Jump to content

1924 Tour de France: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
BOT Adding link to WebCite archive for recently added reference(s)
BOT Adding link to WebCite archive for recently added reference(s)
Line 27: Line 27:
In 1923, a time bonus of two minutes for each stage winner had been introduced. This was considered successful, and the time bonus was increased to three minutes for the 1924 Tour de France.<ref name="mdc1924"/>
In 1923, a time bonus of two minutes for each stage winner had been introduced. This was considered successful, and the time bonus was increased to three minutes for the 1924 Tour de France.<ref name="mdc1924"/>


After the 1923 Tour de France, the winner Henri Pélissier had said that the runner-up Bottecchia would go on to win the race.<ref name="letour.fr1923">{{cite web|url=http://www.letour.fr/HISTO/us/TDF/1923/histoire.html|title=The Tour - Year 1923|publisher=[[Amaury Sport Organisation]]|accessdate=21 July 2009}}</ref>
After the 1923 Tour de France, the winner Henri Pélissier had said that the runner-up Bottecchia would go on to win the race.<ref name="letour.fr1923">{{cite web|url=http://www.letour.fr/HISTO/us/TDF/1923/histoire.html|title=The Tour - Year 1923|publisher=[[Amaury Sport Organisation]]|accessdate=21 July 2009|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5iUFUbRTP|archivedate=2009-07-23|deadurl=no}}</ref>


==Race details==
==Race details==

Revision as of 19:08, 23 July 2009

1924 Tour de France
Route of the 1924 Tour de France Followed counterclockwise, starting in Paris
Route of the 1924 Tour de France
Followed counterclockwise, starting in Paris
Race details
Dates22 June–20 July
Stages15
Distance5,425 km (3,371 mi)
Winning time222h15'30"
Results
Winner  Ottavio Bottecchia (Italy)
  Second  Nicolas Frantz (Luxembourg)
  Third  Lucien Buysse (Belgium)

The 1924 Tour de France was the 18th edition of the Tour de France and was won by Ottavio Bottecchia (Automoto). Bottecchia was the first Italian cyclist to win the Tour and the first rider to hold the yellow jersey the entire event. The race was held over 5,425 km with an average speed of 23.972 km/h (14.896 mph). 60 riders finished the race from the original 157 cyclists.

Entrants of the 1924 Tour included several past and future winners including defending champion Henri Pélissier (1923), Philippe Thys (1913, 1914, 1920), Lucien Buysse (1926) and Nicolas Frantz (1927, 1928).

The event saw the increase of the time bonus for stage wins move from 2 minutes to 3 minutes. In addition, it was the final year of the 15-stage format that had started in 1910. One of the most important events of the race occurred on the third stage, when defending champion Pélissier quit the race because of a new fight with tour organiser Henri Desgrange.

Changes from the 1923 Tour de France

In 1923, a time bonus of two minutes for each stage winner had been introduced. This was considered successful, and the time bonus was increased to three minutes for the 1924 Tour de France.[1]

After the 1923 Tour de France, the winner Henri Pélissier had said that the runner-up Bottecchia would go on to win the race.[2]

Race details

In 1924, there was a rule that the cyclists had to finish with everything they started with, and the officials suspected that Pélissier would start in the cold morning with many jerseys, and remove them once the day warmed up.[3] The rule had been introduced in 1920, when all the cyclists were sponsored by the combined sponsor La Sportive, to prevent waste of material.[4] Pélissier objected to the rule, on the ground that the jerseys that he wore were his own, and had not been provided by the sponsor.

At the start of the third stage, a tour official checked how many jerseys Henri Pélissier was wearing. Pélissier was angry, and declared that he would not start the race.[4] He did so anyway, but retired at Coutances, together with his brother Francis Pélissier and team mate Maurice Ville.[3] The three cyclists met journalist Albert Londres of Petit Parisien[5], to whom they complained about the circumstances in which the cyclists had to race.[3] In that third stage, that ended on a circuit, Theophile Beeckman crossed the finish line first. However, the bell indicating the last lap was not rung, and Philippe Thys was placed ex aequo on the first place by the officials.[5]

In the first five stages, the cyclists finished in groups, and the time bonus of three minutes for the winner was the only thing that separated the cyclists. After the third and fourth stage, Bottecchia had the same time as Beeckman, although Bottecchia was still given the yellow jersey as classification leader.[1] In the sixth and seventh stage, Bottecchia extended his lead in the Pyrénées.[6] After these stages, he had a margin of 50 minutes over second-placed Nicolas Frantz.

In the Alps, Bottecchia was not so dominant anymore. In stages 10 to 13, Frantz won back a few minutes per stage, but it was not enough. In the thirteenth stage, Bottecchia ran into a dog and fell. [7] Nicolas Frantz tried to win back time, but failed.

