1923 Tour de France - Aftermath

Aftermath

Henri Pélissier was the first French winner of the Tour de France since 1911, and ended a series of seven Belgian victories. Desgrange, who had been in a fight with Pélissier for three years, wrote "The mountains seemed to sink lower, sunk by the victorious thrust of his muscle. More than a score of times on the most vicious gradients, hands on the tops of the bars, he looked down at the valley bottoms, like an eagle staring at his prey". The French victory was good for the organising newspaper l'Auto: the circulation increased to almost half a million copies, while it peaked at one million the morning after Pélissier's victory.

At the end of the race, the winner Henri Pélissier declared that Bottecchia would be the winner of the next Tour. This prediction was right; Bottecchia won the 1924 and the 1925 Tour de France.

The introduction of time bonuses for stage winners was considered a success and has been used for many Tours after 1923, although the details have changed since.