From the Spanish flu to the coronavirus: the story of a Tour under fear

• PABLO DE LA CALLE

  @Pablodelacalle

  Madrid

Sunday, 30 August 2020 - 01:27

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The ghost of the most unfortunate cyclist reappears a century later. A halo of curse envelops the Tour de France that started in Nice. The gloomy parallels with the 1919 round are astonishing, which took place only half a year after the end of the First World War and, in the midst of the expansive wave of the Spanish flu, devastated the world population, collapsed hospitals and afflicted cemeteries: 50 million dead. The one in which tragedy struck the Frenchman Eugène Christophe (Malakoff 1885-Paris 1970). Now, the Grande Boucle starts six months after a virus began to undermine the bowels of old Europe.

Then, on June 29, 1919, burdened by post-war misery, 69 heroes met in Paris to start the wildest adventure. Some malnourished expedition members, with hardly any physical preparation after five years of absence from competition due to the heartbreaking war conflict, took the start after paying tribute to the Tour champions who died in the contest. There was Christophe, remembering his missing rivals Jean-François Faber (winner of the 1909 edition), Octave Lapize (1910) and Lucien Petit-Breton (1907 and 1908). Faber, a Luxembourgish enlisted in the Foreign Legion, died on May 9, 1915 in a trench, the chronicles explain that he was shot by a German soldier when he jumped for joy when he read a telegram informing him that his wife had given birth to a girl. Lapize served as a pilot with the rank of sergeant in the French army and was killed in an air combat near Flirey, at Meurthe-et-Moselle, on June 28, 1917, and died in Toul hospital two weeks later as a consequence. of the wounds suffered. Petit-Breton died in Troyes, on December 20, 1917, from a car accident.

Christophe and his rivals set out in Paris in anguish for fear of being infected by the epidemic and faced a dire scenario: roads strewn with holes generated by howitzers and tanks, destroyed bridges, impassable forests, narrow paths, ports. mountain dominated by bandits. Wild boars loaded with iron bicycles, without mechanical assistance, that every two days faced stages of more than 300 kilometers. They started before dawn and ended when they could. Fifteen hellish days of obstacles that caused it to be the round with the lowest average speed in history: 24 kilometers per hour. Only 11 managed to finish the test, the poorest record. José Orduña was the only Spanish participant, who withdrew in the first stage due to a breakdown.

Christophe's bad luck

Now, the coronavirus also threatens to devour the squad, if a team accumulates two positives in seven days it will be expelled. No sport like cycling to spread contagions with the close coexistence of runners and permanent transfers. As happened 100 years ago, cyclists go to the appointment without adequate preparation, due to the stoppage caused by Covid-19. Then, the race returned after the suspension decreed in 1915. Now, for the first time it starts in August, with the stress of an uncertain development.

A Tour of fear, like the one that brutally punished the unfortunate Eugène Christophe. Orphan of father at the age of 16, his first great race was disputed in 1902, on the outskirts of Paris, a fault in the fork of the bicycle prevented him from fighting for victory. He walked 12 kilometers until he found a place to repair it. He reached the finish line with a time of 10 hours, double that of the winner. He married in 1904 and a year later his wife and son died of lung disease.

In 1912 he was the fastest on the Tour, but a points classification gave him second place, to the benefit of Odiel Defraye .

In 1913, when he had practically won the Tour de France thanks to an escape in the Aubisque , the hairpin broke again on the descent of the Tourmalet . Enraged, he threw the machine on his shoulder and walked 15 kilometers to Sainte Marie de Campan and looked for the village blacksmith. Then, external aid was prohibited and the chronicles that the judges discovered him and that they did not allow the blacksmith to work tell. The rider himself, hammer in hand, had to weld the bicycle. Only the seven-year-old son of the blacksmith helped him, who took care of the forge bellows. It took more than three hours. He finished seventh.

The veteran Lambot

In 1919, in the post-war renaissance, he was the first to wear the yellow jersey that distinguishes the first classified. When he was more than 20 minutes ahead of the second classified, Firmin Lambot , the macabre fate once again took hold of him in the penultimate stage, with a terrifying route of 468 kilometers on crushing roads of mud and cobblestones. In the vicinity of Valenciennes the history of the fork break was repeated. Again he went to a forge to borrow the tools and repair the damn bike. It took another two hours and lost the leadership that he had held for 10 days, including the brutal steps through the Pyrenees and the Alps. As if that were not enough, in the last stage, Christophe suffered numerous punctures that made him give up second position, which was occupied by Jean Alavoine . The winner of the round was Firmin Lambot , who was 33 years old and became the oldest winner of the Tour de France. Christophe's misfortune shocked fans and race organizers. The management of L'Auto (the organizing newspaper of the Tour) opened a popular subscription to financially compensate the disconsolate climber and more than 13,000 francs were raised , much more than the 5,000 made by Lambot for winning the Tour. It took 20 pages of the newspaper to publish the names of all the donors.

The misfortune martyred Christophe again in 1920, already with the pandemic of the Spanish flu under control, he left in the seventh stage when he was a great favorite. In 1922, already cured of horror and when he was third in the general classification, he suffered another breakdown on the descent of the Galibier . The special envoys narrated that this new incident was taken with humor and that he arrived at the Saint Michael de Maurienne refreshment station mounted on the priest of Valloire's touring bicycle. Shortly after he retired. He remarried, but it did not go well, the costs of divorce and debt forced him to return to cycling in 1926 ... The most unfortunate of the peloton, the best rider who never won, died in 1970 in Paris, where the race will conclude. test that started yesterday in Nice. The round, 100 years later, of the fear of contagion.

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