Eugene Christophe
Encyclopedia
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. He never won but he became famous for having to weld together his bicycle while leading. It was one of a series of events that coloured his racing career.
.
Christophe was denied victory by the system of awarding victory to the winner on points. Throughout the race he was the strongest rider, but the Belgians rode together to win sprints to amass points. Only when Christophe could drop the peloton did he finish ahead of eventual winner Odile Defraye
.
Christophe won three consecutive stages using this method (including the Tour's longest successful solo break of 315 km to Grenoble
). Had the race been decided on time, the result would have been closer - Christophe would have led until the final stage, when he sat up in disgust allowing a group to ride away. As a result the 1913 race reverted to a time-based classification.
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In 1913
Christophe was well placed to win when a mechanical failure cost him the race. He rode the first part, from Paris to Cherbourg and then down the coast to the Pyrenees
cautiously. He was in second place when the race stopped in Bayonne
on the night before the first day in the mountains, when the course a succession of cols: the Oschquis, Aubisque, Soulor, Gourette, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde. The field set off at 3am with Christophe 4m 5s behind Odile Defraye
, of Belgium
.
Christophe rode for Peugeot
and his team attacked from the start to demoralise the rival Alcyon
riders and, in particular, Defraye. It worked. Defraye was 11 minutes behind at Oloron-Ste-Marie, 14 in Eaux-Bonnes
, 60 at Argelès. He dropped out at Barèges
, at the foot of the Tourmalet, the highest pass in the Pyrenees. Christophe dropped all the field except another Belgian, Philippe Thys
, who followed at a few hundred metres. Thys was of no danger, however, because he had lost too much time earlier. The two were five minutes ahead of the rest.
Christophe stopped at the top of the mountain, reversed his back wheel to pick a higher gear
Christophe said:
It took two hours to reach the forge. Lecomte offered to weld the broken forks back together but a race official and managers of rival teams would not allow it. A rider, said the rules, was responsible for his own repairs and outside assistance was prohibited. Christophe set about the repair as Lecomte told him what to do. It took three hours and the race judge penalised him 10 minutes - reduced later to three - because Christophe had allowed a seven-year old boy, Corni, to pump the bellows for him. Filling his pockets with bread, Christophe set off over two more mountains and eventually finished the tour in seventh place. The building on the site of the forge has a plaque commemorating the episode.
The forks which cost Christophe the race were taken away by Peugeot. He didn't see them again until a dying man bequeathed them to him more than 30 years later. Some reports say that Christophe broke his forks because he ran into a car on the descent. The historian and author, Bill McGann, says:
Christophe became the first man to wear the yellow jersey
of race leader, though he was destined not to win the race overall. Christophe was riding with a grey La Sportive
jersey when, while leading, Desgrange gave him the first maillot jaune. Christophe said:
However, Christophe was not at first pleased to wear the yellow jersey as he complained that the spectator laughed and told him that he looked like a canary.
By the start of the penultimate stage from Metz
to Dunkirk, he was leading by 30 minutes. His fork broke again, this time on the cobbles of Valenciennes
and, although being within a kilometre of the nearest forge, he lost more than two and a half hours and the race while he made repairs. On the final stage he had a run of punctures and dropped from second to third overall behind Jean Alavoine
. His story captured the public imagination and he was awarded the same prize money as winner Firmin Lambot
. His prize - 13,310 francs - came from a subscription opened by L'Auto, the paper which organised the race. Donations ranged from three francs to 500 given by Henri de Rothschild. It took 20 lists in the paper to name every donor.
Christophe kept the repaired forks in the basement of his home.
forced Christophe to once more walk out of the mountain on foot.
, was so tired from long and repeated days of racing that he asked Christophe to punch him in the face to wake him up.
The plaque on the wall read:
Christophe's name was spelled the second time, as shown, with a missing H. The plaque stayed there until 2003, when it was replaced to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tour.
In 1965, Radio Luxembourg
held a party to mark Christophe's 80th birthday. The station announced that he was cycling to the station from Malakoff and, jokingly, said anyone seeing a tiny old man riding a heavy bike through Paris should give him a wave: it would be Eugène Christophe. By the time Christophe reached the studio, he was in a cortège of 100 cycling fans, among them the former world champion, Georges Speicher
.
The square at Ste-Marie-de-Campan, and a make of toe-clips, are named after him.
