Today, my brothers, we gather here in common celebration of the divine bicycle. Not only do we owe it our most pious gratitude for the precious and ineffable love that it has given us, but also for the host of memories sown over our whole sports life and which today has made concrete. In the history of humanity, does it not constitute the first successful effort of intelligent life to triumph over the laws of weights?"

Henri Desgrange, the father of the Tour de France

WAR OF THE WORLDS

The birth of the Tour de France in 1903 can be traced back to a circulation war between two sporting newspapers in the 1890s. Le Vélo was the undisputed bestseller in France until a row between its owner and one of its main advertisers led to the establishment of L'Auto Vélo in 1899. Henri Desgrange, a 30-year-old former world hour-record-holder, was hired as the new journal's editor. L'Auto was forced to drop "Vélo" from its masthead – but the ambitious new paper set about competing for readers with a series of innovative stunts. One was to launch a cycle race around France, sponsored and organised – and of course covered in great detail – by L'Auto.

1903: GARIN SWEEPS TO VICTORY

At 3.16pm on 31 May 1903, the first Tour de France set off from a small café named the Réveil Matin in the Paris suburb of Villeneuve-St Georges. There were 50 riders from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, 21 of whom were professionals – although such were the meagre wages for cyclists that none was full-time. When he was not in the saddle, the eventual winner, Maurice Garin – who stood just 5ft 3in (160cm) tall – was a chimney sweep. Garin was renowned for his long, droopy moustache and the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

1904: CHEATING AND SKULDUGGERY

These included itching powder in riders' shorts, spiked drinks, sabotaged bike frames, and nails and broken glass scattered across the road. The race favourite Hippolyte Acouturier, himself a victim of a spiked drink in 1903, was spotted taking a tow from a car by means of a string attached to a cork that he gripped between his teeth. Garin bribed Géo Lefévre to give him an illegal feed. He and rival Pierre Chevallier were also rumoured to have made up time by getting a lift in a car when darkness fell. And all this was just on stage one!

TOUR TRIVIA

During the 1909 Tour, Henri Alavoine of France crashed in horrendous snow, hail and rain and was forced to carry his bike through freezing, ankle-high water to the stage finish some 6 miles (10km) away.

1910: ALL ABOARD THE BROOM WAGON

The broom wagon – or la voiture balai – was first introduced in 1910. The purpose of this vehicle is to "sweep up" riders at the back of the field who can no longer continue or simply wish to retire from the race. Their numbers are unceremoniously removed and they are bundled into the back. Star riders rarely use the broom wagon, preferring the less inauspicious option of climbing into the back of their team cars.

1912: AN UDDERLY UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT

Lucien Petit-Breton won the Tour in 1908 – but four years later he was forced to withdraw from the race after an embarrassing collision with a cow. A year earlier he'd had the misfortune to hit a drunken sailor attempting to cross the road in Boulogne.

1913: FORKS IN THE ROAD

The idea of support cars carrying replacement bicycles was unheard of in the early years of the Tour. In fact, riders faced severe time penalties if they were caught receiving any help at all to effect mechanical repairs. It was this typically draconian rule that led to an incident that has gone down in Tour legend. While descending the Col du Tourmalet at high speed, Eugène Christophe's front forks snapped. Remarkably, he was unscathed. Even more remarkably, Christophe – aware that he was the race leader on the road – slung his bike over his shoulder, grabbed the broken forks, and set off on foot for the nearest village, 6 miles (10km) further down the mountain. The village was St Marie de Campan, and right in the middle of it was a blacksmith. Stoking up the forge, Christophe set about repairing his forks. As he did so, a Tour official looked on to ensure that no rules were broken. When Christophe asked a local youngster to work the bellows, he was informed by the official that he had been docked ten minutes – on top of the four hours he had already lost since the crash.

Such was the outcry over the decision, the time penalty was eventually reduced – to three minutes. Towards the end of his life, Christophe returned to St Marie de Campan to watch the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the site of the former smithy. To add insult to injury, his name was misspelled.

