The Tour visits Nancy
Nancy has a long history in the Tour, but none of it is
recent. Rolf Golz won in 1988 and the Tour has not been
back since.
In spite of the hiatus the list of stage winners here is
prestigious indeed. Four time trials have been held here
and each was taken by the overall winner. 1949 (Coppi),
1952 (Coppi), 1954 (Bobet), and 1978 (Hinault). The latter
is noteworthy because it was the stage that resulted in
Hinault's first yellow jersey.
July 7th in the Tour
- Francois Faber took the first stage win by a Luxembourger.
He would win the next stage as well, and the next, and the
next, and the next to set a record for consecitive wins that
stands today.
Luxembourg has a long history in the Tour but that history
has not included a yellow jersey since Charly Gaul brought
one home from Paris in 1958. And Luxembourg has gone without
a stage winner since Edy Schutz in 1966.
- On this date in 1932 Kurt Stopel became the first German
stage winner. And also the first German to wear yellow.
- The great Gino Bartali took his first stage win and yellow
jersey in Grenoble in 1937. There would be more of both in
spite of being robbed of his best years by the war. One of
the additional stage wins would be on this date in 1948 on
the stage to Lourdes. No doubt he was careful about where
he got his water.
- In 1964 the Tour saw a Titannic battle between Anquetil
and Poulidor. On July 7th Poulidor came out on top at
Bagneres-de-Luchon.
- Did Merckx win today? Only twice, in 1970 and 1974. Lance
Armstrong has never won on this date except for last year's
TTT.
- Eril Zabel took his first stage in 1995.
- Cipollini took today's stage in 1999 at an average speed
of over 50km/hr, the fastest in line stage ever.
- Today, Spanish riders are very prominent. But this was not
always the case. In 1955 Spain's Miguel Poblet took the first
yellow jersey for France's neighbor to the south. In a few
years the Bahamontes, the Eagle of Toledo, would be banging on
the door for an overall victory.
Bob Schwartz
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