How a Newspaper Promotion Became the World's Greatest Sporting Event

From our Story of the Tour de France:

Note: There are more pictures here than are in the book.

1923. Tour founder Henri Desgrange had established a large, complex set of rules with the intention of making the Tour a test of the individual rider and his machine. 1922's problems caused him to reconsider one rule. Up until 1923 a rider had to perform his own repairs. Think back to the tragedy of Eugène Christophe and his multiple broken forks. In 1922 Thys won 5 stages yet finished in fourteenth place because of a broken wheel in the Pyrenees. Heusghem was leading the Tour when he hit a pothole, relegating him to fourth place. In 1923 the rules were changed to allow riders to swap parts instead of repairing them. This is a monumental change in the character of the Tour de France. Before, bad luck reigned as the supreme arbiter of the race. Now, perhaps the race might be more of a test of the athletic prowess of the riders.

That didn't mean the other regulatory burdens were relaxed. A rider still had to finish with everything he had at the start. That included clothes and spare tires. A flatted tubular had to be transported to the end of the stage. The rider had to carry the warm clothing he needed for the early morning starts on the terribly long stages of those early days to the end of the stage and not discard it. These rules set the stage for a series of disputes with one of the Tour's most headstrong riders. The immovable object, Desgrange, again met Henri Pélissier, the unstoppable force. Before proceeding with the story of the 1923 Tour let's pause a moment and learn a little bit about the Pélissiers.

There were 3 remarkable cycling Pélissier brothers: Charles, Francis and Henri. All were superb riders. Charles, the youngest, won stages in 4 different Tours. Francis won Paris-Tours, the French Championship, Bordeaux-Paris and stages in 2 different Tours, but finished only 1 Tour, 1923. He went on to have a wonderful career as a team manager, discovering a 19-year old racer named Jacques Anquetil, the first man to win the Tour 5 times. But it was Henri, the oldest of the surviving brothers, who had the real cycling talent.

The Pélissier brothers Francis and Henri have a lighter moment during the 15th stage.

A look at Henri Pélissier's palmares reveals an astonishing ability. And speaking of discoveries, it was 2 time Tour winner Lucien Petit-Breton who discovered the thin, young Henri. Starting in 1911 Henri won Milan-Turin, going on to win Milan-San Remo, Tour of Lombardy, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Brussels, Paris-Tours, Tour of the Basque Country and after much agony, the Tour de France.

Henri Pélissier performs his own tire repair during the 12th stage

Let's list his Tour de France history. If he hadn't fought Desgrange tooth and nail, his Tour palmarès would have been quite different:

1912: Did not finish (DNF)

1913: DNF

1914: 2nd in General Classification and 3 stage wins

1919: DNF, 1 stage win

1920: DNF, 2 stage wins

1923: 1st in General Classification with victories in stages 3, 10, and 11

1924: DNF

1925: DNF

As we saw earlier, Henri Pélissier started his feud with Desgrange when Desgrange penalized him 2 minutes in the 1920 Tour for throwing away a flatted tire. Pélissier quit the Tour in protest. Desgrange wrote of Henri, "This Pélissier knows nothing about suffering, he'll never win the Tour."

Yet, for all the fireworks between the two of them, Desgrange respected Pélissier. A famous interchange between the two of them before a Paris-Roubaix:

"Never forget, L'Auto made you what you are."

"Never," replied Pélissier. "I'm the one who made L'Auto. Next Sunday you will print: 'First, Henri Pélissier', then you will see the difference in your sales between this name and the others."

After being so bold, Pélissier did have the good legs and good fortune to win Paris-Roubaix. For the 1923 Tour, Henri decided to stick it out and suffer the million petty rules of the tyrannical Desgrange, no matter how outraged he might be.

This was the year that Desgrange introduced time bonuses for stage wins. To make the racers dig more deeply for the win, 2 minutes were removed from the elapsed time of the winner of each stage. Today (2005), the time bonus is 20 seconds for the winner, 12 seconds for second and 8 seconds for third.

