Читать книгу Mapping Le Tour: The unofficial history of all 100 Tour de France races - Ellis Bacon - Страница 27
Оглавление| 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 his closest rivals by more than half-an-hour overall.
Along the way, runner-up Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian to wear the yellow jersey after sprinting to victory on stage 2 from Le Havre to Cherbourg, and proceeded to ride a consistent race, while Pélissier took a beating from compatriot and two-time runner-up Jean Alavoine in the Pyrenees. However, Alavoine crashed on stage 10 and was forced to retire the next day, while Bottecchia was outclassed in the Alps by Pélissier.
In a combination of what Desgrange had done with his race in the past – first basing it on overall time, then on points, and then back to cumulative time – for the first time in 1923, a two-minute time bonus to the winner of each stage was introduced. It was a practice that was to fall in and out of favour over the years.
Pélissier clashed again with Desgrange at the 1924 Tour and, following his retirement from cycling in 1927, Pélissier’s life took a turn for the worse. After his wife committed suicide in 1933, he was shot and killed in 1935 by his mistress, who had acted in self-defence.
Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian to don the iconic maillot jaune