In the penultimate stage, Italian Giovanni Brunero was in third place in the overall classification,[1] when he had to give up.[7] Prior to the last stage, the margin between Bottecchia and Frantz was still 32 minutes. Bottecchia won the final stage to Paris, and the time bonus of 3 minutes made the margin 35 minutes.

Results

Stage winners

Stage results[1][8]
Stage Date Route Length Winner Race leader
1 22 June Paris - Le Havre 381 km (237 mi)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
2 24 June Le Havre - Cherbourg 371 km (231 mi)  Romain Bellenger (FRA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
3 26 June Cherbourg - Brest 405 km (252 mi)  Philippe Thys (BEL)
 Theophile Beeckman (BEL)
 Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
4 28 June Brest - Les Sables-d'Olonne 412 km (256 mi)  Félix Goethals (FRA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
5 30 June Les Sables-d'Olonne - Bayonne 482 km (300 mi)  Omer Huyse (BEL)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
6 2 July Bayonne - Luchon 326 km (203 mi)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
7 4 July Luchon - Perpignan 323 km (201 mi)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
8 6 July Perpignan - Toulon 427 km (265 mi)  Louis Mottiat (BEL)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
9 8 July Toulon - Nice 280 km (170 mi)  Philippe Thys (BEL)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
10 10 July Nice - Briançon 275 km (171 mi)  Giovanni Brunero (ITA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
11 12 July Briançon - Gex 307 km (191 mi)  Nicolas Frantz (LUX)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
12 14 July Gex - Strasbourg 360 km (220 mi)  Nicolas Frantz (LUX)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
13 16 July Strasbourg - Metz 300 km (190 mi)  Arsène Alancourt (FRA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
14 18 July Metz - Dunkerque 433 km (269 mi)  Romain Bellenger (FRA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
15 20 July Dunkerque - Paris 343 km (213 mi)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)

Overall standings

Bottecchia became the first Italian cyclist who won the Tour de France, and the first cyclist to wear the yellow jersey from the start to the end of the Tour de France.[3]

Final general standings (1–10)[1]
Rank Rider Category Time
1  Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA) Bottecchia was awarded the final yellow jersey as general classification winner 1 226h 18' 21"
2  Nicolas Frantz (LUX) 1 +35' 36"
3  Lucien Buysse (BEL) 1 +1h 32' 13"
4  Bartolomeo Aimo (ITA) 1 +1h 32' 47"
5  Theophile Beeckman (BEL) 1 +2h 11' 12"
6  Joseph Muller (FRA) 1 +2h 35' 33"
7  Arsène Alancourt (FRA) 1 +2h 41' 31"
8  Romain Bellenger (FRA) 1 +2h 51' 09"
9  Omer Huyse (BEL) 2 +2h 58' 13"
10  Hector Tiberghien (BEL) 1 +3h 05' 04"

Aftermath

A few days after Henri Pélissier quit the race, he sent a letter to the communist magazine l'Humanité, writing that he accepted "‘excessive fatigue, suffering, pain" as part of the cycling profession, but that he wanted to be treated as a human being.[9] Tour organiser Desgrange still kept to his formula of trying to get the cyclists to ride individually until 1930, when he accepted that cyclists would run in teams and introduced nationalized teams.

The number of stages increased in the next years. For example, in 1925 the cyclists went from Brest to Bayonne in two stages, racing 900 km (560 mi) in total; in 1926 this was done in four stages, racing 894 km (556 mi). With these shorter stages, the cyclists did not have to start in the middle of the night.

Bottecchia would win the Tour de France again in 1925. The runner-up, Nicolas Frantz, would win in 1927 and 1928; in 1928 he would repeat the feat of Bottecchia of wearing the yellow jersey the entire race.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "18ème Tour de France 1924" (in French). Memoire du cyclisme. Archived from the original on 2009-07-22. Retrieved 21 June 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "The Tour - Year 1923". Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived from the original on 2009-07-23. Retrieved 21 July 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Tom James (15 August 2003). "1924: Le Tour de Souffrance". VeloArchive. Archived from the original on 2009-07-21. Retrieved 25 June 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ a b Dauncey, Hugh (2003). The Tour de France, 1903-2003. Routledge. pp. 86–88. ISBN 9780714653624. Retrieved 25 June 2009. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ a b "18ème Tour de France 1924 - 3ème étape" (in French). Memoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
  6. ^ "1924 - 18th Tour de France". Amaury Sport Organisation. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
  7. ^ a b "1924: Ottavio Bottecchia bezorgt Italië eerste Touroverwinning" (in Dutch). Tourdefrance.nl. 19 March 2003. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
  8. ^ Arian Zwegers. "Tour de France GC Top Ten". CVCC. Archived from the original on 2009-06-10. Retrieved 21 June 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Template:Cite article

Template:Cb start

Template:Cb end