The Tour visits Briancon
The Alpine city of Briancon is one of the most visited
cities of the Tour. The pace has slowed with the
development of numerous ski resorts in the area, all
eager for some summer publicity and tourism revenue.
The Tour has not stopped here since 2000 when Botero
arrived first. The list of riders that have won here
reads like a who's who of Tour climbers. Names like
Merckx, Gimondi, Bahamontes (twice), Gaul, Coppi,
Bobet (three times), Bartali (three times), Henri
Pelissier, Frantz have all tasted victory here. The
first was Phillippe Thys in 1922. And on July 13th
of that year.
July 13th in the Tour
- Maurice Garin won on this date in 1903. It was 425km
from Bordeaux to Nantes. Only 475km to go to Paris for
the winner of the first Tour.
- Max Bulla is the only Austrian to ever take a stage,
and he took three of them in 1931. One of them was on
this date.
- In 1949 the route from Luchon to Toulouse was to Van
Steenburgen's liking, and he won.
- Rafael Geminiani won on this date, two years running
in 1951-52.
- Charly Gaul did that also, taking consecutive mountain
stages on July 13th in 1958-9, winning on Mont Ventoux
and in Grenoble.
- In a result that no one remembers, Jan Janssen went
over Mont Ventoux and into Carpentras to win on this
date in 1967.
- Merckx? Merckx! 1969 in Revel.
- Ocana had better luck on the 13th. He won twice on this
date, in 1970 in Saint Gaudens, and in 1973 in Thuir.
The latter win was on the way to his lone Tour victory.
- But Merckx had some troubles on this day. In 1975
Bernard Thevenet took the yellow jersey off of Merckx'
back with a decisive victory in Pra-Loup. It was the last
yellow jersey Merckx would ever wear.
- In 1983 the Colombians made their debut in the Tour,
and Luis Herrera took one of three stage wins that year
for the Colombia on this date.
- Indurain had reason to like this date. He won consecutive
time trials in 1991-92. The 1992 test was the Luxembourg
stage where he demolished his competition, winning by
three minutes over the second placed rider.
- And 1994 was the famous Hautacam stage in the fog, won
by Luc Leblanc.
- If Lance Armstrong gets to Briancon first he will
duplicate his win in 1999 in Sestriere, one of the hardest
stages during his run. It went over the Galibier like
this year's stage, and passed through Briancon on it's
way to Italy.
Bob Schwartz
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