In 1923 Pélissier's team, Automoto, hired Alphonse Baugé to manage the team. He had engineered many Tour wins for teams Peugeot and Alcyon in previous years. The Automoto team had real depth. Henri's strong brother Francis was on the team and was determined to do everything possible to help Henri make it to Paris in Yellow. In addition, Automoto had Honoré Barthélémy, Hector Heusghem, Victor Lenaers and future Tour winner Lucien Buysse.

Automoto had another rider of note. Because it had commercial interests in Italy, Automoto wanted some quality Italian riders on its team. Several Italians were hired and were supposed to have journeyed to Paris to ride the Tour for Automoto. But the only Italian who made the trip was a young man who had just turned pro the previous year, Ottavio Bottecchia. Only 2 weeks before, Bottecchia had finished riding the 1923 Giro to a fine fifth place. With that excellent result quiet Bottecchia ended up at the side of the fiery Henri Pélissier. Les Woodland writes that at the time of his arrival in France Bottecchia's only French was the sentence, "No bananas, lots of coffee, thank you". Because Bottecchia was the only Italian hired by the team who actually made the journey to France, Automoto decided that its marketing plan to use Italians wasn't worth the trouble. They were ready to send the skinny Italian back. In the end good sense prevailed and Bottecchia stayed on the team.

Robert Jacquinot started the 1923 Tour the same way he started the 1922 edition, by winning the first stage. It was good for Automoto that they put Bottecchia on the start line in Paris. He came in second in the first stage. Bottecchia wasn't finished. He won the second stage, from Le Havre to Cherbourg. That put him in the overall lead, becoming the first Italian ever to wear the Yellow Jersey. Automoto's team leader Henri Pélissier lost over 13 minutes the first stage and almost 2 minutes on the second stage.

The Pélissier brothers came alive on stage 3, 405 kilometers from Cherbourg to Brest. Henri won the stage with Francis coming in second with the same time. Bottecchia was third, only 37 seconds back. That left Bottecchia still in Yellow with Peugeot's Romain Bellenger in second, only 2 minutes adrift.

Bottecchia lost the lead on stage 4, which went from Brest to Les Sables d'Olonne. He came in ninth that day, 15 minutes behind the stage winner Albert Dejonghe and 6 minutes after Bellenger. Robert Jacquinot won stage 5, but that didn't change the podium of the General Classification. Here were the standings after stage 5 and just before the Pyrenees:

1. Romain Bellenger

2. Hector Tiberghien @ 3 minutes 15 seconds

3. Ottavio Bottecchia @ 3 minutes 54 seconds

 

Learco Guerra leads the pack through La Rochelle mid-way through stage 5.

The 326 kilometers of stage 6 crossed the Aubisque, the Tourmalet, the Aspin and the Peyresourde. Jacquinot, who so far had ridden the Tour as a very fine sprinter, was first over the Aubisque, the Tourmalet and the Aspin. He looked like he would be the new Yellow Jersey at the end of the day, but he ran out of gas before he ran out of mountains. There was still the 1,569 meter Peyresourde to pass and it was one mountain too many for the Frenchman. He was so exhausted that he fell off his bike on the Peyresourde. Jean Alavoine rode past him and took the stage win. Jacquinot was able to get back on his bike and finish the stage, coming in second, but he was a huge 16 minutes behind Alavoine. Henri Pélissier came in at 23 minutes and Bottecchia a little over 27 minutes after Alavoine.

Bottecchia leads the pack during the 15th stage

So, Bottecchia reclaimed the Yellow Jersey and Alavoine was in his usual position as a runner-up. Here were the standings in the General Classification after the first day in the Pyrenees:

1. Ottavio Bottecchia

2. Jean Alavoine @ 8 minutes 28 seconds

3. Romain Bellenger @ 21 minutes 50 seconds

Stage 7 was also a Pyreneen stage. Alavoine won the stage but Bellenger, Bottecchia and the Pélissier brothers were right there with him, finishing with the same time. No change to the General Classification.

Stage 8 from Perpignan to Toulon was a terrible day for Bellenger. He lost 20 minutes to leader Bottecchia and 12 to Alavoine. That pushed Henri Pélissier on to the podium of the General Classification:

1. Ottavio Bottecchia

2. Jean Alavoine @ 14 minutes 19 seconds

3. Henri Pélissier @ 22 minutes 8 seconds

Pélissier lost some time on the next stage, but their relative positions remained unchanged before the first of the big Alpine stages. Philippe Thys abandoned the Tour at this point.

