The glory days of the Tour de France

The Tour of France ended on Sunday last with an emphatic victory for the British rider Chris Froome. In spite of the doping scandals that have dogged it in recent years, it still attracts huge crowds and a vast television audience.

An estimated 15 million spectators lined the route of the Tour with over 300,000 watching last Sunday’s final stage through Paris. Most people can name at least one Tour winner. However, in spite of what it might have seemed on the podium at the time,

Jacques Chirac and Charles Haughey did not win the Tour in 1987. Apart from being a sporting spectacle, it is a major tourist attraction for France with cycling and coach holidays all marketed as following the route of the race.

The Tour was first organised in 1903 to help boost sales for the sports magazine L’Auto. It was trailing its rival Le Velo in circulation and needed something to boost sales. At a meeting, their cycling journalist George Lefevre suggested staging a six day race around France. He was supported in his idea and the Tour was born.

Initially stages started late in the day, went on over night and were followed by rest days for the riders. That first year riders were offered a daily allowance equal to a factory wage if they averaged 20kmph on the stages, each days winner received 3,000 francs and the overall winner, Maurice Garin won 12,000 francs.  Nowadays the individual winner gets 450,000 francs and the total prize money exceeds three million.

Controversy and scandals are nothing new. Cheating, which was made easier by cycling at night, was widespread and sometimes riders were beaten up by rival fans. Nevertheless the organisers persisted.

Not only did the race prosper but so did L’Auto and, within two years, its opposition Le Live was gone out of business. L’Auto itself ceased publication during the Second World War and the race was taken over by L’Équipe. However L’Auto left one great legacy. Its magazine was always printed on yellow paper. Because of that the rider with the lowest accumulated time on the first tour was presented with a yellow armband. This was replaced by a yellow jersey which is now presented to the overall leader after each stage.

Eugene Christophe was the first rider to be presented with a yellow jersey in 1919. The great Eddie Merckx wore a yellow jersey for a record 96 stages and also won the tour on five occasions. Other five-time winners were Anquetil, Hinault and Indurain. A certain gentleman from the Untied States exceeded that but his achievements have since been deleted from the records.

Another important jersey colour is green. This is awarded to the most consistent high finisher and was won by Sean Kelly on four occasions. Three Irishmen have worn the yellow jersey, Shay Elliott for three days in 1963, Kelly once in 1983 and of course Stephen Roche on three days in 1987.

One of those days was most importantly the final day when he won the tour. That same year he became only the second ever cyclist to win the Tour, the Giro D’Italia and the world title all in the same year.
Stephen Roche won his Tour de France on Sunday, July 26, 1987 – 26 years ago this week.