Tour De France: The Trouble Years

The first Tour de France, in 1903, was a great success for its organizer Henri Desgrange, but trouble was to hit the following year. The race followed the same route, but this time, unscrupulous supporters of certain riders were determined to aid their heroes whether they wanted them to or not.

As early as the second stage, fans of Faure, a local cyclist, tried to force the previous year's winner Garin, off the road. Just past Faure's home town of Saint-Etienne, the road climbed steeply to the summit of the col de la Republique. The time was three in the morning - stages went on all day and night then - Faure had just taken the lead. Up ahead the riders could see a large group of around a hundred fans gathered at the summit. It wasn't until Faure had passed through them that the other riders saw these fans were armed with sticks. The cyclists were attacked as they neared the top, and it was only the arrival of the official car with armed men aboard that caused the crowd to disappear into the night, leaving several cyclists injured and one, Gerbi, unable to continue. Faure was unable to profit from his cheating; he was caught on the descent and, when the race reached Marseille, he was officially disqualified.

The third stage saw more trouble when fifty or so cyclists caused havoc trying to disrupt the race because their hero, Payan, had been disqualified earlier. It took armed police to disperse the crowd. Now the organizers were worried. They tried changing the stage start times, and altering the route, but the worst was yet to come. On the final stage into the capital Paris, the route was blocked with trees, wagons, and nails scattered over the road surface. Despite this, Garin scored his second victory; but it wasn't all over yet.

There were allegations of riders hitching a lift in cars; accusations of hiring crowds to jostle and hinder other riders, and finally after extensive investigations the first four riders to complete the race were disqualified.

How could the race continue after this? But, of course, it did. Perhaps the troubles and conspiracies caught the public's imagination. What ever it was, the third race was held the following year, 1905, but the overnight stages were dropped in an attempt to reduce the opportunities for skulduggery. Yet, despite all of Desgrange's attempts to eliminate trouble, it continued to haunt the event.

Riders fell off their bikes from the effects of poisoning; pepper was thrown into the faces of the Belgian team resulting in their mass withdrawal; and riders took to sleeping with their bikes in locked bedrooms to prevent them being tampered with.

These were the early years of the Tour when the stages were long and ran through the night. A lot could be got away with as the riders were often alone on empty stretches of road.

Today, the routes are lined with fans, the stages are shorter and always in daylight, official cars and those of the Press follow every move and TV pictures are relayed from motorcycles to helicopters above. You would think the Tour would now be trouble free. Not completely. Eddy Merckx, the great Belgian rider and five time winner of the Tour, was attacked and punched on the ascent of the Puy-de-Dome in 1975, just a year after protesting French farmers had caused disruption by driving pigs onto the road. Basque Nationalists have blown up Tour cars and supply lorries. But despite it all the Tour goes on.