Race Details
After Ferdi Kübler had won the first stage, René Vietto took the lead by winning the second stage. After the third stage only Aldo Ronconi was within 90 seconds of Vietto, and the third man in the general classification was already more than eight minutes behind.
In the seventh stage, when the Alps mountains were climbed, Ronconi took over the lead, but two stages later Vietto took back the lead.
In the fourteenth stage, Albert Bourlon escaped directly after the start. He stayed away until the end of the stage, 253 km (157 mi) later. This is the longest escape in the Tour de France after the second World War.
In the fifteenth stage, Jean Robic escaped in the Pyrénees, and beat the other by more than ten minutes. Because of the time bonuses for reaching the mountain tops first, he even won back more than fifteen minutes. In the general classification, Robic rose to fifth place. With only three stages to go in the Tour, Vietto was still in the lead, 94 seconds ahead of Pierre Brambilla. The eighteenth stage was an individual time trial, the longest in Tour history. In that stage, Vietto lost considerable time, and Brambilla took over the lead in the general classification. Vietto performed worse than expected; there was speculation about why he performed so badly, and some said it was because of the motorcycle accident of a friend, while others said it was because he drank a bottle of cider during the time trial.
Before the last stage, the top five in the general classification was as follows:
| Rank | Cyclist | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pierre Brambilla (ITA) | Italy | 140h 44' 38" |
| 2 | Aldo Ronconi (ITA) | Italy | +53" |
| 3 | Jean Robic (FRA) | West | +2' 58" |
| 4 | René Vietto (FRA) | France | +5' 16" |
| 5 | Édouard Fachleitner (FRA) | France | +6' 56" |
The last stage was flat, which makes it hard for escapers to win time. In the last stage, there was a hilltop prime, where money could be won by the first cyclist that passed. Although a group had already passed that hill, Robic was not aware of this, and sprinted for this prime. When he reached the top, Brambilla had been dropped. Robic and Fachleitner, fifth in the general classification, started to work together, and left Brambilla and Ronconi minutes behind. Around 140 km before the finish, they were three minutes ahead of Brambilla, which made Robic the virtual leader of the race. At that point Robic told Fachleitner:
| “ | You can not win the Tour, because I will not let you escape. If you ride with me, I will pay you 100.000 Francs. | ” |
When they reached Paris, they had won 13 minutes on them, enough to make Robic the winner of the Tour de France.
Read more about this topic: 1947 Tour De France
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