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1919 Tour de France

Route of the 1919 Tour de France followed counterclockwise, starting in Paris
Race details
Dates	29 June – 27 July 1919
Stages	15
Distance	5,560 km (3,455 mi)
Winning time	231h 07' 15"
Results
Winner  Firmin Lambot (BEL) (Category A)   Second  Jean Alavoine (FRA) (Category A)   Third  Eugène Christophe (FRA) (Category A)
← 1914 1920 →

The 1919 Tour de France was the 13th edition, taking place from 29 June to 27 July covering a total distance of 5,560 kilometres (3,450 mi). It was the first Tour de France after World War I, and was won by Firmin Lambot. Following the tenth stage, the yellow jersey, given to the leader of the general classification, was introduced, and first worn by Eugène Christophe.

The fighting in World War I had ravaged the French road system, which made cycling difficult. As a result, the average speed (24.056 km/h) and the number of finishing cyclists (ten) were the lowest in history.

Background

Since the previous Tour de France in 1914, it was impossible to organize the Tour de France due to World War I. Tour organizer Henri Desgrange always wanted to organize a Tour after the war, and within days after the end of the war, the organization of the 1919 Tour de France started.

Innovations and changes

Three former winners of the Tour, François Faber, Octave Lapize and Lucien Petit-Breton had died fighting in the war. Two other former winners, Philippe Thys and Odile Defraye started the race. The war had been over for only seven months, so most cyclists did not have a chance to train for the Tour. For that reason, there were almost no new younger cyclists, and the older cyclists dominated the race. The organization did not make it easy for the cyclists: with the addition of a stop at Strasbourg (recently recovered in the war), the length was extended to 5560 km: longer than all the previous Tours. Since then only the 1926 Tour de France has been longer.

The bicycle manufacturers also suffered from the war and were unable to sponsor teams of cyclists. They worked together and sponsored more than half of the cyclists under the name "La Sportive", but effectively all the cyclists rode as individuals, wearing grey jerseys. The lack of team colours made riders indistinguishable and lead to the introduction of the leader's jersey. Cyclists were divided in an A-category (professional) and a B-category (amateurs).

In previous years, cyclists had to take care of their own food during the race. In 1919, the tour organisation took care of this.

Participants

Race overview

The first stage was won by Belgian Jean Rossius. However, he was penalised 30 minutes for illegally helping Philippe Thys (handing him a water bottle), therefore giving Henri Pélissier the lead in the race. It did not help Thys however, because he had to abandon the race in the first stage after a large crash.

In the beginning of the race, Henri and Francis Pélissier were the best. They both finished before the rest in stage two, with Henri crossing the line first. In the third stage, Henri, leading the race, wanted to stop. Organizer Desgrange did all he could to change Pélissier's mind, and finally Pélissier started to race again. He was already 45 minutes behind, and the next three hours he was chasing the rest. He finally caught up, and finished second in the sprint, after his brother Francis. After that victory, Henri Pélissier said that he was a thoroughbred and the rest of the cyclists were work horses, which made the other cyclists angry. During that third stage, Léon Scieur punctured four times, and lost two hours.

In the fourth stage, the rest of the cyclists (only 25 were still in race) took revenge on the Pélissier brothers. When they had to change bicycles, everybody else sped away from them. Henri Pélissier chased the rest, but was then ordered by Desgrange to stop working together with other cyclists in his pursuit. In the end, Henri Pélissier had lost more than 35 minutes, and his brother Francis over three hours. The Pélissier brothers were angry at the organisation and left the race. Jean Alavoine won the stage, and Eugène Christophe became the new leader in the general classification.

Alavoine would also win the fifth stage, the longest ever in history at 482 kilometres (300 mi). Christophe was still in Grenoble at the start of stage eleven, when, at 2am tour organiser Henri Desgrange gave him a yellow jersey, so that he could easily be recognized. The colour was inspired by the colour of the organizing newspaper l'Auto, although another explanation is that other colours were not available in the post-war shortage. Previously the leader would wear a green armband. Christophe was not happy with his yellow jersey, and other cyclists called him a canary. At that point in the race, it was likely that Christophe would stay the leader until the end of the Tour de France, because he remained in that yellow jersey after the Pyrenees and the Alps. In the penultimate stage, Firmin Lambot, who was in second position, more than 28 minutes behind, attacked. Christophe, still leading the race, chased him, but broke his fork close to Valenciennes. The rules were such that cyclists could get no help at all, so Christophe repaired his bicycle himself. This same thing had already cost him the victory in 1913, and would happen to him for a third time in 1922. It took him over two and a half hours, and he had lost the lead to Lambot. In the last stage, Christophe had a record number of punctures, and also lost his second place to Jean Alavoine. Lambot, aged 33, was at that moment the oldest Tour de France winner in history.

