1913 Tour de France
Encyclopedia
The 1913 Tour de France was the 11th Tour de France
, taking place June 29 to July 27, 1913. The total distance was 5388 kilometres (3,348 mi) and the average speed of the riders was 26.715 kilometres per hour (16.6 mph). The competition was won by the Belgian
Philippe Thys
, after in the crucial sixth stage Eugène Christophe
broke his bicycle and lost several hours because he had to do the repairs by himself. In the last stage, Thys also had mechanical problems, but he got help during the repairs, and only got a penalty of ten minutes.
Between 1904 and 1912, the overall classification had been calculated by points, but in 1913 the classification was reverted to the original format from 1903, where the overall classification was calculated by adding up the times of the individual stages. The general classification has been calculated in the time format ever since.
's chances, who would have been leading the time classification up until the final stage where he allowed a group to ride away. The system had been working against a French cyclist and in favor of a Belgian cyclist (Odiel Defraye, who won the Tour de France in 1912), and the French organisation changed the system back again to the time system: the finishing times of all stages were added per cyclist, and the cyclist with the least total time was the winner.
For the first time, the route of the race was in the opposite direction. Prior to the 1913 race, the Tour the France always had been in the clockwise direction through France, and in 1913 it was counterclockwise.
The first African cyclist took part in the Tour de France in 1913: Ali Neffati from Tunisia. Neffati had been discovered by Tour organizer Henri Desgrange
, and would later become a driver at l'Auto, the newspaper that organised the Tour de France.
, François Faber
, Octave Lapize
, Gustave Garrigou
and Odile Defraye
), the most ever. In the first stages, not much happened in the overall classification, as most cyclists were saving their energy for the Pyrénées. The most important event occurred in the third stage, when former winner Lapize stopped the race because he considered his earning insufficient.
The crucial stage proved to be the sixth. At the start of the sixth stage, last year's winner Defraye lead the general classification, some 5 minutes ahead of Eugène Christophe
. In that sixth stage, the first mountains were climbed. Defraye was dropped quickly, and Christophe lead the race. Christophe came up first on the Aubisque, and in second place behind Philippe Thys
on the Tourmalet. On the way down from the Tourmalet, Christophe collided with a car. His bicycle was broken in two and completely unusable, and the rules said that he had to repair it himself. He walked 14 km down to the next village, and found a place where he could repair his bicycle. He worked on it for four hours, being watched by race officials who made sure that he was not helped by anyone. When Christophe asked a small boy to work the bellows
, he was fined with ten minutes. After his bicycle was fixed, he rode away and finished the stage, 3 hours and 50 minutes later than the stage winner Thys. Christophe's chances to win the 1913 Tour de France were over.
After that sixth stage, Marcel Buysse
was in the lead. In the ninth stage, Buysse had mechanical failure with a broken handlebar, and finished almost three and a half hours after stage winner Lambot. This was the end of the chances for Buysse for the victory. Buysse did not give up, and won four of the remaining five stages.
The lead had transferred to Thys now. In the last stages, the race focussed on the duel between Petit-Breton and Thys. In the 14th stage, Petit-Breton fell down and stopped the race. In the same stage, Thys also fell down and remained unconscious for a while. When he was conscious again, he was helped to repair his bicycle. All help was illegal in 1913, but the jury only gave him a 10 minute penalty. Thys finished the stage, and kept 8'37" in front of Gustave Garrigou
in the general classification. In the final stage, Thys stayed with Garrigou, and so won the 1913 Tour de France.
Of the 140 starting cyclists, 25 finished.
The organising newspaper l'Auto named Philippe Thys the meilleur grimpeur. This unofficial title is the precursor to the mountains classification.
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
, taking place June 29 to July 27, 1913. The total distance was 5388 kilometres (3,348 mi) and the average speed of the riders was 26.715 kilometres per hour (16.6 mph). The competition was won by the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.-Professional career:...
, after in the crucial sixth stage Eugène Christophe
Eugene Christophe
Eugène Christophe was a French road bicycle racer and pioneer of cyclo-cross. He was a professional from 1904 until 1926. In 1919 he became the first rider to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France .Eugène Christophe rode 11 Tours de France and finished eight...
broke his bicycle and lost several hours because he had to do the repairs by himself. In the last stage, Thys also had mechanical problems, but he got help during the repairs, and only got a penalty of ten minutes.
