Belbin Giles - Tour de France Champions

Cover Illustrations, left to right: Bradley Wiggins (Sapin88, CC SA 3.0 via WikimediaCommons); Tour de France 1923 (Agence RoI / Bilblioteque National de France ,CC SA 4.0 via WikimediaCommons); Henri Cornet; Jacques Anquetil (Eric Koch/Anefo, CC SA 3.0 Netherlands via Wikimedia Commons); Miguel Indurin (Darz Mol, CC SA 3.0 via WikimediaCommons).

Bicycle motifs from vecteezy.com

Quotes from The Monuments kindly reproduced with permission

Peter Cossins, 2014, The Monuments, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Quotes from Pedalare! Pedalare! kindly reproduced with permission

John Foot, 2011, Pedalare! Pedalare!, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Quotes from Maglia Rosa kindly reproduced with permission Herbie

Sykes, 2013, Maglia Rosa, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

First published 2020

The History Press

97 St Georges Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

Giles Belbin 2020

The right of Giles Belbin to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9538 2

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

I remember my first glimpse of the Tour de France as if it were just yesterday; in fact it was over fifty-four years ago in Luxembourg, as I pedalled through my first European trip from my home on the Wirral.

There was a feeding station where riders snatched their flimsy musettes and took basic food and drink. The finish was still a few hours away in Metz, but the centre of the city of Luxembourg was packed with people.

And there, in the centre of the peloton was le maillot jaune the leader of the Tour. His name was Bernard Van De Kerckhove, a Belgian who would never lead the race again but had left his mark on one of sports most iconic events.

My chance to be part of the Tour came in 1973 as a driver for ITVs commentator, David Saunders. I jumped at it.

Since that July, a red-hot summer, I have followed every single day of the race for forty-six years and I am not done yet! There is no cure for Tour fever.

What do you see in following the same event, year in and year out, my fellow journalists have often said. My answer is always the same: You never see the same race twice.

Since 1903, when a chain-smoking chimney sweep won the first edition by almost three hours, the public quickly realised that this was no ordinary race. The fact he was disqualified the next year for cheating only served to highlight how significant winning the Tour was and nothings changed today.

This is a remarkable book by Giles Belbin and, although millions of words have been written about La Grande Boucle, I do not think any have been written in such a way as here.

Each winner getting his moment, while even those who caused such controversy having been caught doping, getting their moment, too.

In 1973, everything was new to me. Since my first chance sighting of the Tour in Luxembourg in 1964, I had not seen it since.

That year, the sun never stopped shining and the French-loving Spaniard, Luis Ocaa was, in the absence of the brilliant Belgian Eddy Merckx, the dominator.

Luis had hoped for a revenge meeting with Merckx, whom he was on course to beat in 1971 when he crashed out of the race. Merckx had decided not to ride, so Ocaa took it out on everyone else, winning six stages and the race by almost sixteen minutes.

I have been lucky to commentate on all of the English-speaking winners beginning in 1986 with the American Greg LeMond and ending (so far) with a succession of British winners from Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2012, to Geraint Thomas in 2018.

Along the way, the irrepressible Stephen Roche gave Ireland a first win in 1987 and my immortal words of: Its Roche, its Stephen Roche, as he climbed La Plagne, fighting to limit his losses to race leader Pedro Delgado where he saved the day, resulted in hundreds of T-shirts being sold in Ireland.

In that same race of 1987, there was also a sad farewell to one of the races finest riders. From 1957 to 1964, Jacques Anquetil dominated the Tour, winning it five times, so becoming the first member of the famous Five Club.

Rumour had spread around the Tour caravan that Matre Jacques was dying from cancer. So typical of the man, he refused surgery until he had finished his work as a radio reporter on that Tour.

But every second had counted and the handsome French aristocrat died four months later aged 53. Jacques has a magnificent, almost life-sized, granite headstone in the cemetery of his home city of Rouen.

Anquetil was the first rider to win all three Grand Tours France, Italy and Spain he also became the first modern-day rider to lead the race every evening from start to finish in 1961.

I say evening because in the mornings opening stage, the French sprinter Andr Darrigade had won, and was given a yellow jersey. But in the afternoons time trial, he lost out to Monsieur Chrono Anquetils other nickname, and so saw the jersey pass on to a man who would not concede it for the next three weeks and would win by 12 minutes and 41 seconds in Paris.

As this great race continues to evolve perhaps the 107th edition will see membership of the Five Club, which stands at four, with Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurin, and Bernard Hinault, welcome its first British member in 2020. Chris Froome, stopped by a crash when preparing for the 2019 race, will write the next chapter as he goes for five in 2020.

Enjoy this unique book.

Phil Liggett MBE
The Voice of Cycling,
Hertfordshire

From the inaugural Tour de France held in 1903, through to the 2019 edition, some sixty-two men have entered the record books as registering at least one Tour de France victory. Three of those sixty-two never had the experience of standing triumphantly in Paris as the winner of cyclings greatest race, their victory only coming after an investigation into an allegation of cheating, or into a positive anti-doping control result, had concluded and stripped those who had taken the acclaim in Paris of the title they had initially been awarded.

From Aimar to Zoetemelk, this book seeks to provide an insight into the lives and careers of the sixty-two riders in the history books as winners of the Tour de France (as well as providing an entry on those who were subsequently disqualified). Some of the names those such as Eddy Merckx, Fausto Coppi or Bradley Wiggins will be familiar to even the most casual cycling fan. Others such as Ren Pottier or Lon Scieur, perhaps less so. All have fascinating stories, sometimes glorious, sometimes distressing: from the winner who was celebrated for carrying wartime resistance messages hidden in his bike on training rides, to the rider who was shot dead by his lover some twelve years after his victorious ride into Paris. Some tasted Tour victory at the first time of asking, while for others it took many years of building towards the top step of the podium. Some never found another major win; others dominated the sport for years. Whatever their story they all have one thing in common: they have all claimed the one cycling race that transcends the sport.