Because the organising newspaper l'Auto felt bad for Christophe, he received the same prize money as the winner Lambot. In addition, a collection raised money, the donors for this prize were reported in 20 pages in the newspaper. Altogether, Christophe received 13310 Francs, much more than the 5000 Francs that Lambot received for his victory.

Results

In each stage, all cyclists started together. The cyclist who reached the finish first, was the winner of the stage. The time that each cyclist required to finish the stage was recorded. For the general classification, these times were added up; the cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader. From the eleventh stage on, the leader in the general classification was identified by the yellow jersey.

Stage winners

Stage characteristics and winners

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner	Race leader
1	29 June	Paris to Le Havre	388 km (241 mi)		Plain stage	Jean Rossius (BEL)	Henri Pélissier (FRA)
2	1 July	Le Havre to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin	364 km (226 mi)		Plain stage	Henri Pélissier (FRA)	Henri Pélissier (FRA)
3	3 July	Cherbourg to Brest	405 km (252 mi)		Plain stage	Francis Pélissier (FRA)	Henri Pélissier (FRA)
4	5 July	Brest to Les Sables-d'Olonne	412 km (256 mi)		Plain stage	Jean Alavoine (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
5	7 July	Les Sables-d'Olonne to Bayonne	482 km (300 mi)		Plain stage	Jean Alavoine (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
6	9 July	Bayonne to Luchon	326 km (203 mi)		Stage with mountain	Honore Barthelemy (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
7	11 July	Luchon to Perpignan	323 km (201 mi)		Stage with mountain	Jean Alavoine (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
8	13 July	Perpignan to Marseille	370 km (230 mi)		Plain stage	Jean Alavoine (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
9	15 July	Marseille to Nice	338 km (210 mi)		Stage with mountain	Honoré Barthélemy (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
10	17 July	Nice to Grenoble	333 km (207 mi)		Stage with mountain	Honoré Barthélemy (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
11	19 July	Grenoble to Geneva	325 km (202 mi)		Stage with mountain	Honoré Barthélemy (FRA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
12	21 July	Geneva to Strasbourg	371 km (231 mi)		Stage with mountain	Luigi Lucotti (ITA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
13	23 July	Strasbourg to Metz	315 km (196 mi)		Plain stage	Luigi Lucotti (ITA)	Eugène Christophe (FRA)
14	25 July	Metz to Dunkerque	468 km (291 mi)		Plain stage	Firmin Lambot (BEL)	Firmin Lambot (BEL)
15	27 July	Dunkerque to Paris	340 km (210 mi)		Plain stage	Jean Alavoine (FRA)	Firmin Lambot (BEL)
	Total		5,560 km (3,455 mi)

General classification

Of the 67 cyclists that started the race, only 11 cyclists finished. On 12 August 1919, Paul Duboc (8th overall), was disqualified for borrowing a car to go and repair his pedal axle, which left only 10 cyclists in the final classification. In total, 43 cyclists started as category A, and 24 cyclists as category B.

Final general classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Category	Time
1	Firmin Lambot (BEL)	A	231h 07' 15"
2	Jean Alavoine (FRA)	A	+ 1h 42' 54"
3	Eugène Christophe (FRA)	A	+ 2h 26' 31"
4	Léon Scieur (BEL)	A	+ 2h 52' 15"
5	Honoré Barthélemy (FRA)	A	+ 4h 14' 22"
6	Jacques Coomans (BEL)	A	+ 15h 21' 34"
7	Luigi Lucotti (ITA)	A	+ 16h 01' 12"
8	Joseph Van Daele (BEL)	A	+ 18h 23' 02"
9	Alfred Steux (BEL)	A	+ 20h 29' 01"
10	Jules Nempon (FRA)	B	+ 21h 44' 12"

Aftermath

The yellow jersey that was introduced in this tour, was so successful that it has been used ever since. Thys claimed to have worn the first yellow jersey when leading in 1913: Desgrange had requested him to wear a distinguishable coloured jersey, so his team manager found him a yellow jersey. The winner of the race, Lambot, would later also win the 1922 Tour de France, but has become a half-forgotten figure in the Tour's history.

The fight between cyclist Pélissier and tour organiser Desgrange would continue for many years. Pélissier would win the 1923 Tour de France.