Christophe looked at the man and said casa [house]. He took him into the house, undressed him and wrapped him in a blanket. Christophe did physical exercises to get his blood restarted. Then van Hauwaert and Paul came in. "They were so frozen that they put their hands into the flames. Ernest Paul had lost a shoe without noticing," Christophe said.
It took a month in hospital for Christophe to recover from frost bite to his hands and the damage the cold had done to his body. It was another two years before he got back to his original health. Only three riders finished and the result is still uncertain because some reports say van Hauwaert came fourth and others that he was disqualified for hanging on to a car.
champion from 1909 to 1914, then again in 1921.
, who visited him at Malakoff, said: "M. Christophe had a tidy mind. That is why his workshop is tidy, with every tool clean and in its place. His home is equally in order. I had merely to mention some subject and he would go to a drawer, take out an envelope or a file, marked 'Tour 1912' or 'Paris–Roubaix 1920' or ' cross-cyclo pédèstre '. Every photograph had a neatly written caption on the back."
His race diary dated from the start of the 1920s. A neat, small hand described every race, stage by stage, his impressions, results and expenses. Christophe said that every night in the race hotel he laid out his kit like a fireman, "so that the moment I was called in the morning I didn't waste time looking for my clothes and equipment. Shoes, jersey, goggles, shorts and the rest of it were laid out neatly."
Wadley added:
, near Paris, all his life. He was a member of the L'Etoile Sportive de Malakoff cycling club from his first races until his death. Jacques Anquetil
awarded him the Tour de France medal at the end of the 1965 race. Christophe was 81 at the time.
and Raymond Poulidor
after him) is celebrated as an eternal second, more famous for his near-misses than his more successful rivals.
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1917
1919
1920
1921
Cyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter , and consists of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and...
. He was a professional from 1904 until 1926. In 1919 he became the first rider to wear the yellow jersey
Yellow jersey
The general classification in the Tour de France is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey .-History:...
of the Tour de France
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...
.
Eugène Christophe rode 11 Tours de France and finished eight. He never won but he became famous for having to weld together his bicycle while leading. It was one of a series of events that coloured his racing career.
Origins
Eugène Christophe rode his first race when he was 18 and his last when he was 41 in 1926. He worked as a locksmith until racing took over his life.The 1906 race
The 1906 Tour de France was Christophe's first. He finished in ninth place behind Rene PottierRené Pottier
René Pottier was a French racing cyclistPottier won Bordeaux–Paris in 1903 before turning professional. He came second in Paris–Roubaix 1905 and Bordeaux–Paris 1905, then third in 1906’s Paris–Roubaix, before winning the Tour de France in 1906.He was considered the finest climber of the Tour...
.
The 1912 race
In the 1912 Tour de France1912 Tour de France
The 1912 Tour de France was the 10th anniversary of the Tour de France. It consisted of 15 stages for a total of . The Tour took place from 30 June to 28 July 1912. The riders rode at an average speed of 27.763 km/h. After 4 stage wins during the Tour of Belgium, the Alcyon team hired Odile...
Christophe was denied victory by the system of awarding victory to the winner on points. Throughout the race he was the strongest rider, but the Belgians rode together to win sprints to amass points. Only when Christophe could drop the peloton did he finish ahead of eventual winner 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...
.
Christophe won three consecutive stages using this method (including the Tour's longest successful solo break of 315 km to 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...
). Had the race been decided on time, the result would have been closer - Christophe would have led until the final stage, when he sat up in disgust allowing a group to ride away. As a result the 1913 race reverted to a time-based classification.
1913 and the Tourmalet incident
1913 Tour de France
The 1913 Tour de France was the 11th Tour de France, taking place June 29 to July 27, 1913. The total distance was and the average speed of the riders was . The competition was won by the Belgian Philippe Thys, after in the crucial sixth stage Eugène Christophe broke his bicycle and lost several...
Christophe was well placed to win when a mechanical failure cost him the race. He rode the first part, from Paris to Cherbourg and then down the coast to the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
cautiously. He was in second place when the race stopped in 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...
on the night before the first day in the mountains, when the course a succession of cols: the Oschquis, Aubisque, Soulor, Gourette, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde. The field set off at 3am with Christophe 4m 5s behind 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...
, of Belgium
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...
.
