1907 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

Early in the race, Louis Trousselier, François Faber and Emile Georget were the main contenders. In the second stage, the Tour passed the French-German border to finish in Metz, in 1907 part of Germany. The German authorities allowed the cyclists to finish there, but did not allow the French flag to be flown, or the cars of race officials to enter the city. At the end of the stage, Georget beat Trousselier with a very small margin. After inquiry, tour organiser Desgrange decided to put both cyclists in first place. In the third stage, the Tour returned to France, and at the border, the riders were stopped by two French customs officers, the delay taking so long that the stage had to be restarted.

Emile Georget won five of the first eight stages, and had a commanding lead. In the seventh stage, Marcel Cadolle, at that time in second place, fell and his steer penetrated his knee, after which he had to give up.

During the ninth stage, when Georget was leading the race, he broke his frame at a checkpoint. According to the rules, Georget should have fixed his bicycle alone; he knew this would take him more than five hours, so he switched bicycles with his team mate Pierre-Gonzague Privat, which was against the rules, so Georget was given a fine of 500 francs. After this stage, won by Petit-Breton, the general classification was as follows:

Unsatisfied with the fine given to Georget, Trousselier and his Alcyon team left the Tour in protest.

After the tenth stage, the organisers gave Georget an additional penalty for the bicycle change in the ninth stage. They changed the classification of the ninth stage, moving Georget from the fourth place to the 48th and last place, which effectively costed him 44 points in the general classification, moving him from first to third place. The new classification, after the tenth stage, thus became

The lead had transferred to Lucien Petit-Breton. Although he had already finished in fifth place and fourth place in previous years, he was still relatively unknown, and had started in the coureurs sur machines poinçonnées category. Petit-Breton finished the next stages all in the top three, so no other cyclist was able to challenge him for the overall victory. At the end of the race, he had increased his lead to a margin of 19 points to Garrigou and 27 points to Georget.