Notes

1. In 1919, there was no distinction in the rules between plain stages and mountain stages; the icons shown here indicate which stage included mountains.
2. The winner of stage 1, Rossius, received a 30 minute penalty, so after stage 1 Henri Pélissier, who finished second, was leading the race.

References

1. ^ Augendre 2016, p. 108.
2. "The Tour - Year 1919". Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived from the original on 17 July 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
3. "Tour de France Statistics". Bike Race Info. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
4. ^ "Le Tour en chiffres - Le palmarès" (PDF) (in French). ASO. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
5. Barry Boys. "THE RETURN of a Grand Affair - "New Tour Legend: the Maillot Jaune"". Cycling Revealed. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
6. ^ Tom James (15 August 2003). "1919: Christophe in Yellow - but not in Paris". Retrieved 3 June 2009.
7. ^ "1919: Wanhoopspoging levert Firmin Lambot Tourzege op" (in Dutch). Tourdefrance.nl. 19 March 2003. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
8. "Tour de France: Timeline". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
9. ^ McGann & McGann 2006, pp. 51–56.
10. ^ Cossins et al. 2013, pp. 58–59.
11. ^ "13ème Tour de France 1919" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
12. "1919 Tour de France by BikeRaceInfo". bikeraceinfo.com. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
13. "13ème Tour de France 1919 - 1ème étape" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
14. Tom James (15 August 2003). "1921: Scieur continues the Belgian domination". Veloarchive. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
15. ^ Cunningham, Josh (4 July 2016). "History of the Tour de France jerseys". Cyclist. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
16. "Le premier Maillot Jaune - Tour de France 1919" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
17. "1919-1929: 'Convicts of the road'". BBC Sport. 5 June 2001. Archived from the original on 4 June 2009. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
18. Woodland 2007, p. 89.
19. Augendre 2016, p. 17.
20. Arian Zwegers. "Tour de France GC top ten". CVCC. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
21. "The history of the Tour de France – Year 1919 – The stage winners". Tour de France. Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
22. "The history of the Tour de France – Year 1919 – Stage 15 Dunkerque > Paris". Tour de France. Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2020.

Bibliography

• Augendre, Jacques (2016). "Guide historique" [Historical guide] (PDF). Tour de France (in French). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
• Cossins, Peter; Best, Isabel; Sidwells, Chris; Griffith, Clare (2013). Le Tour 100: The Definitive History of the World's Greatest Race. London: Hachette UK. ISBN 978-1-84403-759-9.
• McGann, Bill; McGann, Carol (2006). The Story of the Tour de France: 1903–1964. Vol. 1. Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59858-180-5.
• Woodland, Les (2007) . The Yellow Jersey Companion to the Tour de France. London: Yellow Jersey Press. ISBN 978-0-224-08016-3.

Further reading

• Bacon, Ellis (2014). Mapping Le Tour. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 48–49. ISBN 9780007543991. OCLC 872700415.
• Cartman, Gareth (2019). We rode all day: The story of the 1919 Tour de France. Self-published. ISBN 978-1-916019-70-6.
• Dobkin, Adin (2021). Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France. Little A. ISBN 978-1-542018-82-1.

External links

Media related to Tour de France 1919 at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Tour de France
By year men	1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
By year women	2022 2023 2024 2025
Classifications ("Jerseys")	Current General (maillot jaune) Points (maillot vert) Mountains (maillot à pois) Young rider (maillot blanc) Team (classement d'équipes) Combativity (prix de combativité) Former  Combination (maillot du combiné)  Intermediate sprints (maillot rouge)
Directors	Men's 1903–1935: Henri Desgrange 1936–1961: Jacques Goddet 1962–1986: Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan 1987: Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet 1988: Xavier Louy 1989–2006: Jean-Marie Leblanc 2007–present: Christian Prudhomme Women's 2022–present: Marion Rousse
Finish locations	1903–1967: Parc des Princes 1968–1974: Vélodrome de Vincennes 1975–2023, 2025–present: Champs-Élysées final stage 2024: Promenade des Anglais
Lists	General classification winners Secondary classification winners Grands Départs Records and statistics Mountain passes and hills Highest points reached
Additional topics	During World War II Yellow jersey statistics Lanterne rouge Doping Hors catégorie Souvenir Jacques Goddet Souvenir Henri Desgrange
Related articles	Émilien Amaury Amaury Sport Organisation Pierre Dumas Géo Lefèvre Didi Senft La Course by Le Tour de France L'Étape du Tour Grand Tour Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale Tour de France Femmes

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