1920: NAPOLEON AND HIS DONKEY

Was there ever an unluckier rider than the Italian Napoleon Paoli? While racing down a narrow mountain track, he collided with a donkey that was standing in the middle of the road. Both he and his bike flew into the air and, when he landed, Paoli was on the back of the donkey. The beast of burden duly set off in panic in the opposite direction, with the helpless Paoli unable to get off. When the donkey eventually collapsed from exhaustion, Paoli had to run nearly a kilometre to where his bike was lying by the roadside. Further along the road, he was hit on the head by a rock that had been worked loose from an overhanging cliff. Paoli managed to get to the summit of the Tourmalet, where he gave up and fell asleep in a hut. In all he would ride three Tours, and finish none.

1924: THE TOUR OF SUFFERING

The 1924 Tour was dubbed "Le Tour du Souffrance" (The Tour of Suffering) by the journalist Alfred Londres, and there is little doubt that in terms of draconian rules and regulations, Henri Desgrange excelled himself this year. Not content with forcing riders to contest 15 stages in which only two were under 186 miles (300km) and five were in excess of 248 miles (400km), and insisting that they have no mechanical back-up, Desgrange decided that in addition, riders would be disqualified if they were found to be discarding clothing or equipment en route. When most stages started in the pre-dawn cold and finished in the burning afternoon heat, this was perhaps the greatest torture of all. It proved too much for Henri Pélissier, who withdrew from the race claiming that Desgrange would soon insist on riders carrying weights "since God made humans too light".

TOUR TRIVIA

Jules Banino of France was 51 when he rode the Tour for the second and last time in 1924 – the oldest man to compete in the world's toughest sporting event.

1930: THE GRAVY TRAIN

The Tour de France publicity caravan was devised in 1930 as a means of raising money for the event without having to rely on the major bike manufacturers, whose influence was killing the Tour. Back then it consisted of a few advertising vehicles chugging along in the riders' wake. Today, there are more than 200, and the caravan is an event in itself. It sets off two hours before the riders and stretches 15 miles (25km) along the route, showering spectators with giveaways.

TOUR TRIVIA

Riders in the Tour de France expend 5,000 calories on a flat stage, and over 8,000 a day in the mountains. The daily calorie expenditure of a typical man is around 2,500.

1935: DEATH IN THE RAVINE

Considering the poor road conditions and the unreliable bikes, it is something of a miracle that the first Tour fatality did not occur until 1935 – the 32nd running of the race. It happened on the Galibier, when the Spaniard Francesco Cepeda misjudged a hairpin bend and plunged into a ravine, fracturing his skull. By the time the Tour doctor reached him several minutes later, Cepeda was already dead.

1935: BOOZE BREAK

Struggling along in stifling heat on the stage from Pau to Bordeaux, the riders thought they were seeing a mirage when up ahead they spotted a line of trestle tables laden with ice cold beer. Pretty soon the entire peloton had stopped by the roadside to quench their thirst. All except Julien Moineau, an unknown French rider, who put his head down and sped away to win the stage by several minutes. It later emerged that Moineau and his pals had organised the impromptu beer break.

LANTERNE MEANS LAST

If you can't win the Tour, then the next best thing is to come last. At least that's the philosophy among the also-rans of the peloton, for whom the position of lanterne rouge (red lamp) has become a highly sought-after means of publicity. Initially, any rider who came in last overall after the second stage was kicked out of the race, but in the 1950s the idea of acknowledging riders who struggled honourably to complete the Tour without abandoning or finishing outside the time limit gained in popularity. The race to be last can often eclipse the battle for the yellow jersey, with riders in the frame vying with each other to see who could go slowest without being expelled for exceeding the time limit.

1947: TOE THE LINE

Apo Lazarides was a dedicated domestique (team rider) who would do anything for his team leader René Vietto – and proved it in 1947, when Vietto ordered him to cut off his toe. Vietto himself was already down to nine toes after instructing the team doctor to snip off one of them in order to ease an aching foot. Lazarides dutifully agreed to the amputation, and for the rest of his life he would walk with a limp. Vietto's toe, incidentally, was pickled in formaldehyde and is kept in a bar in Marseilles.

TOUR TRIVIA

Pipped on the last day of the 1947 Tour by Jean Robic, Pierre Brambilla is reputed to have buried his bike in his garden in disgust.