Stage 10, from Nice to Briançon, would cross the Allos, the Vars and the gigantic Izoard. It was on this stage that the ambitious Henri Pélissier planned to attack his own teammate, the Yellow Jersey'd Bottecchia, in a gamble to take the lead. Brother Francis and teammate Lucien Buysse had been working hard to keep Henri close to the lead. Francis Pélissier was riding with an injured knee but he was determined to see his brother in Yellow. Now they would try to make Francis' pain pay off.

Not only have the roads changed over the last 70 years, the nature of the traffic is also very different.

A break with Buysse, Alancourt, Alavoine and Bottecchia went clear on the Allos. Henri Pélissier, initially missing the move, joined them. Apparently Bottecchia was in too big a gear and was having trouble as the others forced a fast pace up the mountain. Changing gears in the days before derailleurs meant dismounting the bike, flipping the rear wheel and getting going again. Sensing the young, inexperienced Bottecchia's difficulty, Pélissier attacked and got clear.

On the descent Buysse and Alavoine joined Henri. The trio climbed the Vars together. Pélissier attacked Buysse and Alavoine on the Izoard and again easily broke away. Pélissier was riding in a state of grace as he pulled away from the entire field and won the stage.

The results for the day:

1. Henri Pélissier: 12 hours 45 minutes 29 seconds

2. Lucien Buysse @ 5 minutes 28 seconds

3. Arsène Alancourt @ 18 minutes 24 seconds

4. Hector Tiberghien @ same time

5. Jean Alavoine @ 26 minutes 58 seconds

12. Ottavio Bottecchia @ 41 minutes 8 seconds

So, the General Classification was turned upside down:

1. Henri Pélissier

2. Jean Alavoine @ 11 minutes 25 seconds

3. Ottavio Bottecchia @ 13 minutes 16 seconds

Henri Pélissier consolidated his gains in stage 11 as he was first over the 2,556-meter high Galibier and then the Aravis. He and brother Francis came in together with Henri taking the stage win. Bellenger was a plucky third, over 8 minutes back. Bottecchia was fifth at 13 minutes, 56 seconds. After an accident, Alavoine was forced to abandon. This left Pélissier in command in the General Classification:

1. Henri Pélissier

2. Ottavio Bottecchia @ 29 minutes 12 seconds

3. Romain Bellenger @ 1 hour 5 minutes 14 seconds

It seemed as if the Belgian hammerlock on the Tour had been released. Not only was a Frenchman in Yellow and riding with confident power, French racers won the last 4 stages: first Joseph Muller, then Romain Bellenger, then Félix Goethals won the last 2 stages.

Romain Bellenger takes stage 13. Look at the muddy roads, what a dangerous stretch for a sprint.

Desgrange was thrilled. He had 2 reasons to be happy. First of all, a fellow countryman had won the Tour. Desgrange had a strong nationalistic streak. Pélissier was the first French victor since Gustave Garrigou in 1911. And, it was just as Pélissier had called it. Sales of L'Auto spiked when a Frenchman won the Tour. Desgrange was effusive in his praise of Pélissier saying that he "has put on a show for us that is the equal of the highest artistic performance."

Pélissier recognized the talent of his young Italian teammate. "Bottecchia will succeed me," he said.

Henri Pélissier with the winner's bouquet. How many Tours would he have won if he had been able to find a way to get along with Desgrange?

The final 1923 Tour de France General Classification:

1. Henri Pélissier (Automoto): 222 hours 15 minutes 30 seconds

2. Ottavio Bottecchia (Automoto) @ 30 minutes 41 seconds

3. Romain Bellenger (Peugeot) @ 1 hour 4 minutes 43 seconds

4. Hector Tiberghien (Peugeot) @ 1 hour 29 minutes 16 seconds

5. Arsène Alancourt (Armor) @ 2 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds

1958. This was one of the most emotional and dramatic Tours in history. As we've seen in past Tours, the selection of the French team can sometimes profoundly affect the Tour more by who is left off the team than who is put on. By dint of his clear superiority in the 1957 Tour, Anquetil was in a position to dictate with whom he would ride. He didn't want both Louison Bobet and Raphaël Géminiani on the team, two good friends working together, possibly threatening his supremacy. One or the other, but not both. Team manager Marcel Bidot acquiesced and chose Bobet, the man who had given him 3 Tours and had won many of the most important races in the world.

