" Tour de France. The most important cycling race in the world. A run of a month. Paris-Lyon-Marseille-Toulouse-Bordeaux-Nantes-Paris. award 20,000 francs. " On January 19, 1903 the newspaper L'Auto (predecessor of the current L'Equipe) announced on its front page the birth of a cycling race, halfway between competitive sport and adventure. The race had been conceived a month earlier by the young editor of the cycling section, Geo Lefevre, in order to increase poor sales of the newspaper. The idea appealed to the editor, Henri Desgrange, and July 1 of that year 60 brave souls gathered at the gates of the Reveil Matin cafe on the outskirts of Paris to take part in the first edition of the Tour de France. A challenge, all crazy.
ahead had had to travel 2,428 miles in six stages, and between them gave the organization a few days of rest to avoid fatigue deaths. The winner of that first edition, the French builder and chimney sweep Maurice Garin, took 94 hours and 33 minutes to complete the course, to an average of 25.739 km / h, the last of the 21 survivors spent more than 65 hours Garin. From the outset, the French followed with passion the new epic, and the cyclists suffered acquired the status of heroes. chronic Lefevre's vibrant light readers and sales of L'Auto soar this month of July 1903, reaching 65,000 copies daily. But Desgrange wanted more. "Epic, sacrifice and glory" was his maxim. Always looking for the limits, decided to give a twist to his madness difficulties entering the first mountain.
addressed in the 1905 Tour's first mountain to climb to the Ballon d'Alsace in the Vosges, 9 km with an average gradient of 6%. Crowned the top leading René Pottier, who alone bore the entire climb up the bike. He made the ascent to the then amazing speed of 20 km / h, but had to drop dead the next day in pain because of cramps. After that first experience mountain Desgrange enthusiastically declares: "From now on, nothing is impossible. The Tour must be the greatest proof of publication that has ever been. " In 1906 the race made a brief foray into the small Alps. And in this continuous search for new challenges we, four years later, at a moment that forever changed the history of the Tour de France, cycling and sport. And it all started with a lie ...
A lie that changed history
In January 1910 Henri Desgrange met with his staff to plan the eighth edition of the race and find new venues to increase the interest in it. The journalist Alphonse Steines Point Blank released their proposal: that the race crossed the Pyrenees, then an inhospitable, uninhabited, with dirt roads in dilapidated state and even bears roam freely through the summits. "You're crazy," snapped the pattern of the race. But Steiner was a stubborn guy and eager to add a new dimension the Tour, insisted in his mad proposal. Desgrange
knew that the few raids in the mountains had been a great public success, but also feared that those giants Pyrenees (Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque) were too hard to cyclists. finally agreed on one condition: that his colleagues examined the future path of the stage and personally finds that those roads were passable. Months later, after the harsh winter, Stein rented a car and driver and traveled to southern France, which until then was unknown territory and wild. The Peyresourde and Aspin were able to cross the smooth, but the Tourmalet, with its top still covered by snow in spring, would not be so simple, in fact, the natives tried to dissuade him of his idea. Stubborn as few
, Stein was not discouraged. They climbed down that road in appalling conditions until, at four kilometers from the summit, snow and ice on the road became completely impassable. Then the driver, frightened, refused to continue. "Give you around and wait for me in Barèges. I still walk, "said the intrepid reporter. Through the night to fall ventured with street shoes and a cane in hand, looking uphill to the top. In the midst of utter darkness, with snow covering the knees, walking between ravines and the danger of bears on the prowl, Stein managed to walk the four miles that separated him from the summit and begin the descent path of that location.
Hours later, in middle of the night, a raid organized by the driver found him exhausted, numb with cold, near Barèges. After taking a hot bath and eat voraciously, was ready to send a telegram to Paris, to the attention of Henri Desgrange. The lie, the big lie that forever changed the history of the Tour de France, cycling and sport: "Crossed Tourmalet. Very good route. Perfectly practicable. "
Ninety minutes of agony
On 21 July 1910 Tour that was going to travel for the first time for the mountain, as part of a hellish stage (Luchon-Bayonne, 326 km) , which would have to climb, one after another, the four giants of the Pyrenees, and three other minor ports (Soulor, Tortes and Osquich). At half past three was given the start and end of the street racers are already with the first climb of the day. After passing the Peyresourde and Aspin, two French riders are featured at the foot of the Tourmalet. On a field stones and earth, take up ninety minutes in his 17 miles. For Octave Lapize and Gustave Garrigou are ninety minutes eternal agony and struggle against the unknown.