TOUR TRIVIA

The Italian rider Edouard Fachleitner, who finished second in the 1947 Tour, phoned home every evening to talk to his dog.

1949: IS THIS YELLOW?

Norbert Callens of Belgium won his one and only yellow jersey on a stage of the 1949 Tour and was understandably delighted. Unfortunately, when he reported to the team compound the next morning, he was informed by a sheepish soigneur (assistant) that his prized jersey had been left on the team bus – which had just set off for the next finish line. Callens was forced to ride what should have been the proudest stage of his life in a tatty yellow sweater belonging to a journalist.

1951: WRONG TURN, WIM

Dutchman Wim van Est was leading the 1951 Tour and determined to remain in yellow as he began a helter-skelter descent of the Col d'Aubisque. The mountain has a reputation as one of the most dangerous of the Tour, and on that day van Est proved why. Having already lost control on one tight hairpin, van Est continued for a couple of hundred yards before he went over the edge of the ravine. Fortunately, he was able to scramble back up and onto his bike. Anyone else perhaps would have thought twice about descending so recklessly – not van Est. And it wasn't long before the Dutchman lost control again. This time both he and his bike plunged 100 feet into the ravine, and to everyone watching it was clear he wouldn't be getting up from this one. Miraculously, van Est was still alive. He was able to climb back out of the ravine using a rope made of inner tubes from the Dutch support vehicle. He was forced to continue his journey to the bottom of the mountain in the back of an ambulance.

1951: A NEW STARTING POINT

In 1951 the Tour began in Metz, the first time since 1926 that the race had started outside Paris. Staging the Grand Départ in a different city was to be an annual occurrence from now on, a forerunner of the Tour Prologues which often take the event out of France for the first few stages.

1952: COMBAT CHAMP

The Combativity Award is presented at the end of every day to the rider who, in the opinion of a panel of experts, has produced the most competitive ride. It was introduced in 1952, and the daily prize was 100 francs. Since 1998 the winner of the previous day's award is identified by a red number on his back.

1954: THE TOUR GOES DUTCH

An estimated 100,000 spectators turned out in Amsterdam when the 1954 Tour was launched from a country other than France for the first time. The 134 mile (216km) stage to Braaschaat in Belgium was, fittingly, won by a Dutchman, Wout Wagtmans.

TOUR TRIVIA

If you want to be a Tour winner, be 29 years old. That's historically the most common age, with thirteen winners. Twenty-one winners have been older than 30.

GAUL BLADDER

Charly Gaul of Luxembourg was rightly known as one of the sport's greatest climbers. He was also known as "Monsieur Pi-Pi", after perfecting the art of urinating while still in the saddle.

A TRAGIC TRIO

In 1957 and 1958 the event was marred by three deaths – none of them riders. In 1957 the respected route broadcaster Alex Virot and his motorcycle driver René Wagner were killed when they plunged into a ravine near Ax-les-Thermes. Virot had been responsible for the first live radio coverage of the Tour in 1933. The following year, Andre Darrigade was at the head of a line of riders circling the Parc des Princes at the end of the race when he smashed into Constant Wouters, a stadium official, who was standing too close to the edge of the track. While Darrigade escaped with just five stitches in a head wound, Wouters was seriously injured and died in hospital 11 days later.

BRITAIN'S BEST

In 1984 the finest climber Britain has ever produced, Glasgow-born Robert Millar, became the only Briton to win the King of the Mountains jersey, while his fourth place was Britain's best placing. He is also one of the few vegetarians to win the polka-dot jersey.

TOUR TRIVIA

When a boy asked him the best way to prepare for the Tour, the five-time winner Jacques Anquetil said, "with a good woman and a bottle of champagne".

1974: TOUR DE PLYMPTON BYPASS

There is much excitement about the Grand Départ from Britain in 2007, and rightly so. With an exciting Prologue through the streets of central London and a challenging stage through Kent, the British leg of the Tour promises to be as enthusiastically followed as any in France. It was not always so, however. In 1972 the Tour organisers grandly announced that stage three of the 1974 race would be held along the south coast of England. What transpired was one of the most boring stages in Tour history. The police were unwilling to block off the roads, which meant the majority of the 101 mile (163km) route was confined to going up and down the yet-to-be-opened, and wholly unscenic, Plympton bypass near Plymouth. There were fewer than expected spectators, and the racing was little more than a high-speed procession that was eventually won by the unknown Henrik Poppe of Holland. The sarcastic headline in one English newspaper the next day read: " Tour de France – Can 40 Million Frenchmen Be Wrong?" Hardly surprising, then, that it would be another twenty years before the Tour returned to British shores.

