1911 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

The first stage was won by Garrigou, a team mate of Faber at Alcyon. The Alcyon team also won the second stage with Masselis. The third stage was won by Faber, after a 206 km solitary breakaway. During that stage, Emile Georget was leading when he was hit by a car and fell down a ravine. In the same stage, Faber had passed a checkpoint without signing, and as a penalty he had to stop for two and a half minutes. Despite this, he still won with an advantage of 17 minutes, and took the lead in the general classification.

In the fourth stage, Garrigou took back the lead from his team mate Faber. At that point, Faber became insecure, as he knew that Garrigou was a good climber, while the big Faber had troubles in the mountains. In the alps, Georget was the best. Garrigou finished well before Faber, and was now leading by 10 points. The sixth stage, with only small mountains, was won by Faber, after a 260 km solitary breakaway, but because Garrigou came in second, he was still in the lead. In third place was Paul Duboc, a surprising newcomer.

In the ninth stage, Faber lost contact with Garrigou in the general classification by finishing in twentieth place. After this stage, Garrigou was leading with 27 points, while his new closest opponent, Duboc, had 37 points. In that ninth stage, Maurice Brocco who knew that he would not win the Tour, had sold his services to another cyclist. He was removed from the race by Tour organiser Desgrange, who was against cyclists helping each other. Brocco objected against this decision, and pending the decision he was allowed to start the tenth stage from Luchon to Bayonne. In that tenth stage, Brocco attacked and finished first. After the stage, he was disqualified, and his stage victory was removed. Also in the tenth stage, Duboc collapsed just before Bayonne, probably due to food poisoning, attributed to a spiked drink. At that moment, he was leading the stage, eight minutes before the next cyclist. According to the rules, no help was allowed, so other cyclists rode by him while he was lying on the road, vomiting. Duboc was able to get on his bicycle again, and finished the stage in 21st place, which left him no hopes for the victory. Nowadays, it is thought that François Lafourcade, a cyclist who performed well in the mountains of the 1910 Tour had something to do with it, but in 1911 the first suspect was his main competitor Garrigou. Garrigou was threatened, and the Tour organisation gave him a bodyguard, and when the Tour passed Duboc's home town, Garrigou was disguised.

Duboc regained his strengths and won two more stages, but was unable to close the gap to Garrigou in the general classification, so Garrigou became the winner of the race. At the end of the race in Paris, Duboc received a large welcome, overshadowing Garrigou. The pre-race favourites had already abandoned early in the race — 1907 and 1908 winner Petit-Breton in the first stage and 1910 winner Lapize in stage four. The winner from 1909, Faber, lasted longer, but he gave up during stage twelve.