Race Details
Swiss Paul Egli won the first stage, and thereby became the first Swiss cyclist to lead the general classification in the Tour de France. That first stage was run in terrible rain. In the second stage, the cyclists were split in two parts, and Egli was in the second part. Archambaud then took over the lead. Archambaud lost it to Luxembourgian Mersch in the next stage, but recaptured the lead when he won the fourth stage.
The competition really started in the mountains of the seventh stage. Belgian Romain Maes, the winner of the 1935 Tour, was first over the first mountain, but then gave up, a victim of chronic bronchitis. On the next climb, Georges Speicher, winner of the 1930 Tour, gave up. Archambaud was still in the lead after that stage. The stage was won by Theo Middelkamp, who became the first Dutch cyclist to win a Tour stage. Before the 1936 Tour, Middelkamp had never seen a mountain in his life.
In the eighth stage, Archambaud could not follow anymore, and Sylvère Maes took over the lead. In third place was Antonin Magne, who had a good chance to win the race. Magne attacked on the next stage, but could not drop Maes. Later, Magne had to let the leading group get away, and lost a minute to Maes.
The stages between the Alps and the Pyrénées were partly run as team time trials. The Belgian team was superior here, and Magne lost more time. When it was time for the Pyrénées, he was eight minutes behind Maes.
In stage 15, the podium did not change, so it had to happen in stage 16, the last mountain stage. Magne attacked, but was unable to win back time. Maes was better, and including time bonuses Maes won eighteen minutes on Magne in that stage.
In that stage, Belgian Félicien Vervaecke had borrowed a bicycle with derailleur. It was allowed for touriste-routiers, but not for national team members, and he was fined with ten minutes penalty time in the general classification. Magne also got 10 minutes penalty time, for having received food when it was not allowed. Due to this penalty, Vervaecke lost his second place in the general classification, which Magne took over.
In the last part of the race, Maes extended his lead thanks to the team time trials, although the French team was finally also able to win one.
Read more about this topic: 1936 Tour De France
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