1935 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

In the first stage, Belgian Romain Maes was lucky as he passed a train crossing just before it closed, while the rest had to wait. Romain Maes was one minute ahead, and although he was chased, the others could not capture him.

In the second stage, Romain Maes was less lucky, as several flat tires put him nine minutes behind the peloton. The Belgian team chased for 70 km to get him back with the rest. The stage was won by French sprinter Charles Pélissier. Romain Maes and Charles Pélissier were now ranked first and second, but nobody expected them to remain on top of the general classification.

On the fourth stage, the French team performed bad; the first French cyclist came in tenth place, and Romain Maes increased his leading margin to over five minutes.

In the second part of the fifth stage, Romain Maes performed unexpectedly well, as he lost only 38 seconds to Magne, a time trial specialist. Magne was in second place in the general classification, about four minutes behind Romain Maes.

The sixth stage, the first in the Alps, was perfect for a climber as Vietto, and he indeed took the victory solo. Magne was still about four minutes behind Romain Maes. In the seventh stage, Magne was hit by a car, and had to abandon the race. Later in that stage, Spanish cyclist Francisco Cepeda died after he fell going down the Galibier. One of his tires had peeled of his rim, which caused him to crash at high speed. Because Magne was out of the race, Vasco Bergamaschi became the new number two of the general classification, more than twelve minutes behind Romain Maes. In the ninth stage, Bergamaschi lost half an hour, and was out of contention for the victory. René Vietto won the stage, with Francesco Camusso a few seconds behind him. Romain Maes lost almost ten minutes, and Camusso jumped to the second place in the general classification, three and a half minute behind Romain Maes.

In the tenth, eleventh and twelfth stage, Romain Maes won some time on Camusso. The second part of the thirteenth stage was a team time trial, in which the French team beat the Belgian team by 27 seconds, and had Speicher get within 9 minutes of Maes in the general classification. In the second part of the fourteenth stage, however, Romain Maes finished in second place, and thereby increased his lead in the general classification to more than ten minutes on Speicher, who had jumped to second place.

In the fifteenth stage, the Pyrénées were climbed. Belgian cyclists Felicien Vervaecke and Sylvère Maes were ahead and beat the others by minutes. The first three places in the general classification were now occupied by Belgian cyclists, with Romain Maes, Vervaecke and Sylvère Maes.

In the sixteenth stage Romain Maes ran into troubles for the first time in 1935. The Belgian team controlled the race over the first three mountains, but on the fourth, the Aubisque, Italians Ambrogio Morelli and Orlando Teani escaped. Morelli won the stage and took the time bonus, and Romain Maes needed his team mates to keep his losses small. Vervaecke and Jules Lowie helped him to keep it only six minutes, and Romain Maes was still ahead in the general classification, although only two and a half minute ahead of Morelli.

In the first half of the eighteenth stage, Morelli lost ten minutes. Jean Aerts crossed the finish line first in that stage, but he was set to second place by the jury because he had sprinted irregularly. Maes finished second in the second part of that stage, and increased his lead even more. Initially Jean Fontenay was declared winner of that stage, but he got a penalty of five minutes after the jury found out he had been helped by a car.

Romain Maes finished the Tour by escaping in the last stage, and finishing alone in Paris.