Monday Milestone: On Tour
This Week in History:
1903, July 19
Maurice Garin cycles into Paris wearing the yellow arm band to win the first ever Tour de France.
Sitting in the central French Alps in mid-July: what better place is there in the world right now?
It’s still Bastille Day in France, and just a few miles down the road is the L’Alpe d’Huez, a central feature of hundredth Tour de France. Crowds have been swelling, eagerly waiting in huge numbers for the peloton due at the end of this week. The anticipation is paramount and it’s difficult not to get swept up in the history of the Tour.
Asking around, it’s clear that cycling crowds are every bit as robust and fervent as previous years. After all the controversy with Lance Armstrong declaring his chemical enhancement last year it wouldn’t be surprising to see a waning in popularity of the greatest cycling race on the planet. Tell that to the folk in the French Alps.
But then, this year is special. Marking the 100th edition of the Tour de France, this event has charmed even indifferent cycling fans to make their own pilgrimage to France, because now for a century the Tour has returned faithfully to us every year, with the only times it has ever been postponed was by the two World Wars, (which seems pretty reasonable, given the difficulties faced in conducting a bike race when the French countryside is either full of trenches, or Germans).
But let’s go back to the beginning. The first Tour de France was not even about cycling, it was about selling newspapers and the Dreyfus Affair. The politics were, that when Frenchman Alfred Dreyfus was accused of selling military secrets, it polarised France in the late nineteenth century. Demonstrations were held on both sides. By 1900 Anti-Dreyfus advocate Comte Jules-Albert de Dion was so disgruntled with the views of the leading sports newspaper of the day, he established his own paper: L’Auto.
Two years later, all was not well with de Dion's paper. Sales were flagging and advertisers weren’t getting on board. During an emergency meeting, it was the cycling editor who suggested inventing and sponsoring the grandest bicycle race ever attempted, in one last-ditch effort to boost circulation. Prize money would be set at 20 000 francs, with at least five francs a day to the first fifty cyclists in the classification. Over six stages, averaging over 400km each, riders would leave the previous afternoon and cycle through the night to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes before heading back to Paris. The concept worked.
The race gripped France. Wearing an armband (not a jersey) to signify the leader, when Maurice Garin crossed the finish line to win, he received a hero’s welcome. The colour of the armband matched the colour of the paper of L’Auto, which had now become France’s newest sensation, tripling in circulation. It was yellow.
Just like the maillot jaune of the leader of the General Classification who will be riding up L’Alpe d’Huez later this week. For those lucky enough to to get out and see the race first hand, the experience is unforgettable. For those that cannot – presumably newspapers will cover all the details. One suggestion is L’Auto.
Milestone Five*: Greatest Tour de France champions
5. Greg LeMond (3 titles, 1986, 1989, 1990) – After becoming the first American to win the Tour, LeMond returned after a series hunting accident to capture two more titles.
4. Bernard “the Badger” Hinault (– the Frenchman was the winner of the General Classification five times, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985
3. Jacques Anquetil (5 titles, 1957-1964). Seen as an emotionless machine, the Frenchman loved wine, fine foods, and winning the Tour de France.
2. Miguel “Big Mac” Indurain (5 titles, 1991-1995) – the Spaniard was the winner of five consecturive titles during the 1990s, the first man to do so.
1. Eddy “the Cannibal” Merckx (5 titles, 1969-1974) won five Tour de France championships between 1969 and 1974, including wins of both King of the Mountains and points classifications as well.
*Omitting Lance Armstrong, whose seven consecutive titles were stripped in October 2012.
With thanks to Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Europe for the picture.