Christophe rode for Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
and his team attacked from the start to demoralise the rival Alcyon
Alcyon
The Alcyon was a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer between 1890 and 1957.- Origins :Alcyon originated from about 1890 when Edmond Gentil started the manufacture of bicycles in Neuilly, Seine. In 1902, this was complemented by motorcycle production and in 1906, the first cars...
riders and, in particular, Defraye. It worked. Defraye was 11 minutes behind at Oloron-Ste-Marie, 14 in Eaux-Bonnes
Eaux-Bonnes
Eaux-Bonnes is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.Nearby is the impressive villa Cockade, the construction of which is detailed in Dornford Yates's novel The House That Berry Built....
, 60 at Argelès. He dropped out at Barèges
Barèges
Barèges is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France. It is situated in the valley of the stream Bastan on the former Route nationale 618, the "Route of the Pyrénées."-Economy:...
, at the foot of the Tourmalet, the highest pass in the Pyrenees. Christophe dropped all the field except another Belgian, Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.-Professional career:...
, who followed at a few hundred metres. Thys was of no danger, however, because he had lost too much time earlier. The two were five minutes ahead of the rest.
Christophe stopped at the top of the mountain, reversed his back wheel to pick a higher gear
Christophe said:
- I plunged full speed towards the valley. According to Henri DesgrangeHenri DesgrangeHenri 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...
's calculation, I was then heading the general classification with a lead of 18 minutes. So, I was going full speed. All of a sudden, about ten kilometres from Ste-Marie-de-Campan down in the valley, I feel that something is wrong with my handlebars. I cannot steer my bike any more. I pull on my brakes and I stop. I see my forks are broken. Well, I tell you now that my forks were broken but I wouldn't say it at the time because it was bad publicity for my sponsor.
- And there I was left alone on the road. When I say the road, I should say the path. All the riders I had dropped during the climb soon caught me up. I was weeping with anger. I remember I heard my friend Petit-Breton shouting as he saw me, 'Ah, Cri-Cri, poor old lad.' I was getting angry. As I walked down, I was looking for a short cut. I thought maybe one of those pack trails would lead me straight to Ste-Marie-de-Campan. But I was weeping so badly that I couldn't see anything. With my bike on my shoulder, I walked for more than ten kilometres. On arriving in the village at Ste-Marie-de-Campan, I met a young girl who led me to the blacksmith on the other side of the village. His name was Monsieur Lecomte.
It took two hours to reach the forge. Lecomte offered to weld the broken forks back together but a race official and managers of rival teams would not allow it. A rider, said the rules, was responsible for his own repairs and outside assistance was prohibited. Christophe set about the repair as Lecomte told him what to do. It took three hours and the race judge penalised him 10 minutes - reduced later to three - because Christophe had allowed a seven-year old boy, Corni, to pump the bellows for him. Filling his pockets with bread, Christophe set off over two more mountains and eventually finished the tour in seventh place. The building on the site of the forge has a plaque commemorating the episode.
The forks which cost Christophe the race were taken away by Peugeot. He didn't see them again until a dying man bequeathed them to him more than 30 years later. Some reports say that Christophe broke his forks because he ran into a car on the descent. The historian and author, Bill McGann, says:
- I have found no mention of a car in Christophe's own retelling of the story. Broken forks were not unusual. I am sure that the poor state of 1913 metallurgy and bad mountain roads caused the disaster. My own theory, based on little information, is that the car story is probably a piece of Peugeot disinformation. It must have been awful for Peugeot to have their famous rider celebrated for having broken a fork. A car crash makes this all easy to explain. The final nail in the coffin of the story is that Christophe said 'I wouldn't have told you then because it was bad publicity for my firm.' If it had been a car crash, there would have been no bad publicity because no one expects a bike to withstand a car crash.
First world war
Christophe became a soldier when France declared war in 1914. He served with a cycling battalion.1919 race and the maillot jaune
In 19191919 Tour de France
The 1919 Tour de France was the 13th Tour de France, taking place from 29 June to 27 July 1919 over a total distance of . It was the first Tour de France after World War I, and was won by Firmin Lambot...
Christophe became the first man to wear the yellow jersey
Yellow jersey
The general classification in the Tour de France is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey .-History:...
of race leader, though he was destined not to win the race overall. Christophe was riding with a grey La Sportive
La Sportive (cycling team)
La Sportive is a former French professional cycling team from 1918 to 1921. It won the team classification in the Tour de France three times, in 1919–1921.-History:...
jersey when, while leading, Desgrange gave him the first maillot jaune. Christophe said:
- So soon after the war, the cycle industry was not yet in action again, and the only marque supplying material was La Sportive and there was little difference between any of the jerseys they supplied. One day - it was on the 482km stage from Les Sables d'Olonne to Bayonne - Monsieur Baugé, an official, remarked to Henri Desgrange that it was difficult enough for him to pick out the various riders and the public must find it impossible. Couldn't the race leader wear a special jersey?