TOUR TRIVIA

Feed zones were introduced in 1919, and originally took the form of long trestle tables where riders could stop and load up their jersey pockets with sandwiches and fruit. By the 1950s, however, teams realised that this was an unnecessary waste of valuable time, so instead back-up staff were positioned at set feed zones with cloth bags known as musettes, full of food. These would be grabbed by the rider on the move, slung over the shoulder, and the food transferred to the jersey before the bag was thrown to the spectators. Today, the feed zones are 545–1,090 yards (500–1,000m) long, and riders face penalties if they receive food outside this area. Team managers are allowed to hand out energy bars and drink bottles from their cars, but not in the first 31 miles (50km) or the last 12.5 miles (20km) of a race.

TOUR TRIVIA

The first American rider to enter the Tour was Jonathan Boyer in 1981. Boyer was regarded as a Californian weirdo by the European cycling community, both for his religious beliefs and (mainly) for the fact he was a vegetarian. He arrived at the start in Nice with 50lb (23kg) of nuts and dates stuffed in the pockets of his stars and stripes jersey. Boyer finished 32nd in 1981, and in his four subsequent appearances in the Tour his highest placing was twelfth in 1983. Still, he was good enough for Eddy Merckx to remark that "America will be the land of the future of cycling" – not a bad prediction considering Greg Lemond and Lance Armstrong were just around the corner. Boyer spent a year in jail in 2002 for molesting a girl, who was part of his church community in California.

LIGGETTISMS

For more than 30 years the so-called "English Voice of the Tour" has been the TV commentator Phil Liggett. In that time, Liggett has become a cult figure among cycling fans, not least for his habit of lapsing into obscure flights of fancy when describing the action. Here is a selection of some of the best "Liggettisms".

"To wear the yellow jersey is to mingle with the gods of cycling."

"Once again they've stretched the elastic... and now the elastic has snapped!"

"Dancing on the pedals in the polka-dot jersey."

"Once you pull on that golden fleece you become two men."

"This is a pedigree group of men – they're hanging on by the skin of their shorts."

"He's really having to dig deeply into the suitcase of courage."

1989: EIGHT SECONDS

Rarely has a Tour de France gone to the wire as it did in 1989. The chances of it ever happening again are remote. The bare facts show that Greg Lemond won the race from Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds – but this reveals nothing of the gut-wrenching drama of the final time trial to Paris on Sunday 23 July. By then, cycling fans had already been treated to an extraordinary duel between two former winners making their very different comebacks in the Tour: Lemond, after a shooting accident in 1987, and Fignon, after what looked like a career-threatening loss of form. For nine stages between Rennes and Gap, no more than seven seconds had separated the two men, as first the American and then the Frenchman grasped the yellow jersey. In the Alps it was a different story, and by the time they reached Paris, Fignon was 50 seconds ahead of Lemond. What lay ahead was a 15.2 mile (24.5km) time trial from Versailles to Paris; not even the wildest American optimist could imagine Fignon could blow his lead over such a distance.

Fignon couldn't either – which is possibly the only explanation for what happened next. Today, Lemond's bulbous aero helmet and handlebars look impossibly archaic. But at the time they were regarded as state-of-the-art equipment. Fignon, by contrast, turned up to the start gate in his wire-rimmed specs and sporting a familiar ponytail. It swiftly became obvious that neither were as aerodynamic as Lemond's gear. By the halfway stage, Lemond had chewed a massive bite out of Fignon's 50 second lead. By the time a shattered Fignon crossed the line on the Champs Élysées, the 50 second lead had turned into an eight second deficit. As Lemond whooped with joy, Fignon collapsed in tears into the arms of his disbelieving back-up team. It was the closest finish in Tour history, by far the most dramatic, and a shattering blow to French pride. Lemond was back, and the Americans were once again a force to be reckoned with in world cycling.