Between 1904 and 1912, the overall classification had been calculated by points, but in 1913 the classification was reverted to the original format from 1903, where the overall classification was calculated by adding up the times of the individual stages. The general classification has been calculated in the time format ever since.
Changes from the 1912 Tour de France
In 1905, the format of the Tour de France had been changed from the time system to the points system, to reduce the cheating that had caused the first four cyclists of the 1904 Tour de France to be disqualified. In the 1912 Tour de France, this system had been working against Eugène ChristopheEugene Christophe
Eugène Christophe was a French road bicycle racer and pioneer of cyclo-cross. He was a professional from 1904 until 1926. In 1919 he became the first rider to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France .Eugène Christophe rode 11 Tours de France and finished eight...
's chances, who would have been leading the time classification up until the final stage where he allowed a group to ride away. The system had been working against a French cyclist and in favor of a Belgian cyclist (Odiel Defraye, who won the Tour de France in 1912), and the French organisation changed the system back again to the time system: the finishing times of all stages were added per cyclist, and the cyclist with the least total time was the winner.
For the first time, the route of the race was in the opposite direction. Prior to the 1913 race, the Tour the France always had been in the clockwise direction through France, and in 1913 it was counterclockwise.
The first African cyclist took part in the Tour de France in 1913: Ali Neffati from Tunisia. Neffati had been discovered by Tour organizer Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set 12 world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.-Origins:Henri Desgrange was one of two brothers, twins...
, and would later become a driver at l'Auto, the newspaper that organised the Tour de France.
Race details
The 1913 Tour de France started with six former Tour de France winners (Louis Trousselier, Lucien Petit-BretonLucien Petit-Breton
Lucien Georges Mazan was a French racing cyclist .He was born in Plessé, Loire-Atlantique , a part of Brittany, now part of Pays de la Loire. When he was six he moved with his parents to Buenos Aires where he took Argentine nationality...
, François Faber
François Faber
François Faber was a Luxembourgian/French racing cyclist. He was born in France. He was the first foreigner to win the Tour de France in 1909, and his record of winning 5 consecutive stages still stands...
, Octave Lapize
Octave Lapize
Octave Lapize was a French professional road racing cyclist and track cyclist.Most famous for winning the 1910 Tour de France and a bronze medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the men's 100 kilometres, he was a three-time winner of one-day classics, Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Brussels.In his first...
, Gustave Garrigou
Gustave Garrigou
Cyprien Gustave Garrigou was one of the best professional racing cyclists of his era. He rode the Tour de France eight times and won once...
and Odile Defraye
Odile Defraye
Odile Defraye was a Belgian road racing cyclist who won three stages and the overall title of the 1912 Tour de France, which was the last tour decided by a points system instead of overall best time...
), the most ever. In the first stages, not much happened in the overall classification, as most cyclists were saving their energy for the Pyrénées. The most important event occurred in the third stage, when former winner Lapize stopped the race because he considered his earning insufficient.
The crucial stage proved to be the sixth. At the start of the sixth stage, last year's winner Defraye lead the general classification, some 5 minutes ahead of Eugène Christophe
Eugene Christophe
Eugène Christophe was a French road bicycle racer and pioneer of cyclo-cross. He was a professional from 1904 until 1926. In 1919 he became the first rider to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France .Eugène Christophe rode 11 Tours de France and finished eight...
. In that sixth stage, the first mountains were climbed. Defraye was dropped quickly, and Christophe lead the race. Christophe came up first on the Aubisque, and in second place behind Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.-Professional career:...
on the Tourmalet. On the way down from the Tourmalet, Christophe collided with a car. His bicycle was broken in two and completely unusable, and the rules said that he had to repair it himself. He walked 14 km down to the next village, and found a place where he could repair his bicycle. He worked on it for four hours, being watched by race officials who made sure that he was not helped by anyone. When Christophe asked a small boy to work the bellows
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
, he was fined with ten minutes. After his bicycle was fixed, he rode away and finished the stage, 3 hours and 50 minutes later than the stage winner Thys. Christophe's chances to win the 1913 Tour de France were over.
After that sixth stage, Marcel Buysse
Marcel Buysse
Marcel Buysse was a Belgian racing cyclist.After finishing fourth in the 1912 Tour de France, Buysse led the general classification for two days until a broken handlebar cost him dearly...
was in the lead. In the ninth stage, Buysse had mechanical failure with a broken handlebar, and finished almost three and a half hours after stage winner Lambot. This was the end of the chances for Buysse for the victory. Buysse did not give up, and won four of the remaining five stages.
