1911 Tour de France
Encyclopedia
The 1911 Tour de France was the 9th Tour de France
, taking place from 2 to 30 July 1911. It was composed of 15 stages over 5344 kilometres (3,320.6 mi), ridden at an average speed of 27.322 km/h. The results were computed by giving each rider points according to his finishing position on each stage, and the rider with the least points at the end of the race won the overall competition. It was a gruelling tour, with the longest stage, 470 km long, taking almost 18 hours for the fastest riders to complete. Out of the 84 riders who started the tour, only 28 completed the race. After the introduction of the Pyrénées in the previous edition, in 1911 the Alps were first visited; for this addition, the 1911 edition has been named the first modern Tour.
Newcomer Paul Duboc
won four stages and was close to winning the Tour, but he fell sick mid-way through the race while he was in second place in the general classification. The winner was Gustave Garrigou
, who also won two stages.
was the Col de Galibier, about which he wrote "O, col Bayard, O, Tourmalet... next to Galibier you are worthless."
What did not change was the points system; similar as the 1905–1910 Tours, this race was decided on points. A cyclist received points, based on their rankings. As in 1910, the points system was "cleaned up" two times: after the ninth stage and after the 14th stage. Cyclists who had abandoned the race were removed from the rankings of the previous stages, and the classification was recalculated.
Since 1906, the Tour de France had crossed the German border into Alsace-Lorraine
. After 1910, the German authorities did not allow this any more, so the Tour stayed in France.
and François Faber
from the Alcyon team
, won by Lapize. Lapize had changed teams to the La Française team, where he was joined by former winner Lucien Petit-Breton
(winner in 1907 and 1908).
was leading when he was hit by a car and fell down a ravine. In the same stage, Faber had passed a checkpoint without signing, and as a penalty he had to stop for two and a half minutes. Despite this, he still won with an advantage of 17 minutes, and took the lead in the general classification.
In the fourth stage, Garrigou took back the lead from his team mate Faber. At that point, Faber became insecure, as he knew that Garrigou was a good climber, while the big Faber had troubles in the mountains.
In the alps, Georget was the best. Garrigou finished well before Faber, and was now leading by 10 points.
The sixth stage, with only small mountains, was won by Faber, after a 260 km solitary breakaway, but because Garrigou came in second, he was still in the lead. In third place was Paul Duboc
, a surprising newcomer.
In the ninth stage, Faber lost contact with Garrigou in the general classification by finishing in twentieth place. After this stage, Garrigou was leading with 27 points, while his new closest opponent, Duboc, had 37 points. In that ninth stage, Maurice Brocco
who knew that he would not win the Tour, had sold his services to another cyclist. He was removed from the race by Tour organiser Desgrange, who was against cyclists helping each other. Brocco objected against this decision, and pending the decision he was allowed to start the tenth stage from Luchon to Bayonne. In that tenth stage, Brocco attacked and finished first. After the stage, he was disqualified, and his stage victory was removed. Also in the tenth stage, Duboc collapsed just before Bayonne, probably due to food poisoning, attributed to a spiked drink. At that moment, he was leading the stage, eight minutes before the next cyclist. According to the rules, no help was allowed, so other cyclists rode by him while he was lying on the road, vomiting. Duboc was able to get on his bicycle again, and finished the stage in 21st place, which left him no hopes for the victory. Nowadays, it is thought that François Lafourcade, a cyclist who performed well in the mountains of the 1910 Tour had something to do with it, but in 1911 the first suspect was his main competitor Garrigou. Garrigou was threatened, and the Tour organisation gave him a bodyguard, and when the Tour passed Duboc's home town, Garrigou was disguised.
Duboc regained his strengths and won two more stages, but was unable to close the gap to Garrigou in the general classification, so Garrigou became the winner of the race. At the end of the race in Paris, Duboc received a large welcome, overshadowing Garrigou. The pre-race favourites had already abandoned early in the race — 1907 and 1908 winner Petit-Breton in the first stage and 1910 winner Lapize in stage four. The winner from 1909, Faber, lasted longer, but he gave up during stage twelve.
, received 5000 francs for his victory.