However, Christophe was not at first pleased to wear the yellow jersey as he complained that the spectator laughed and told him that he looked like a canary.
By the start of the penultimate stage from Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
to Dunkirk, he was leading by 30 minutes. His fork broke again, this time on the cobbles of Valenciennes
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
and, although being within a kilometre of the nearest forge, he lost more than two and a half hours and the race while he made repairs. On the final stage he had a run of punctures and dropped from second to third overall behind Jean Alavoine
Jean Alavoine
Jean Alavoine was a French professional cyclist, who won 17 stages in the Tour de France - only 8 riders have won more stages - and wore the yellow jersey for 5 days. In Daniel Marszalek's list of best road riders in history, he is ranked 96th....
. His story captured the public imagination and he was awarded the same prize money as winner Firmin Lambot
Firmin Lambot
Firmin Lambot was a Belgian bicycle racer who twice won the Tour de France.Born in the small town of Florennes, Lambot worked as a saddler. He worked 12 hours a day, starting at 6am. He bought his first bicycle at 17 and began riding 50 km a day to and from work. His first race was in a local...
. His prize - 13,310 francs - came from a subscription opened by L'Auto, the paper which organised the race. Donations ranged from three francs to 500 given by Henri de Rothschild. It took 20 lists in the paper to name every donor.
Christophe kept the repaired forks in the basement of his home.
1922 race and another broken fork
Placed in the top three and still in with a chance of overall victory, another broken fork on the descent of the Galibier in the AlpsAlps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
forced Christophe to once more walk out of the mountain on foot.
The 1925 race
The 1925 Tour was Christophe's last. He was 40 and finished 18th, 19 years after first riding the race. The anecdote of the race was that the Belgian, Emile MassonEmile Masson (cyclist)
Emile Masson was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer. Massopn won two stages in the 1922 Tour de France. His son, Émile Masson Jr., also became a successful cyclist.- Palmarès :19191922...
, was so tired from long and repeated days of racing that he asked Christophe to punch him in the face to wake him up.
Commemoration
The French cycling federation in 1951 placed a plaque on the wall of the building that stands now where the forge once stood at Ste-Marie-de-Campan. Christophe, then 66, re-enacted the day that cost him the Tour de France. He carried his bike on his shoulder, the front wheel in his hand, to the forge. There, wearing race clothes, he played out the way he had repaired his forks. With him were the judge who supervised him that day, and Corni, who as an 11-year-old had helped pump the fire. They were joined by Mme Despiau, the first woman Christope met on entering the village.The plaque on the wall read:
- Here, in 1913, Eugène Christophe, French racing cyclist, first in the general classification of the Tour de France, victim of a mechanical accident on the Tourmalet, repaired the fork of his bicycle at the forge. Having covered numerous kilometres by foot, in the mountains, and having lost numerous hours, Eugène Cristophe didn't abandon the race that he should have won, showing a sublime example of willpower. Gift of the Fédération Française de Cyclisme "under the patronage of L'Équipe.
Christophe's name was spelled the second time, as shown, with a missing H. The plaque stayed there until 2003, when it was replaced to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tour.
In 1965, Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (French)
Radio Luxembourg - 1933-1939 and 1951- is the name of a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933 as a daytime and evening service in the French language from Monday to Saturday and until 12 Noon on Sundays.The station closed down at the...
held a party to mark Christophe's 80th birthday. The station announced that he was cycling to the station from Malakoff and, jokingly, said anyone seeing a tiny old man riding a heavy bike through Paris should give him a wave: it would be Eugène Christophe. By the time Christophe reached the studio, he was in a cortège of 100 cycling fans, among them the former world champion, Georges Speicher
Georges Speicher
Georges Speicher was a French cyclist who won the 1933 Tour de France along with three stage wins, and the 1933 World Cycling Championship.- Palmarès :19311932...
.
The square at Ste-Marie-de-Campan, and a make of toe-clips, are named after him.
Milan – San Remo
Christophe is most famous for the broken forks of the Tour de France but his suffering was greater in Milan – San Remo in March 1910. He was 25. There were 71 on the line. Only three reached San Remo. Christophe said:- The weather had been good at the start of the week but it turned really bad and Alphonse Baugé [the manager] told us that we'd be going over the Turchino even though the road was bad and covered with snow. François FaberFrançois FaberFrançois 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...
and Louis Trousselier cheered us up by saying 'What does it matter if we've got Lapize and Christophe the two cyclo-cross champions with us?'
