Changes From The 1922 Tour De France
The French cyclists Henri and Francis Pélissier had stopped the 1920 Tour de France after Henri received a penalty from the Tour organisation for throwing away a tire. This had caused a fight between the Pélissier brothers and tour organiser Henri Desgrange, and because of this fight, the Pélissier brother had been absent in the 1921 and 1922 Tours de France. In 1921, Henri Desgrange wrote in his newspaper: "Pélissier doesn't know how to suffer. He will never win the Tour" Still, Henri Pélissier was the most talented French racer of his period, and in 1923 had won every major race except the Tour de France. The Tour de France had been dominated by Belgian cyclists in the last years, which was not good for the popularity of the race in France. The organiser knew that Pélissier in the race would increase the interest in the race, but did not want to apologize to Pélissier. Therefore, Desgrange wrote in l'Auto that Henri Pélissier was too old to win the Tour de France, and that Pélissier would therefore probably never start in the Tour de France. This was the reason for Pélissier to enter the race the same day.
In the 1922 Tour de France, Hector Heusghem had lost the race because he received a one-hour penalty for illegally changing his bicycle. The rules about reparations were changed in the 1923 Tour: technical assistance from team directors was allowed. It was still not allowed to change equipment with other cyclists.
Another introduction was the time bonus for stage winners. After each stage, the overall time of the stage winner was reduced with two minutes.
Read more about this topic: 1923 Tour De France
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