The organising newspaper l'Auto named Paul Duboc
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 from 2 to 30 July 1911. It was composed of 15 stages over 5344 kilometres (3,320.6 mi), ridden at an average speed of 27.322 km/h. The results were computed by giving each rider points according to his finishing position on each stage, and the rider with the least points at the end of the race won the overall competition. It was a gruelling tour, with the longest stage, 470 km long, taking almost 18 hours for the fastest riders to complete. Out of the 84 riders who started the tour, only 28 completed the race. After the introduction of the Pyrénées in the previous edition, in 1911 the Alps were first visited; for this addition, the 1911 edition has been named the first modern Tour.
Newcomer Paul Duboc
Paul Duboc
Paul Duboc was a French professional road bicycle racer from 1907 through 1927. Despite winning 5 career stages in the Tour de France, he may be most remembered for being disqualified at the 1919 Tour de France for borrowing a car to go and repair his pedal axle.In 1911, Duboc was close to...
won four stages and was close to winning the Tour, but he fell sick mid-way through the race while he was in second place in the general classification. The winner was 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...
, who also won two stages.
Changes from the 1910 Tour de France
In 1910, the Tour de France included the Pyrenees mountains for the first time. That was a success, so in 1911 the Tour organisers also included the Alps. The favourite mountain of the Tour organiser Henri DesgrangeHenri 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...
was the Col de Galibier, about which he wrote "O, col Bayard, O, Tourmalet... next to Galibier you are worthless."
What did not change was the points system; similar as the 1905–1910 Tours, this race was decided on points. A cyclist received points, based on their rankings. As in 1910, the points system was "cleaned up" two times: after the ninth stage and after the 14th stage. Cyclists who had abandoned the race were removed from the rankings of the previous stages, and the classification was recalculated.
Since 1906, the Tour de France had crossed the German border into Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
. After 1910, the German authorities did not allow this any more, so the Tour stayed in France.
Favourites
The previous edition had been a close battle between team mates Octave LapizeOctave 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...
and 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...
from the Alcyon team
Alcyon (cycling team)
Alcyon is a former French professional cycling team that was active from 1906 to 1955. It was owned by Alcyon, a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.- History :...
, won by Lapize. Lapize had changed teams to the La Française team, where he was joined by former winner Lucien Petit-Breton
Lucien 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...
(winner in 1907 and 1908).
Race details
The first stage was won by Garrigou, a team mate of Faber at Alcyon. The Alcyon team also won the second stage with Masselis. The third stage was won by Faber, after a 206 km solitary breakaway. During that stage, Emile GeorgetÉmile Georget
Émile Georget was a French road racing cyclist. Born in Bossay-sur-Claise, he was the younger brother of cyclist Léon Georget.He died at Châtellerault.- Tour de France :...
was leading when he was hit by a car and fell down a ravine. In the same stage, Faber had passed a checkpoint without signing, and as a penalty he had to stop for two and a half minutes. Despite this, he still won with an advantage of 17 minutes, and took the lead in the general classification.
In the fourth stage, Garrigou took back the lead from his team mate Faber. At that point, Faber became insecure, as he knew that Garrigou was a good climber, while the big Faber had troubles in the mountains.
In the alps, Georget was the best. Garrigou finished well before Faber, and was now leading by 10 points.
The sixth stage, with only small mountains, was won by Faber, after a 260 km solitary breakaway, but because Garrigou came in second, he was still in the lead. In third place was Paul Duboc
Paul Duboc
Paul Duboc was a French professional road bicycle racer from 1907 through 1927. Despite winning 5 career stages in the Tour de France, he may be most remembered for being disqualified at the 1919 Tour de France for borrowing a car to go and repair his pedal axle.In 1911, Duboc was close to...
, a surprising newcomer.
In the ninth stage, Faber lost contact with Garrigou in the general classification by finishing in twentieth place. After this stage, Garrigou was leading with 27 points, while his new closest opponent, Duboc, had 37 points. In that ninth stage, Maurice Brocco
Maurice Brocco
Maurice Brocco was a French professional road bicycle racer between 1906 and 1927. In 1911 he won a stage in the Tour de France. He participated six times in the Tour de France, but finished the race only once. In his later career he was successful in six-day races.In the 1911 Tour de France,...
