Race Details
The 1920 Tour de France is described as a boring race. The weather was extremely hot, and after four stages already 65 of the 113 cyclists had quit. French favourites stopped the race early. Eugène Christophe in the 7th stage because of back pain, Jean Alavoine in the 2nd stage and Francis Pélissier in the 3rd stage. Henri Pélissier started well by winning the third stage and the fourth stage, and was the main threat for Philippe Thys who was leading the race. Then, in the 5th stage, Henri Pélissier was penalized with two minutes for throwing away a flat tire illegally. Pélissier objected to the penalty, and immediately stopped the race. Desgrange mentioned that Henri Pélissier was not tough enough, and would never win the Tour de France. He would later win the 1923 edition.
The first five stages finished in a group, and multiple cyclists were leading the race with the same aggregate time. In fact, twelve of the fifteen stages finished with a group. Tour organiser Henri Desgrange did not like this, as he wanted the cyclists to ride as individuals. Thys was leading the race after the fifth stage, in the same time as Emile Masson. In the sixth and seventh stage over the Pyrénées, Thys rode economically. He kept close to cyclists who could be a threat, but did not ride away. After those two stages, he led with almost half an hour before Hector Heusghem. The next stage he won, half an hour before Heusghem, so now his lead was one hour. Although Heusghem won stage nine, he did not win back any time on Thys who finished third in the same time. The yellow jersey had been introduced already in 1919, but in 1920 the organisation had not awarded the jersey in the first eight stages. After Thys was still leading in stage nine, he received the yellow jersey. Tour organiser Desgrange was so unhappy with the lack of battle in the race, that he wanted to stop the race after the tenth stage, but was convinced to let the race continue.
The Belgians had dominated the race. Honoré Barthélémy was the best French cyclist at the eighth place. He had many falls during the race, broke his wrist and dislocated his shoulder. Barthélémy turned his handlebars up so he did not have to bend his back. When he reached Paris, the French crowd considered him a hero.
The race was won by Belgian Thys. Thys had been in every breakaway, finished in the top five in every stage, winning four stages and coming in second seven times.
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