Géminiani was never afraid to speak his mind and this offense gave no exception. He was enraged. He felt that he had given his all to the French team for years, constantly sacrificing himself for others. He said he was "dismissed without a care". The man nicknamed by Bobet "le gran fusil"—literally, "the long rifle" but perhaps we might say "top gun"—plotted his revenge.

Géminiani was placed on the France Center-Midi regional team. This was not a band of talentless racers who were not up to the task of contesting a Tour de France. They were iron-hard pros who could really help: Antonin Rolland, Henry Anglade, Jean Dotto and Jean Graczyk, among others. Experienced Tour rider Adolphe Deledda was the director. Géminiani declared that he would ride for victory. This was war.

Anquetil's team had Bobet, of course. The rest of the team was mostly the same veterans Bidot has used in previous Tours: Bauvin, Privat, Walkowiak, Darrigade and Mahé. One should be able to expect great things from these men.

Charly Gaul was put on a Holland/Luxembourg combination team that even had an Italian added for good measure. Again, Gaul was mostly on his own. Gaul exacerbated his problem of minimal team support. Feeling that he didn't have a unified, capable team behind him he refused to share his winnings. His teammates, professionals after all who were riding for a living, responded in kind through their lack of commitment to the small climber. In addition, teammates like Wim van Est and Gerrit Voorting had their own ambitions and had no plans to sacrifice themselves for Gaul.

The Italian threat was growing as they rebuilt after the Coppi/Bartali/Magni years of the late 1940's and early 1950's. Gastone Nencini and Vito Favero were worthy racers whom all the teams had to respect, this year more than ever.

The 1958 Tour was a bit shorter at 4,319 kilometers going counter-clockwise (Pyrenees first). It had 23 stages with no rest days, a schedule that would not be allowed under current rules. To honor the World's Fair, the first stage was scheduled to depart from Brussels. A fan had given Géminiani a donkey as a present. For his first shot in his new war Géminiani named it Marcel and at the World's Fair gave it to French team manager Bidot, making sure that the occasion was photographed to maximize the humiliation.

For the third year in a row André Darrigade won the first stage and the Yellow Jersey. As the Tour raced across northern France Gilbert Bauvin again found himself the leader, this time after the fifth stage. Nencini, Anquetil and the very motivated and angry Géminiani were tied with the same time, about 7 minutes behind Bauvin. Bobet was doing 30 seconds better than the trio.

Stage 5: Bobet (foreground) and Géminiani

During stage 6, from Caen to St. Brieuc in Brittany, the Long Rifle fired his first big round and hit the bulls-eye. He drove a break that had Favero and Henry Anglade in it to a huge winning margin. The main group containing Darrigade, Gaul, Nencini, Anquetil, Bahamontes and Bobet were beaten by almost 11 minutes. Gem had done himself a world of good and boosted himself to third place.

The overall standings after stage 6:

1. Gerrit Voorting

2. François Mahé @ 1 minute

3. Raphaël Géminiani @ 2 minutes 32 seconds

Neither Bobet nor Anquetil were enjoying good health. For now the domestique Mahé was the best defender of the French interests.

The next day Brian Robinson made history by being the first British rider to win a stage. He sprinted against the Italian Arrigo Padovan but Padovan, who was first across the line, was relegated to second place for irregular sprinting. Robinson was again on a hodge-podge team, this time a group called "Internations". His teammates were Irish (Seamus Elliot), Portuguese, Austrian, Danish as well as British.

