The Tour visits Montpellier
Montpellier is one of the most visited cities in France by
the Tour, ranking 5th behind Paris, Pau, Grenoble, and
Briancon. It hosts transition stages between the Alps and
the Pyrenees. Tour winners tend not to win here because of
that. Exceptions were 1936 Tour winner Sylvere Maes and
1951 champion Hugo Koblet. The most recent winner in
Montpellier was Rolf Sorensen in 1994.
July 15th in the Tour
- Francois Faber of Luxembourg won his fifth consecutive
stage in 1909, in Nice. That's a record.
- He won again on the 15th the following year. Just once
though.
- 34 year old Gino Bartali is the oldest post-war winner
of the Tour. And he did it in great style. He won seven
stages total that year, one of them on this date in Briancon.
- I haven't said much about Andre Darrigade. But he was a
great sprinter who ranks fourth in total stage wins. Two
of those wins were in 1953 and 1961 on this date. The 1953
stage was the first of his impressive total of 22.
- Merckx! 1969, in Mourenx. 1971 in Bordeaux.
- Speaking of Merckx, his rival Poulidor was the second
oldest stage winner ever at 38 in 1974. It wasn't an easy
ride either, he took a mountain stage to Saint Lary-Soulan.
- Sean Kelly took the stage to Pau in 1982, surprising those
that thought a sprinter would not survive the Soulor and
the Aubisque.
- Sergei Utchakov won in Revel by outsprinting his breakaway
companion, who was surprised as hell. But as it turned out
he wasn't much of a sprinter anyway. Utchakov became the
first stage winner for The Ukraine.
- Jan Ullrich took the stage to Arcalis on his way to the
overall win in 1997.
Bob Schwartz
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