1993: THE DEVIL TAKES THE HINDMOST

As he rode towards the stage finish in Andorra, Claudio Chiappucci was somewhat perturbed to discover that he was being followed by a large man dressed in a red devil costume, waving a cardboard pitchfork. This was the first sighting of The Devil – AKA German Didi Senff – who has been a regular fixture by the roadside of every Tour since. While he was first regarded with good humour, in recent years his looming presence and bellowed encouragement has served only to annoy the riders, who take delight in throwing empty water bottles at him. Indeed, today The Devil paints the road with red pitchforks to give the riders time to get their missiles ready.

TOUR TRIVIA

Crowds of up to 300,000 spectators line the route of the Alpe d'Huez, and it is estimated that one in three of them are Dutch: ever since the first stage was ridden there, the Dutch have made the mountain their own.

TOUR TRIVIA

For winning the Tour, a rider can expect a prize of around ¿400,000 (£250,000). Traditionally, he then distributes this money among his team-mates.

This is an edited extract from 'Vive Le Tour! Amazing Tales of the Tour de France' by Nick Brownlee, published by Robson Books priced £8.99. To order a copy (free P&P) call Independent Books Direct on 08700 798 897, or visit www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk

THE HALL OF FAME

The following cyclists have won the most Tours de France:

7: Lance Armstrong (USA)

5: Jacques Anquetil (FRA), Eddy Merckx (BEL), Bernard Hinault (FRA), Miguel Indurain (SPA)

3: Philippe Thys (BEL), Louison Bobet (FRA), Greg LeMond (USA)

2: Lucien Petit-Breton (FRA), Firmin Lambot (BEL), Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA), Nicolas Frantz (LUX), André Leducq (FRA), Antonin Magne (FRA), Sylvère Maes (BEL), Gino Bartali (ITA), Fausto Coppi (ITA), Bernard Thévenet (FRA), Laurent Fignon (FRA)

A BRIEF GLOSSARY OF CYCLING TERMS

Abandon: When a rider quits during a race, usually due to injury. Sprint specialists will often abandon the Tour once it hits the mountains.

Bonk: Total exhaustion caused by lack of sufficient food during a long race or ride. At its most extreme, it can cause light-headedness and even hallucinations.

Domestique: A team rider who will sacrifice his individual performance to help the team leader by chasing down breaks and shielding the boss from the wind. Also known as "water carrier", due to his main duty of keeping the team supplied with water bottles from the team car.

Gruppetto: A group of riders that forms at the back of the field on mountain stages, riding at a pace that allows them to finish just inside the time limit. Gruppetto is Italian for "small group".

Lanterne Rouge: "Red Lamp" – the last rider to finish a stage.

Maillot Jaune: The yellow jersey worn by the race leader in the Tour de France.

Soigneur: General team factotum, responsible for everything from massages to carrying the luggage to and from hotel rooms. The most famous soigneur was Willy Voet, who was found to be carrying boxes of doping products in the back of his car.

EPO

First it was strong liquor and cocaine, then amphetamines, then steroids. By the late 1980s the drug of choice among the professional peloton was EPO – erythropoietin.

EPO is a hormone which increases red blood cells and thereby enables the blood to carry more oxygen to the muscles. It was originally developed as a treatment for patients undergoing blood transfusions.

Cyclists discovered that EPO offsets the natural decrease in red blood cells, allowing them to perform at a higher level and for longer. Its undetected use would certainly explain a number of spectacular displays of endurance.

In the end, the existence of EPO came to the attention of the cycling authorities not through the unusually brilliant performances of riders, but rather due to their mysterious deaths. A sinister side-effect of the drug is that it can produce so many red blood cells that the blood effectively turns to porridge, clogging the arteries and leading to heart attacks.

UNDERHAND TACTICS

All manner of devious cheating methods have been employed to influence the result of the Tour de France. They include:

Lifts: in the early years, riders would regularly grab a lift in supporters' cars or else cling to them. In 1928, two riders jumped in a taxi after the truck they were travelling in crashed into a ditch. In the 1990s some riders were found to be hooking feed bags to wing mirrors of their support cars for free mountain rides.