Stage 8 was a 46-kilometer individual time trial at Chateaulin, near Brest in western Brittany. It was raining. A day of bad weather was perfect for Charly Gaul and terrible for the ill Anquetil. The small, almost fragile looking Gaul put in an astonishing performance by winning the undulating stage, beating the master of the discipline by 7 seconds. Gaul was clearly in fine form. He was third in the Giro that year, notably finishing 3½ minutes ahead of Bobet and 4½ ahead of Nencini. Gaul's effort in the time trial had lifted him to fifteenth place in the General Classification, still almost 11 minutes behind Voorting.

Since we were discussing the Giro, a story must be told because Géminiani was not the only angry rider at the Tour in 1958. Charly Gaul had developed an active dislike for Bobet. During the 1957 Giro several riders including Bobet, Gaul and Nencini stopped to urinate. Bobet and Nencini remounted and rode by Gaul, then the current leader of the Giro, who was still busy answering nature. In Géminiani's words, Gaul "made an indecent gesture with his organ of virility" at Bobet. The Giro erupted into a fury as the insulted Bobet drove the group of leaders hard and left Gaul in the dust. Gaul lost the Pink Jersey to Nencini that day. The next day Bobet set out to take the lead from Nencini. Bobet's team attacked early, taking Nencini and Gaul with them. Nencini was dropped because of a flat tire and Bobet took the opportunity to press on and gain time. Gaul sat up and waited for Nencini. He paced him up the remaining climbs preferring to sacrifice his own placing rather than let Bobet win the Giro. With Gaul's help Nencini was able to conserve enough time to save his lead. The entire effort left Bobet too exhausted to ride the 1957 Tour and deepened an already poisonous enmity.

In stage 9 André Darrigade was in a break of 7 riders that beat a compact field to the finish in St. Nazaire by close to 10 minutes. The Yellow Jersey returned to the very fleet Darrigade. Also in the winning break and having his fortunes greatly improved was the Italian Vito Favero. He was now second, 23 seconds behind Darrigade. Géminiani was sixth at 1 minute, 47 seconds and Anquetil was distant thirteenth place, over 10 minutes back. Darrigade and the others maintained these positions as the Tour made its way down southeastern France.

All the while, Géminiani kept up his infernal war on the peloton and especially the French national team. When the very dangerous Nencini was in a threatening break the French team asked Géminiani and his men for help. Gem replied, "There must be something wrong with your eyes. Can't you see the color of my jersey [light blue]? Not the same as yours [tricolor] is it? Sorry. You'll have to do your own chasing." Remember this episode, it will matter later. His non-stop aggression worried Bobet. Bobet warned that Géminiani was riding powerfully, as well as he had ever ridden in his career. Moreover he had new-found ambition to win. His team had good morale and was also riding well.

The first day in the Pyrenees involved an assault on the Aubisque. Stage 13 was 230 wet, drizzly kilometers from Dax to Pau. This was the kind of weather that let Charly Gaul excel. Bahamontes was the first of the big men to go on the Aubisque. But because it was a long way to Pau after the Aubisque and the poor descending Bahamontes would take a long time to get off the mountain, the others let him go. The main group of contenders followed at their own pace up the Aubisque for a while and then watched Gaul fly away from them. Again, like Bahamontes, he would surely be caught on the way to Pau.

It worked out that way. Géminiani, Anquetil, Gaul, Bahamontes, Bobet and Bauvin finished together, 3 minutes behind a breakaway duo of Louis Bergaud and Piet Damen. Géminiani, who had been careful to maintain a good General Classification position the entire run-in to the mountains, was now the Yellow Jersey. Favero was a very close second, only 3 seconds behind.

The next day was another day of climbing with the Aspin and Peyresourde. Bahamontes again flew away at the first opportunity. This time he made his solo effort stick, coming in 2 minutes ahead of the leading group of hopefuls. Favero led in Gaul, Géminiani, Anquetil, Nencini, Bobet and Bauvin. Favero's second place that day gave him a 30-second time bonus and the Yellow Jersey. Géminiani was now second at 27 seconds.

The final Pyreneen stage with the Portet d'Aspet changed little except that Favero again managed to get second and therefore extend his lead over Géminiani to 57 seconds.