- The roads were muddy and frozen and we had to bounce along in the ruts, riding on the verges between the posts that were spaced every 20 metres as far as Pavia. We rode the first 32km in 56 minutes, the 53km from MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
to VogheraVogherathumb|250px|The Castle of Voghera in a 19th century etching.Voghera is a town and comune of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Pavia...
in 1h 50. There were attacks after attack and it was more like a course des primes than a long-distance race...
- We go to the notorious col de Turchino. The clouds were low, the countryside was unattractive and we started to feel the cold more and more. We started to shiver and every turn of the pedals was heavier. The half-melted snow made the race very hard and we were struggling too with a glacial wind. I dropped my friend Ernest PaulErnest PaulErnest Paul was a French professional road bicycle racer. He was a half brother of Tour de France-winner François Faber. Ernest Paul rode the Tour de France seven times, finished six times, and won two stages...
to get up to Ganna, whom I could see on the hairpins. I got up and past him without too much trouble because he didn't seem to be standing the cold any better than I was. Not far from the summit I had to get off my bike because I started feeling bad. My fingers were rigid, my feet numb, my legs stiff and I was shaking continuously. I began walking and running to get my circulation back, looking at the countryside. It was bleak and the wind made a low moaning noise. I'd have felt scared if I hadn't been used to bad weather in cyclo-crosses.
- Well, I got back on my bike and I got to the top of the col. There's a tunnel at the top and I asked a soigneur how far down I was on the leader. He told me six minutes. I found van Hauwaert at the exit of the tunnel with his bike in his hand and a cloak on his back. He told me he was packing it in. I was beyond feeling happy about it and I just got on with going down through the snow that lay on the road on that side of the mountain.
- The view was totally different now. The snow made the countryside beautiful. The sky was really clear. But now it was my turn to have trouble. It was hard to keep going. In places there were 20cm of snow and sometimes more. Each time I was obliged to get off and push. It was cyclo-cross - off, on, riding, walking. I could keep going but it was slowing me right down. Then I had to stop with stomach cramp. Doubled up, one hand on my bike and the other on my stomach, I collapsed on to a rock on the left side of the road. I was bitter with cold. All I could do was move my head a little from left to right and right to left.
- I saw a little house not far away but I couldn't get there. I didn't realise just what danger I was in. I just had one thought: to get to San Remo first and I attached no importance to the pain I felt… I thought too of my contract with the bike factory. I'd get double my wages if I won as well as primes and there'd be my 300 francs for first place. Happily in my misfortune a man chanced to pass by.
- ' Signor, signor…'
Christophe looked at the man and said casa [house]. He took him into the house, undressed him and wrapped him in a blanket. Christophe did physical exercises to get his blood restarted. Then van Hauwaert and Paul came in. "They were so frozen that they put their hands into the flames. Ernest Paul had lost a shoe without noticing," Christophe said.
- I was there for about 25 minutes. I saw four riders go by, or at least four piles of mud. I decided to press on. Ernest Paul said 'You're crazy.' And the innkeeper didn't want to let me go. I had to trick him by saying I could meet someone who would get me to San RemoSanremoSanremo or San Remo is a city with about 57,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy. Founded in Roman times, the city is best known as a tourist destination on the Italian Riviera. It hosts numerous cultural events, such as the Sanremo Music Festival...
by train. I set off and caught Cocchi and Pavesi and I got to the control just behind Ganna, who was setting off as I stopped. I set off again after Baugé told me I could win and I passed Ganna at the edge of the town. And I caught Albini a few kilometres later.
- At the control at SavonaSavonaSavona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....
(90km) everybody was astonished to see me alone. I didn't stop long and took Trousellier's spare bike, because I knew he and Garrigou had abandoned before Ovada. I was sure of my victory and with only 100km to go I felt a new strength. The idea of crossing the line alone brought back all my energy. I got to San Remo well behind the scheduled time. It was 6pm when I stopped underneath the blowing banner that showed the end of my Calvary.
It took a month in hospital for Christophe to recover from frost bite to his hands and the damage the cold had done to his body. It was another two years before he got back to his original health. Only three riders finished and the result is still uncertain because some reports say van Hauwaert came fourth and others that he was disqualified for hanging on to a car.
