Celebrating the Centennial: Last-day Turnarounds
Robic was the first to come from behind and win on the final stage
With only 67 seconds separating Lance Armstrong from Jan Ullrich going into Saturday’s time trial at Nantes, people have been wondering whether the German still has a realistic chance of winning the 2003 Tour de France. Looking at Tour history, there have been several occasions when a time trial on the final weekend has changed the owner of the yellow jersey.
Most of us remember the dramatic comeback by Greg LeMond in a 24.5-kilometer time trial to win the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds after going into the last stage 50 seconds down on Frenchman Laurent Fignon. But most forget that LeMond repeated that feat the following year, when he took the yellow jersey from Italian Claudio Chiappucci in a 45.5-kilometer time trial at Lac de Vassivière, the day before the finish in Paris. The American won that 1990 Tour by 2:16.
A similar feat was achieved in 1987 by Irishman Stephen Roche, in a 38-kilometer time trial at Dijon 24 hours before the finish to take the overall victory from Spaniard Pedro Delgado by 40 seconds. The first time-trial turnaround was in 1968, when Dutchman Jan Janssen came from 16 seconds back to defeat Belgian Herman van Springel by 38 seconds on the final GC.
The only time that there was a change in the yellow jersey in a last day road race, as opposed to a time trial, was in 1947. The man who came from behind was Frenchman Jean Robic. The story of that stage is worth retelling, especially as it holds a unique position in the Tour’s 100-year history.
Before that final stage, a rolling 257 km from Caen in Normandy to Paris, this was the overall classification:
1. Pierre Brambilla (Italy), 140:44:38
2. Aldo Ronconi (Italy), at 0:53
3. Jean Robic (West France), at 2:58
4. René Vietto (France), at 5:16
5. Edouard Fachleitner (France), at 6:56
With two men on the Italian national team holding first and second places, it seemed that all the Italians had to do was sit on Robic, while making sure that neither Vietto nor Fachleitner of the French national team escaped in a breakaway. Sounds simple, but Brambilla was an Italian who lived in France and his five remaining teammates didn’t consider him one of them. Also, there were only 53 riders left in the race, and most of them were fatigued, particularly from a marathon 139km individual time trial two days earlier.
Even so, this final stage seemed routine when seven riders more than an hour down on General Classification escaped early on. But then, halfway through the stage, on leaving the crowd-packed streets of Rouen, Robic spotted that Brambilla was riding in the center of the small peloton. The slightly built Robic, a climber who had earlier won two mountain stages, now saw his chance. He attacked on a smoothly cobbled hill that went up for 2km to the chapel of Bonsecours.
Robic took 50 meters before Brambilla extricated himself from the pack, and chased down the Frenchman. They slowed, and Robic went again, forcing the race leader to make another all-out effort. They slowed again; three others joined them, including Fachleitner, who rolled off the front. Brambilla got out the saddle a third time, with Robic on his wheel, but before catching Fachleitner, Brambilla cracked.
Robic saw his chance, and even though he too was in the red zone, he dug deep to bridge across to Fachleitner. A 50-meter gap at the top of the Bonsecours hill soon stretched to a minute, with 120 kilometers still to ride in the stage. With an overall deficit of almost seven minutes, Fachleitner knew his odds of winning the Tour were minimal, while there was little chance of them catching the break that by now was 10 minutes up the road.
So why did Fachleitner then decide to work with Robic? Well, as Robic later revealed, Fachleitner said, “You give me 50,000 francs and I’ll work for you.” Robic agreed with the deal, and again, a little later, when his rival upped the price to 100,000 francs (that was 20 percent of the Tour winner’s overall prize and so in today’s terms would be about $40,000!).
By Paris, Robic and Fachleitner were 13 minutes ahead of the Brambilla-Ronconi-Vietto group. The Tour was Robic’s, with Fachleitner runner-up — although there was a late twist.
The French national team sent back its rider in the break, Lucien Teisseire, to help Fachleitner. Robic claimed that Teisseire then bumped his rear wheel, causing both of them to crash, while Fachleitner rode clear. But Robic wasn’t going to stand for that. Despite a damaged derailleur, he dashed back to his rival … and later paid him the 100,000 francs.
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