Stage 18, a 21.5-kilometer individual time trial up Mount Ventoux upset the applecart. Gaul had, as usual, let himself bleed time on the flats, always confident that he could make the time up in the mountains. After the Pyrenees he was sitting in eighth place, 10 minutes, 41 seconds behind Favero. He unleashed a wonderful ride, beating Bahamontes by a half-minute. Anquetil finished 4 minutes behind Gaul, Géminiani and Bobet were 5 minutes back. But Géminiani had the Yellow Jersey again. And now, for the first time in his career, Gaul was a true threat to win the Tour de France. The Alps started the next day. The new General Classification:

1. Raphaël Géminiani

2. Vito Favero @ 2 minutes 1 second

3. Charly Gaul @ 3 minutes 43 seconds

The next day things again went Gem's way. He finished in the lead quartet with Nencini, Anquetil and Adriaenssens when the race went over several second and third category climbs. Gaul had mechanical problems and was forced to chase in the heat, which he detested, and lost 11 minutes. Favero's loss of 46 seconds meant that Géminiani now had over 3 minutes on the Italian. Gaul was a distant eighth at over 15 minutes.

Stage 20 out of the year's 24 arrived and still Géminiani seemed to be having the ride of his life. Like Kübler in 1950, Géminiani abandoned his emotional, intuitive style and became a careful, calculating rider. Already possessing a superb tactical mind, he had no intention of letting this chance of a lifetime slip away. From Gap the race went over the Vars and the Izoard to Briançon. Unsurprisingly, Bahamontes was the first man to finish. Géminiani beat Gaul by 21 seconds and Favero by 30. Gaul had been saving everything for these Alpine stages yet seemed to be shooting blanks at the Top Gun. Now there were only 4 stages left. The next stage, number 21, went over the mountainous Chartreuse Massif in the southeastern corner of France. Géminiani had only a time trial and then Paris. Victory and revenge, both of which seemed likely at this point, would be sweet.

The first of the remaining obstacles was that brutal 219-kilometer, 5-mountain stage 21 from Briançon to Aix les Bains. Gaul knew that this was his last chance. The first climb, the Lautaret, didn't break things up, the front men remained together. On the way down the first mountain the weather turned nasty with cold rain. This was Charly Gaul weather. The next climb was the Luitel. Gaul was gone in a flash. He had planned his attack and made no secret of what he intended to do. He used this stage to get revenge on Louison Bobet for whom, as you remember, Gaul had a flaming hatred. Before the start of the stage, Gaul told Bobet that he would attack on this second climb of the day. He even told him which switchback. Gaul knew that Bobet could be subject to complex self-doubts and played upon them to magnify his revenge.

Géminiani, like all experienced Grand Tour riders, knew that the fastest way to failure can be to let an opponent dictate the pace of the race on his own best turf. Gem knew he could not match the dancing, small-gear twirling Gaul as he raced up the mountain in the cold weather he preferred. Géminiani, an excellent climber in his own right, set out to limit the damage. Anquetil tried to lead the chase, but ran out of gas. Bobet tried to help but he was physically and mentally broken that day. On rode the little Luxembourger in shorts and short sleeves, his cloth cap turned backwards, his hands on the tops grasping the levers.

Tired, wet and cold, Géminiani's judgment, usually his best weapon, failed him. He called on the now shattered French team to help him chase. They were of no use and probably wouldn't have helped him anyway. He passed by the feed station without taking on food, forgetting that on a cold mountain stage energy stores get used up very quickly. He had a needless repair done to his bike. He lost time and then energy as his glycogen stores ran out. On he slogged in the horrible weather, mostly alone, realizing the terrible nature of his situation.

Stage 21: Charly Gaul on his epic ride through the Chartreuse Mountains.

At the end of the stage second-place Favero came in 10 minutes after Gaul finished, Géminiani was down 14 minutes, Nencini 19. Most of the riders death-marched solo or in groups of 2 or 3. Darrigade lost 47 minutes. Gaul had enough time to change into clean clothes before the others arrived.