The first alternating sections on the bike with others, the hardest, walking with her in tow, the latter is placed standing on the pedals again and again, and refuses to get off even though it costs to maintain the balance . Lapize go down in history as the first cyclist who crowned this monster of over 2,000 meters; Garrigou as the one who made the entire climb without setting foot on land, which earned him a prize of 100 francs. Are the half past seven and still have 250 miles ahead, with the ascension to also fearsome Aubisque. On top of this port, on the verge of asphyxiation and muscles trembling with grief, pencil off the bike and throw one of the organizers angrily yells: "Murderers, you are criminals."
After numerous fainting and recoveries, the mustachioed Octave Lapize Bayonne wins defeating the Italian sprint Albini. It was 17:40 in the afternoon, had taken 14 hours and 10 minutes to complete the stage. After they were coming for hours, the other runners, many of them in a sorry state we had to carry him to the shelters. The subsequent days passed off as the victor in his hotel in Bayonne lying and putting his foot crushed in a bowl with salt and vinegar. Beside her, Gustave Garrigou read aloud the chronic inflamed on Desgrange Pyrenean stage, Stein and Lefevre in L'Auto .
A week later, Lapize -1.65 meters and a robust body-is the winner of the Tour de France 1910. Sergeant of aviation in the First World War, French was killed on July 14, 1917 when the plane he was piloting was shot on Verdun. On his body was found five German bullets. One had pierced the heart, the heart strong and powerful that prompted his legs to make history on the ramps of the Tourmalet. And since that first ascent of one hundred years have passed, and this giant Pyrenean has become the port most visited by the Tour (it has risen by 81 times), the scene of sublime and extraordinary exploits weaknesses in the most emblematic mountain this test, although not the highest, or longer, or harder.
Forging a legend can
The Tourmalet climb two sides, to reach 2,115 meters in altitude of the summit: to Saint Marie de Campan, the best-known route, where Station slopes of La Mongie, and Barèges, somewhat narrower road. In the first case, is 17.2 km climb with an average gradient of 7.4% gradient, the second, 19 kilometers to 7.4% also. For both roads, cyclists are ramps with a slope exceeding 11%.
And if hard and difficult the climb is not less dangerous is the fall, a nightmare for cyclists not well versed in the art of falling. Down the mountain, in 1969, Eddy Merckx began one of the most marvelous exhibitions ever seen in cycling history [Stage 17: Luchon-Mourenx. Already outstanding leader, and after a ride 140 km solo, surpassed by eight minutes to his closest pursuers: Pingeon, Poulidor, Gimondi ...; the Canibal in pure]; down the mountain, in 1991, Miguel Indurain started winning the first of his five Tours [stage 13: Jaca-Val Louron, 232 miles and five ports. The Navarre makes a rapid descent of the Tourmalet that he's left alone in front of the stage, with the Aspin and Val Louron on the horizon Claudio Chiappucci decides to wait, and together they begin a ride that would give him his first yellow jersey]. So decisive in the rise and in the fall, this mountain is unforgiving to the weak.
are so many epic scenes lived in their seats (Ottavio Bottecchia in 1924, Lucy Buysse with snow-capped in 1926, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Jean Robic, Bahamontes, who crowned him featured on four occasions, Merckx, Van Impe, Pedro Delgado ...) that we find impossible to remember them all in this article. Yes we will, however, with what happened in the Tour in 1913, an episode that perfectly illustrates the harshness of that heroic cycling. After crossing the Tourmalet in second position, the Frenchman Eugene Christophe realizes that he has broken the fork of his bike. Do not want to leave (all his team mates had conspired to get to Paris) and under the rules of the time he it should repair the machine, so has no choice but to charge it on your shoulder and walk down 14 kilometers until you reach the blacksmith of St Marie de Campan . Unable to get help from the blacksmith, Christophe, who is a mechanic, gets to the forge and fix your bike before resuming the march, four hours after being crowned the Tourmalet. Had become the virtual leader of the race and was left without any choice, still, after rising in solitary Aspin and Peyresourde, enters open control goal. Finally, finished seventh in Paris. A plaque at the building of Saint Marie de Campan commemorates his iron will.
This edition of 2010, to mark the centenary of his discovery for cycling, the Grande Boucle Tourmalet climb twice, the second one as the end of the 17 th stage. It is the tribute that the organization has prepared a mountain ramps which are imbued with the best epic and legendary cyclist, a mountain forever changed the history of the sport and became the Tour de France in a race immortal.
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