who knew that he would not win the Tour, had sold his services to another cyclist. He was removed from the race by Tour organiser Desgrange, who was against cyclists helping each other. Brocco objected against this decision, and pending the decision he was allowed to start the tenth stage from Luchon to Bayonne. In that tenth stage, Brocco attacked and finished first. After the stage, he was disqualified, and his stage victory was removed. Also in the tenth stage, Duboc collapsed just before Bayonne, probably due to food poisoning, attributed to a spiked drink. At that moment, he was leading the stage, eight minutes before the next cyclist. According to the rules, no help was allowed, so other cyclists rode by him while he was lying on the road, vomiting. Duboc was able to get on his bicycle again, and finished the stage in 21st place, which left him no hopes for the victory. Nowadays, it is thought that François Lafourcade, a cyclist who performed well in the mountains of the 1910 Tour had something to do with it, but in 1911 the first suspect was his main competitor Garrigou. Garrigou was threatened, and the Tour organisation gave him a bodyguard, and when the Tour passed Duboc's home town, Garrigou was disguised.
Duboc regained his strengths and won two more stages, but was unable to close the gap to Garrigou in the general classification, so Garrigou became the winner of the race. At the end of the race in Paris, Duboc received a large welcome, overshadowing Garrigou. The pre-race favourites had already abandoned early in the race — 1907 and 1908 winner Petit-Breton in the first stage and 1910 winner Lapize in stage four. The winner from 1909, Faber, lasted longer, but he gave up during stage twelve.
Stage winners
| Stage | Date | Route | TerrainIn 1911, 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 | 2 July | Paris–Dunkerque |  |
351 km (218.1 mi) | ||
| 2 | 4 July | Dunkerque–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... |
|
388 km (241.1 mi) | ||
| 3 | 6 July | Longwy–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 .-... |
 |
331 km (205.7 mi) | ||
| 4 | 8 July | Belfort–Chamonix Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics... |
|
344 km (213.8 mi) | ||
| 5 | 10 July | Chamonix–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... |
|
366 km (227.4 mi) | ||
| 6 | 12 July | Grenoble–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... |
|
348 km (216.2 mi) | ||
| 7 | 14 July | Nice–Marseille Marseille Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of... |
|
334 km (207.5 mi) | ||
| 8 | 16 July | Marseille–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... |
|
335 km (208.2 mi) | ||
| 9 | 18 July | Perpignan–Luchon | |
289 km (179.6 mi) | ||
| 10 | 20 July | Luchon–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... |
|
326 km (202.6 mi) | 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... finished second in this stage. |
|
| 11 | 22 July | Bayonne–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... |
|
379 km (235.5 mi) | ||
| 12 | 23 July | La Rochelle–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... |
|
470 km (292 mi) | ||
| 13 | 26 July | Brest–Cherbourg | |
405 km (251.7 mi) | ||
| 14 | 28 July | Cherbourg–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... |
|
361 km (224.3 mi) | ||
| 15 | 30 July | Le Havre–Paris | |
317 km (197 mi) | ||
General classification
Of the 84 starting cyclists, 28 finished. The winner, Gustave GarrigouGustave 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...
, received 5000 francs for his victory.
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcyon Alcyon (cycling team) Alcyon is a former French professional cycling team that was active from 1906 to 1955. It was owned by Alcyon, a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.- History :... |
43 | |
| 2 | La Française | 61 | |
| 3 | La Française | 84 | |
| 4 | La Française | 109 | |
| 5 | Alcyon Alcyon (cycling team) Alcyon is a former French professional cycling team that was active from 1906 to 1955. It was owned by Alcyon, a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.- History :... |
135 | |
| 6 | La Française | 141 | |
| 7 | La Française | 145 | |
| 8 | Alcyon Alcyon (cycling team) Alcyon is a former French professional cycling team that was active from 1906 to 1955. It was owned by Alcyon, a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.- History :... |
153 | |
| 9 | Le Globe | 158 | |
| 10 | Le Globe | 171 |
Other classifications
Thirteenth-placed Paul Deman became the winner of the "isolés" category.The organising newspaper l'Auto named Paul Duboc
Paul Duboc
Paul Duboc was a French professional road bicycle racer from 1907 through 1927. Despite winning 5 career stages in the Tour de France, he may be most remembered for being disqualified at the 1919 Tour de France for borrowing a car to go and repair his pedal axle.In 1911, Duboc was close to...
the meilleur grimpeur. This unofficial title is the precursor to the mountains classification.