The lead had transferred to Thys now. In the last stages, the race focussed on the duel between Petit-Breton and Thys. In the 14th stage, Petit-Breton fell down and stopped the race. In the same stage, Thys also fell down and remained unconscious for a while. When he was conscious again, he was helped to repair his bicycle. All help was illegal in 1913, but the jury only gave him a 10 minute penalty. Thys finished the stage, and kept 8'37" in front of Gustave Garrigou
Gustave Garrigou
Cyprien Gustave Garrigou was one of the best professional racing cyclists of his era. He rode the Tour de France eight times and won once...
in the general classification. In the final stage, Thys stayed with Garrigou, and so won the 1913 Tour de France.
Stage winners
| Stage | Date | Route | TerrainIn 1913, there was no distinction in the rules between plain stages and mountain stages; the icons shown here indicate whether the stage included mountains. | Length | Winner | Race leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29 June | Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... – Le Havre Le Havre Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total... |
 |
388 km (241.1 mi) | ||
| 2 | 1 July | Le Havre – Cherbourg | |
364 km (226.2 mi) | After the second stage, Masselis, Lauwers, Buysse and Defraye joint the lead. There were no rules for equal times in 1913. |
|
| 3 | 3 July | Cherbourg – Brest Brest, France Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon... |
|
405 km (251.7 mi) | ||
| 4 | 5 July | Brest – La Rochelle La Rochelle La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988... |
|
470 km (292 mi) | ||
| 5 | 7 July | La Rochelle – Bayonne Bayonne Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture... |
|
379 km (235.5 mi) | ||
| 6 | 9 July | Bayonne – Luchon |  |
326 km (202.6 mi) | ||
| 7 | 11 July | Luchon – Perpignan Perpignan -Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the... |
|
324 km (201.3 mi) | ||
| 8 | 13 July | Perpignan – Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is... |
|
325 km (201.9 mi) | ||
| 9 | 15 July | Aix-en-Provence – Nice Nice Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of... |
|
356 km (221.2 mi) | ||
| 10 | 17 July | Nice – Grenoble Grenoble Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère... |
|
333 km (206.9 mi) | ||
| 11 | 19 July | Grenoble – Geneva Geneva Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland... |
|
325 km (201.9 mi) | ||
| 12 | 21 July | Geneva – Belfort Belfort Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-... |
|
335 km (208.2 mi) | ||
| 13 | 23 July | Belfort – Longwy Longwy Longwy is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.The inhabitants are known as Longoviciens.-Economy:Longwy has historically been an industrial center of the Lorraine iron mining district. The town is known for its artistic glazed pottery.-History:Longwy initially... |
|
325 km (201.9 mi) | ||
| 14 | 25 July | Longwy – Dunkerque | |
393 km (244.2 mi) | ||
| 15 | 27 July | Dunkerque – Paris | |
340 km (211.3 mi) |
General classification
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peugeot Peugeot (cycling team) Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on www.cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team, Alcyon.-History:... |
197h 54' 00" | |
| 2 | Peugeot Peugeot (cycling team) Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on www.cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team, Alcyon.-History:... |
+8' 37" | |
| 3 | Peugeot Peugeot (cycling team) Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on www.cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team, Alcyon.-History:... |
+3h 30' 55" | |
| 4 | Griffon | +4h 12' 45" | |
| 5 | Peugeot Peugeot (cycling team) Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on www.cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team, Alcyon.-History:... |
+6h 26' 04" | |
| 6 | J.B. Louvet | +7h 57' 52" | |
| 7 | Peugeot Peugeot (cycling team) Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on www.cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team, Alcyon.-History:... |
+14h 06' 35" | |
| 8 | — | +16h 21' 38" | |
| 9 | J.B. Louvet | +16h 39' 53" | |
| 10 | Peugeot Peugeot (cycling team) Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.It is listed as the most successful cycling team of all time, on www.cyclingranking.com, with a large margin on the second placed team, Alcyon.-History:... |
+16h 52' 34" | |
Other classifications
Camillo Bertarelli, ranked 8 in the general classification, became the winner of the "isolés" category. The "isolés" classification was calculated in the same way as the general classification, but only the isolated cyclists (not part of a team) were eligible.The organising newspaper l'Auto named Philippe Thys the meilleur grimpeur. This unofficial title is the precursor to the mountains classification.