Trees: in 1904, fans blocked the road with felled trees to prevent rival riders getting past.

Violence: as well as occasionally beating up riders, in 1904 a group of fans chased Maurice Garin and Lucien Pothier for 3.5 miles in a car in an attempt to run them off the road.

Poison: Henri Cornet claimed to have been fed poisoned chicken in 1904; Paul Duboc was poisoned in 1911.

Sabotage: in 1910, Gustave Garrigou discovered his bike had been interfered with when the hub fell off and all ball bearings spilled out; in 1937 Roger Lapébie noticed someone had sawn through his handlebars.

Short cuts: in 1906, three riders caught the train to Dijon, but were caught by Tour officials; three-time Tour winner Philippe Thys once asked a shepherd for a short cut over the Col de Peyresourde, but got lost on the track.

ANATOMY OF A LEGEND: EDDY MERCKX

Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx was born in Meensel-Kiezegem, Belgium, on 17 June 1945. He started competitive riding in 1961. At 19 he was World Amateur Champion. Before his Tour debut, aged 25, in 1969, he had won the Giro d'Italia, three Milan–San Remos, two Ghent–Wevelgems, the Tour of Flanders, the Flèche Wallonne, the Paris–Roubaix, and the World Championship. In 1972 he broke the world hour record when he rode 30.71 miles (49.43 kilometres) at altitude in Mexico City.

Despite his phenomenal stamina, Merckx was a heavy smoker and once advertised cigarettes in a television commercial. A station on the Brussels Métro is named after him, and the bike on which he broke the world hour record is on display there.

Merckx won the equivalent of a race a week for six years. One which eluded him, however, was the Paris–Tours classic. Fellow Belgian Noël van Tyghem, who did win the race, once claimed, "Between us, me and Eddy Merckx won every classic that can be won. I won Paris–Tours, Merckx won all the rest."

Merckx's son, Axel, born in 1972, is also a professional bike rider. When he won a stage of the 2000 Giro d'Italia, Merckx senior broke down in tears. After retiring in 1978, Merckx set up a highly successful bike-manufacturing business. In 1996 he was given the ceremonial title "Baron" by the King of Belgium, and in 2000 he was chosen as Belgium's "Sports Figure of the Century".

ANATOMY OF A LEGEND: LANCE ARMSTRONG

Born in Plano, Texas, on 18 September 1971, Armstrong was brought up by his mother. He started out as a triathlete, competing in adult competitions from the age of just 14 and becoming national junior champion.

At 17 Armstrong was invited to train with the US Junior National Cycling Team; in 1991 he was the US Amateur Champion. He finished 14th in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics road race and turned professional. The future seven-time Tour winner had an inauspicious start to his professional career, finishing last in the San Sebastian Classic. The following year he won the World Championship in Oslo. He won stages of the Tour de France in 1993 and 1995. In 1996 he abandoned the Tour due to ill health.

Three months later, he checked into a hospital in Austin, Texas, complaining of a painful groin. Doctors diagnosed testicular cancer and gave him little more than a 40 per cent chance of survival; they later admitted the real figure was nearer 3 per cent. Warned that chemotherapy would ultimately impair his lung function, Armstrong opted for more aggressive treatment. He not only survived the cancer but was well enough to resume training the following year.

Soon after his recovery, he set up the Lance Armstrong Foundation, aimed at supporting cancer victims and raising awareness of the disease. A symbol of the foundation was the Livestrong wristband, sold (at £1 each in the UK) to raise money for cancer research. By the end of 2006 more than 65 million had been sold. Armstrong became a member of George W Bush's President's Cancer Panel in 2002.

In 1998 Armstrong married his girlfriend, Kristin. Together they had three children: Luke, and twins Isabelle and Grace. In 2003 the couple filed for divorce. That same year Armstrong began dating singer Sheryl Crow, but in 2006 they announced they were to split.

Armstrong only once tested positive for a doping product. In 1999, corticosteroids were found in his urine, although the amount was not in the positive-test range. He later produced a medical certificate proving that the substance was in a cream he was using to counter saddle sores.