Race Details
Bottecchia, who had won the previous Tour de France, started by winning the first stage. In 1924, he had had no difficulty in defending his lead, but in 1925 there was Adelin Benoit, who surprisingly took over the lead in the third stage. Bottecchia was however only eight seconds behind in the general classification.
In the fourth stage, Henri Pélissier, the winner of the 1923 Tour de France, left the race. In previous years, Pélissier had left the race after a fight with tour organiser Henri Desgrange, but this time it was because of knee problems. In the sixth stage, Benoit punctured, and Bottechia's Automoto team rode as fast as they could to get away from Benoit. Bottecchia won the stage, and after he won the next stage too, he took over the lead.
In the eighth stage, Adelin Benoit won back eleven minutes in the first Pyrénées stage, in what used to be Bottecchia's specialty. In the ninth stage, Bottecchia took back the lead in the rain, and this decided the race. Bottecchia did not win the stage, but his Automoto team mates had helped him to win 45 minutes on Benoit. After that stage, Nicolas Frantz was number two, more than 13 minutes behind.
In the next stages, Bottecchia was helped by his team mate Lucien Buysse. In return, Bottecchia allowed Buysse to win the eleventh and twelfth stage. In the twelfth stage, Bottecchia and Buysse failed to sign in at a control post, and were fined with 10 minutes penalty time. Nonetheless, the margin with runner-up Frantz had increased to 27 minutes.
In the fourteenth stage, Frantz had a flat tyre, and the Automoto team raced away from him. Frantz lost more than 37 minutes. This took Frantz completely out of contention for the victory, and Bottecchia's victory seemed secure. Italian Aimo was the new runner-up, with a margin of more than 55 minutes. Lucien Buysse was only three minutes behind Aimo, and in the sixteenth stage, Buysse took off, trying to win back time on Aimo. Nicolas Frantz, Albert Dejonghe and Hector Martin followed him, but Aimo missed that move, and lost five minutes. Buysse was now in second place, with Frantz only three seconds behind him. In the seventeenth stage, Frantz missed the deciding escape, and Buysse and Aimo finished in the leading group, so Aimo was back in third place. Bottecchia made his Tour victory complete by winning the last stage.
Read more about this topic: 1925 Tour De France
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