1930 Tour de France
 Route of the 1930 Tour de France followed counterclockwise, starting in Paris | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 2–27 July 1930 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 4,822 km (2,996 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 172h 12' 16" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1930 Tour de France was the 24th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 2 to 27 July. It consisted of 21 stages over 4,822 km (2,996 mi).
The 24th tour de France introduced a new format to team racing; teams were organised by country with ten riders per team. This format proved to be a very successful format for the French riders, six of which placed in the top ten. André Leducq was the star of the French team, winning the overall classification; however, Charles Pélissier, who finished ninth overall achieved a stunning eight stage wins.[1]
1930 was the first year of the publicity caravan.[2]
Innovations and changes
[edit]Tour director Henri Desgrange had tried many things to remove the team tactics from the Tour de France, because he wanted the race to be won on individual strength. In 1929, he had removed the sponsors, but this had had no effect; the Alcyon team members still cooperated and managed to let Maurice Dewaele win the race, even though he was sick. For 1930, Desgrange replaced the trade teams by national teams. He gave up on the idea that he could keep team tactics away from the Tour, but decided that he could still try to keep commercial team tactics away.[3] The race started with five national teams of eight cyclists each, completed by 60 touriste-routiers.[3][4] All cyclists raced on identical, yellow-coloured bicycles.[5]
The trade teams did not like the national teams, because they lost the publicity during the most important race of the season, while they still had to pay for the riders' salary. The trade teams used to supply food, transport and lodging for the cyclists during the race, but now the Tour organisation had to pay for all this. To pay for this, the publicity caravan was started.[5] In 1930, only three companies were in that publicity caravan, but it has grown since.[5] The most popular sponsor in the publicity was Menier chocolates, whose advertising manager had advised the Tour organisation to start the publicity caravan; 500.000 fans came to the Tour de France stages early to receive chocolate handouts.[6]
In 1929, all cyclists had to do their own repairs, and had to finish with their bicycle they started with. This had caused Victor Fontan to quit the race while he was leading. In 1930, this rule was abandoned, and from now on, cyclists could get help when they had mechanical problems.[5]
From 1927 to 1929, some stages were run in the team-time-trial format. This was completely abandoned in 1930.[5]
The first live radio broadcast from the Tour de France happened in 1930.[1]
Two extra prizes were given in 1930, donated by the Soors brothers from Grand Sport. The cyclist who led the general classification, and therefore wore the yellow jersey, received the Maillot d'or (French for golden jersey), which was 1000 francs for every stage. The best touriste-routier in the general classification received the Maillot d'argent (French for silver jersey), which was 500 francs per stage. Despite the name, there was no silver jersey worn by the best touriste-routier.[7]
Teams
[edit]For the first time, the Tour was run with national teams. Belgium, Italy, Spain, Germany and France each sent a team composed of eight cyclists. Additionally, 60 cyclists started as touriste-routiers, most of them French. Some of them were grouped in regional teams.[8]
One of the notable cyclists was Alfredo Binda, riding in the Italian national team. He had dominated the Giro d'Italia in the recent years, winning the 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1929 editions; in 1929 he had done so by winning eight consecutive stages. For the 1930 Giro d'Italia, he was paid money not to compete, so he started in the Tour de France that year.[5]
The French team was captained by Victor Fontan, who had been leading the 1929 Tour de France until he had to abandon the race due to mechanical problems. The Belgian team had Jef Demuysere as the favourite.[9]
Route and stages
[edit]The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,556 m (8,386 ft) at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 16.[10][11]
Charles Pélissier won four stages in a row. He was the last cyclist to do this, until Mario Cipollini repeated this in 1999.[3] Pélissier had also crossed the line first in the sixth stage, but was relegated because he had pulled Binda's jersey.[4] He also finished in second place seven times, and finished in the top-three eighteen out of 21 times.[1]
Pélissier was dominating the flat stages, but lost time on the mountain stages. In stage 9, he finished in fifteenth place, losing more than 23 minutes,[12] in stage 14 he lost another 75 seconds to Leducq,[13] and in stage 15 he lost more than 50 minutes, finishing 31st.[14] Pélissier's eight stage victories in one Tour is still a record; it has since been equalled by Eddy Merckx in 1970 and 1974, and Freddy Maertens in 1976.[15]
| Stage | Date | Course | Distance | Type[a] | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 July | Paris to Caen | 206 km (128 mi) |  | Plain stage |  Charles Pélissier (FRA) |
| 2 | 3 July | Caen to Dinan | 203 km (126 mi) | | Plain stage |  Learco Guerra (ITA) |
| 3 | 4 July | Dinan to Brest | 206 km (128 mi) | | Plain stage | Charles Pélissier (FRA) |
| 4 | 5 July | Brest to Vannes | 210 km (130 mi) | | Plain stage |  Omer Taverne (BEL) |
| 5 | 6 July | Vannes to Les Sables d'Olonne | 202 km (126 mi) | | Plain stage | André Leducq (FRA) |
| 6 | 7 July | Les Sables d'Olonne to Bordeaux | 285 km (177 mi) | | Plain stage | Jean Aerts (BEL) |
| 7 | 8 July | Bordeaux to Hendaye | 222 km (138 mi) | | Plain stage | Jules Merviel (FRA) |
| 8 | 9 July | Hendaye to Pau | 146 km (91 mi) | | Plain stage | Alfredo Binda (ITA) |
| 9 | 10 July | Pau to Luchon | 231 km (144 mi) |  | Stage with mountain(s) | Alfredo Binda (ITA) |
| 10 | 12 July | Luchon to Perpignan | 322 km (200 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Charles Pélissier (FRA) |
| 11 | 14 July | Perpignan to Montpellier | 164 km (102 mi) | | Plain stage | Charles Pélissier (FRA) |
| 12 | 15 July | Montpellier to Marseille | 209 km (130 mi) | | Plain stage | Antonin Magne (FRA) |
| 13 | 16 July | Marseille to Cannes | 181 km (112 mi) | | Plain stage | Learco Guerra (ITA) |
| 14 | 17 July | Cannes to Nice | 132 km (82 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | |