Mapping Le Tour: The unofficial history of all 100 Tour de France races. Ellis Bacon
celebrate with riders as they finish in the Parc des Princes velodrome
| Start: Paris, France, on 26 JuneFinish: Paris, France, on 24 July | |
| Total distance: 5485 km (3408 miles)Longest stage: 482 km (300 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col du Galibier: 2556 m (8386 ft) Mountain stages: 5 | |
| Starters: 123Finishers: 38 | |
| Winning time: 221 h 50’ 26”Average speed: 24.720 kph (15.360 mph) | |
| 1. Léon Scieur (Bel)2. Hector Heusghem (Bel) at 18’ 36” 3. Honoré Barthélémy (Fra) at 2 h 01’ 00” |
A still-sulking Henri Pélissier didn’t even turn up to the 1921 Tour, while Tour organiser Henri Desgrange – with whom Pélissier had fallen out – continued to earn a reputation as somewhat of a curmudgeon, with his on-a-whim rules, his constant complaints about riders not trying hard enough and his anger at France’s apparent inability to challenge the dominant Belgian riders.
He might have been secretly pleased when 1920 Tour winner Philippe Thys was forced to quit the race after the first stage, suffering from illness, perhaps secretly hoping that it would open the door for France’s best hope of overall victory, Honoré Barthélémy.
The Belgians, however, found themselves with strength in numbers, and it was 33-year-old Belgian rider Léon Scieur – who had only learned to ride a bike aged 22 – who came to the fore.
The man who had taught him to ride was none other than 1919 Tour winner Firmin Lambot, who hailed from the same Belgian village – Florennes – as Scieur. In fact, the pair remain the only two riders to come from the same town who have both won the Tour de France.
Barthélémy helped save French blushes by taking third spot overall, albeit more than two hours adrift, but with Scieur’s compatriot Hector Heusghem again finishing runner-up, as he had done the year before. The Belgians had more than just arrived; they had positively taken over the Tour de France.
The scars of the First World War are still evident as riders make their way through ruins in Montdidier
| Start: Paris, France, on 25 JuneFinish: Paris, France, on 23 July | |
| Total distance: 5372 km (3338 miles)Longest stage: 482 km (300 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col du Galibier: 2556 m (8386 ft) Mountain stages: 5 | |
| Starters: 120Finishers: 38 | |
| Winning time: 222 h 08’ 06”Average speed: 24.196 kph (15.034 mph) | |
| 1. Firmin Lambot (Bel)2. Jean Alavoine (Fra) at 41’ 15” 3. Félix Sellier (Bel) at 42’ 02” |
Just as it had done since 1913, the Tour continued to follow the same tried and trusted anti-clockwise route from Paris to Le Havre on stage 1, down France’s west coast, through the Pyrenees, then the Alps, with a final stage from Dunkirk back to Paris. The drudgery seemed to be amplified by yet another Belgian win – the seventh in succession – this time a second win by 1919 champion Firmin Lambot, now a relic of a man at 36 years, 4 months and 9 days old. He remains the oldest ever winner of the race.
Stage 4, between Brest and Les Sables-d’Olonne, saw some older names come to the fore as Philippe Thys – Tour champ in 1913, 1914 and 1920 – took the stage victory, and perennial nearly-man Eugène Christophe took hold of the yellow jersey.
However, on the Galibier, on stage 11, Christophe – having by then dropped out of overall contention by losing too much time on stage 9 – experienced the misfortune of his forks breaking for a third time at the Tour. Yellow jerseys and stage wins had made him a household name, but luck – or a lack of it – would see to it that he was destined never to win his beloved Tour de France.
While Alpine giants the Col d’Izoard and Col de Vars both made their first Tour appearances – on stage 10 between Nice and Briançon – crowd favourite the Col du Tourmalet, which had appeared in the race every year since 1910, had to be dropped from the route of stage 6 due to snow.
Firmin Lambot and Joseph Muller quench their thirst between Les Sables-d’Olonne and Bayonne
| Start: Paris, France, on 24 JuneFinish: Paris, France, on 22 July | |
| Total distance: 5396 km (3353 miles)Longest stage: 482 km (300 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col du Galibier: 2556 m (8386 ft) Mountain stages: 5 | |
| Starters: 139Finishers: 48 | |
| Winning time: 222 h 15’ 30”Average speed: 24.233 kph (15.057 mph) | |
| 1. Henri Pélissier (Fra)2. Ottavio Bottecchia (Ita) at 30’ 41” 3. Romain Bellenger (Fra) at 1 h 04’ 43” |
If the previous few editions of the race had become dull and somewhat predictable, national pride was restored when Henri Pélissier became the first French winner since Gustave Garrigou in 1911.
Pélissier’s victory came despite organiser Henri Desgrange having opined a couple of years earlier that Pélissier “will never win”, threatening he would never put him on the front of his newspaper, L’Auto, in retaliation for what he viewed as Pélissier’s laziness as a rider.
Pélissier set Desgrange straight all right in 1923, forcing the Tour organiser to print a L’Auto cover that went against his earlier wishes as Pélissier crushed