Cyclo-cross
Christophe was national cyclo-crossCyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter , and consists of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and...
champion from 1909 to 1914, then again in 1921.
Personality
Christophe was a short and methodical man who raced with a 20 franc coin, a 10 franc coin, a chain link and a spoke key in a chamois bag hung round his neck. The journalist Jock WadleyJock Wadley
John Borland Wadley was an English journalist whose magazines and reporting opened Continental cycle racing to fans in Britain....
, who visited him at Malakoff, said: "M. Christophe had a tidy mind. That is why his workshop is tidy, with every tool clean and in its place. His home is equally in order. I had merely to mention some subject and he would go to a drawer, take out an envelope or a file, marked 'Tour 1912' or 'Paris–Roubaix 1920' or ' cross-cyclo pédèstre '. Every photograph had a neatly written caption on the back."
His race diary dated from the start of the 1920s. A neat, small hand described every race, stage by stage, his impressions, results and expenses. Christophe said that every night in the race hotel he laid out his kit like a fireman, "so that the moment I was called in the morning I didn't waste time looking for my clothes and equipment. Shoes, jersey, goggles, shorts and the rest of it were laid out neatly."
Wadley added:
- He said not the first time during my visit that he was not a rich man in the monetary sense but had a wealth of happy memories and good health to show from his racing exertions. He still rides a lot, is at most of the touring rallies in the Parisian area, but likes to take it easy. 'I have suffered enough on a vélo,' he said, but last year he did 115 miles in 8½ hours, with 12lb of luggage, stopping 10 minutes every two hours to eat biscuits, pears and grapes and drink a glass of VichyVichyVichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
water.
Death
Eugène Christophe died in the Hôpital Broussais in Paris. He lived in MalakoffMalakoff
Malakoff is a suburban commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department southwest of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of the city.-History:The commune of Malakoff was created on 8 November 1883 by detaching its territory from the commune of Vanves...
, near Paris, all his life. He was a member of the L'Etoile Sportive de Malakoff cycling club from his first races until his death. Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964...
awarded him the Tour de France medal at the end of the 1965 race. Christophe was 81 at the time.
Reputation
Christophe never won the Tour, but his stories have become part of the race's mythology. Christophe (like René ViettoRené Vietto
René Vietto was a French road racing cyclist.In the 1934 Tour de France, Vietto, a relative unknown, got wings on the mountains. This was not a surprise, because he had won the Grand Prix Wolber. He was prepared for the Alps and won easily on the steepest terrain...
and Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor , is a former professional bicycle racer. He was known as the eternal second, because he finished the Tour de France in second place three times, and in third place five times, including his final Tour at the age of 40...
after him) is celebrated as an eternal second, more famous for his near-misses than his more successful rivals.
Major results
1909
French cyclo-cross champion
1910
- 1st Milan – San Remo
- 3rd Paris–Roubaix
- French cyclo-cross champion
1911
- 2nd Tour of BelgiumTour of BelgiumThe Tour of Belgium is a four-day bicycle race which is held annually in Belgium.It was held annually between 1908 and 1981, except during both world wars. Between 1982 and 1990 several of races were not organised and none at all during the decade 1991 to 2001...
- French cyclo-cross champion
1912
- 3 stage wins and 2nd overall Tour de France1912 Tour de FranceThe 1912 Tour de France was the 10th anniversary of the Tour de France. It consisted of 15 stages for a total of . The Tour took place from 30 June to 28 July 1912. The riders rode at an average speed of 27.763 km/h. After 4 stage wins during the Tour of Belgium, the Alcyon team hired Odile...
- French cyclo-cross champion
1913
- French cyclo-cross champion
1914
- French cyclo-cross champion
1917
- 3rd Paris–Tours
1919
- 3rd Tour de France1919 Tour de FranceThe 1919 Tour de France was the 13th Tour de France, taking place from 29 June to 27 July 1919 over a total distance of . It was the first Tour de France after World War I, and was won by Firmin Lambot...
1920
- 1st Paris–Tours
- 1st Bordeaux–Paris
- 2nd Paris–Roubaix
1921
- 1st Bordeaux–Paris
- French cyclo-cross champion
- 2nd Paris–Brest–Paris
- 3rd Paris–Tours
External links
- Christophe's palmares at memore-du-cyclisme.net
- Christophe's palmares at veloarchive.com. This site also contains information on Christophe's Tour de France rides.