Leducq, having finished fourth overall, and best Frenchman, the year before, held the French end up again, improving this time to finish runner-up to his Alcyon team-mate, the dominant Frantz. The importance of team riding continued to grow – in the Tour’s first couple of decades in existence, riders rode very much for themselves – and Desgrange stuck with the team time trial format for most of the race, despite the confusion of the roadside crowds. Of the Tour’s twenty-two stages, fifteen were held as team time trials.
One of those teams was the French-sponsored, but green-and-gold-jerseyed, Ravat-Wonder-Dunlop squad, made up of three Australian riders – Ernie Bainbridge, Hubert Opperman (knighted in 1968 for his work as the Maltese High Commissioner) and Perry Osborne – plus a Kiwi, Harry Watson.
Nicolas Frantz won despite losing 40 minutes due to a mechanical problem
“My race has been won by a corpse.”
Organiser Henri Desgrange bemoans the ailing Belgian Maurice De Waele having won the Tour after being helped by his team-mates
| Start: Paris, France, on 30 JuneFinish: Paris, France, on 28 July | |
| Total distance: 5256 km (3266 miles)Longest stage: 366 km (228 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col du Galibier: 2556 m (8386 ft) Mountain stages: 6 | |
| Starters: 155Finishers: 60 | |
| Winning time: 186 h 39’ 15”Average speed: 28.319 kph (17.596 mph) | |
| 1. Maurice De Waele (Bel)2. Giuseppe Pancera (Ita) at 44’ 23” 3. Jef Demuysere (Bel) at 57’ 10” |
Nicolas Frantz and André Leducq had dominated the 1928 Tour as Alcyon team-mates, and that looked set to continue in 1929 when Leducq won the second stage between Caen and Cherbourg, with Frantz following up with victory in Bordeaux on stage 7.
Frantz, Leducq and Elvish-Wolber’s Victor Fontan finished that seventh stage sharing the same overall accumulated time, and in first place at that, which, after 1448 km (900 miles) by that point, was more than a little extraordinary. Unable to separate them, all three were awarded a yellow jersey to wear on the next day’s stage.
While Belgian rider Gaston Rebry took over the yellow jersey from the trio on the next stage, Fontan again took sole control of the race on stage 9. On stage 10, however, Fontan’s forks broke and – after losing too much time – he broke down upon the realisation that his race was over. The Frenchman became the second rider in three years to quit the race while wearing the yellow jersey, after Francis Pélissier in 1927.
Leducq – despite five stage wins in total – and Frantz had fallen out of contention as the race progressed, but their Alcyon team-mate, Maurice De Waele, found himself in a good position to win the race, in second place behind Fontan prior to stage 10. However, De Waele fell ill on that stage and Alcyon’s new plan looked set to derail. De Waele struggled through, though, to take the yellow jersey by default, and from that point on, De Waele’s Alcyon team-mates somehow managed to shepherd him through the rest of the race to Paris and overall victory.
Henri Desgrange was not happy with what in his eyes was an unworthy winner. The power that he felt the bike-manufacturer-sponsored teams held over his race enraged him. It was soon fixed: the next edition, in 1930, would have the riders competing for national, rather than sponsored, teams.
Feverish spectators cheer on the peloton between Belfort and Strasbourg
| Start: Paris, France, on 2 JulyFinish: Paris, France, on 27 July | |
| Total distance: 4818 km (2994 miles)Longest stage: 333 km (207 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col du Galibier: 2556 m (8386 ft) Mountain stages: 6 | |
| Starters: 100Finishers: 59 | |
| Winning time: 172 h 12’ 16”Average speed: 28.000 kph (17.398 mph) | |
| 1. André Leducq (Fra)2. Learco Guerra (Ita) at 14’ 13” 3. Antonin Magne (Fra) at 16’ 03” |
The Tour headed into the fourth decade of the twentieth century with some revolutionary changes. Having become annoyed with the sponsored teams dictating how his race was ridden, Henri Desgrange responded by organising the 1930 edition of the Tour as one for national teams, and it would remain that way until 1962. The sponsors – most of them bicycle manufacturers – were damaged further in 1930 by Desgrange’s insistence that all participants rode identical yellow bicycles provided by the race organisers.
The team time trials of the previous few years were gone, too, but the race retained the ‘outside circuit’ of the country, continuing to avoid central France entirely.
There were some new stage towns on the route, however, and these included Cannes, Montpellier and Pau, with the latter two, in particular, going on to be well used by the race in the future thanks to being large towns with the ability to house the Tour’s ever-increasing convoy. In fact, 1930 was the first time that the famous publicity caravan appeared – a cavalcade of floats promoting the race’s advertising partners’ products.
André Leducq had won five stages in 1929, and although he ‘only’ won two on his way to his victory in 1930, his team-mate Charles Pélissier – the youngest of the three Pélissier brothers – took eight stages: a record he now shares with Eddy Merckx and Freddy Maertens.
Marcel Bidot, Magne brothers Pierre and Antonin, André Leducq and Charles Pélissier (left to right) pose with matching bikes
| Start: Paris, France,
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