And Géminiani whose morale had been so high and looked to be the year's winner? He collapsed into the arms of his handlers shouting, "Judas!" at Bobet and the French team. Somehow, in his fury, he expected the formerly disdained French team to come to his rescue. Even if they wanted to, no one was going to catch Charly Gaul that day. The conditions were considered so extraordinary management didn't enforce the time limits for elimination of riders. Géminiani lost the Yellow Jersey. The new General Classification was tight, indeed:

1. Vito Favero

2. Raphaël Géminiani @ 39 seconds

3. Charly Gaul @ 1 minute 7 seconds

It all came down to the 23rd stage, the penultimate day of the 1958 Tour de France. Anquetil, very ill with pulmonary congestion, didn't start the day's 74 kilometer individual time trial. Gaul had already shown that he was the 1958 Tour's fastest man against the clock by winning the 2 previous time trials. He didn't disappoint. He was able to beat both Favero and Géminiani by over 3 minutes and therefore take the lead. The best-placed French team rider was Bobet at eighth place, over a half-hour behind Gaul. With only the final stage into Paris left, Charly Gaul, the man most experts think the greatest climber of all time, had finally won the Tour de France.

The final day's run in to Paris was marred by a terrible accident. As the sprinters wound it up on the Parc de Princes velodrome, Darrigade ran into the boss of the velodrome who stepped onto the track. Darrigade was able to finish the stage and needed only a few stitches. The unlucky official, Constans Wouters, died 11 days later.

Final 1958 Tour de France General Classification:

1. Charly Gaul (Holland-Luxembourg): 116 hours 59 minutes 5 seconds

2. Vito Favero (Italy) @ 3 minutes 10 seconds

3. Raphaël Géminiani (Center-Midi) @ 3 minutes 41 seconds

4. Jan Adriaenssens (Belgium) @ 7 minutes 16 seconds

5. Gastone Nencini (Italy) @ 13 minutes 33 seconds

6. Jozef Planckaert (Belgium) @ 28 minutes 1 second

7. Louison Bobet (France) @ 31 minutes 39 seconds

8. Federico Bahamontes (Spain) @ 40 minutes 44 seconds

Climber's Competition:

1. Federico Bahamontes: 79 points

2. Charly Gaul: 64 points

3. Jean Dotto: 34 points

Points Competition:

1. Jean Gracyzk: 347 points

2. Jozef Planckaert: 406 points

3. André Darrigade: 553 points

This would be a good time to look at what might be the most important change to racing that occurred in the 1950's: the introduction of "extra-sportif" sponsors. Until the 1950s bicycle and bicycle component manufacturers sponsored racers. This severely limited the income of racers, as these were generally smaller companies. Sometimes a racer would get only a bike, clothes and his room and board paid. For income he often depended upon race prizes. Even successful racers had to keep turning the pedals in lots of races in order to gain a decent income. Lance Armstrong's limited racing schedule would have been an impossible luxury to a pre-war rider. In the post-war years the bicycle factories found themselves competing more and more with motorcycle and car companies as Europe grew increasingly prosperous. As the fortunes of the bike industry started to head downhill racers were offered contracts that were sometimes almost a third lower than what they had been making in the early 1950's. In 1954 Fiorenzo Magni's bike sponsor could no longer meet the expenses of the team. Magni approached the Nivea cosmetics company. It seemed an odd combination, the rugged-looking, balding Magni selling face cream, but it worked. While there had been a small team in Britain with a non-cycling sponsor, Magni was a 3-time Giro winner, 3-time Tour of Flanders victor in consecutive years, and had worn Yellow. Magni had brought extra-sportif money into mainstream cycling. This was a dramatic change and the cycling establishment fought it, wanting to preserve their monopoly on racing sponsorship. Extra-sportif sponsors would only make racing publicity more expensive.

Géminiani completed the change. He had been riding "Géminiani" bikes made for him by Mercier and other firms. After he retired from racing in 1960 he continued to equip pro teams to promote his bikes. In 1962 he acquired the backing of the "St. Raphaël" aperitif company for his own team which at that time had Jacques Anquetil on its roster. That 1962 St. Raphaël team is considered the first professional team that was mainly financed by a firm outside the cycling industry. The St. Raphaël team paradoxically didn't ride Géminiani's bikes. Instead they rode Halyett cycles, the bikes that Anquetil rode to his first 3 Tour victories. Before long Ford and a host of other large firms would join in sponsoring professional racing teams.

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