Career
Garrigou was born in Vabres, France, and lived in Paris. He gained from his lightness in the mountains but had the strength to ride hard on flat stages, and had remarkable powers of recovery. As an amateur he won Paris-Amiens and Paris-Dieppe. He turned professional in 1907 and that year won the national championship, the Tour of Lombardy, Paris–Brussels and came second in the Tour de France 19 points behind teammate Lucien Petit-Breton. A team rider, in the next three years, he placed fourth in 1908, second in 1909 and third in 1910 behind winning teammates Petit-Breton, Francois Faber and Octave Lapize.
He won the Tour in 1911 surviving not only the race but death threats because fans of another French rider, Paul Duboc, believed Garrigou to be behind an incident in which Duboc collapsed in the Pyrenees and lay in agony for an hour after drinking from a poisoned bottle.
Garrigou had built a lead of 16 points after the end of Stage 6 but by the time they reached the Pyrenees, Duboc had reduced it to 10 points. With Duboc finishing 3 hours behind, Garrigou finished second to consolidate a lead which increased when stage winner Maurice Brocco was disqualified for unsportmanlike behaviour.
Feelings came to their height in Rouen, where Duboc lived and in which notices had been posted in his name pointing out that he would have been leading the Tour had he not been poisoned and inciting the crowd to take revenge. Duboc had nothing to do with the notices and was as alarmed as the race organizer, Henri Desgrange. Three cars provided a barrier between Garrigou and the crowd until the race had cleared the city. The culprit was eventually found to be a helper with a rival team but Duboc's supporters had suspected Garrigou, as the man most likely to profit from stopping Duboc.
Garrigou won the Tour with a generous number of points over Duboc. In some early years, the Tour was decided not on elapsed time but on points based on the position in which riders finished stages.
As leader of an all-French team, Alcyon, Garrigou was supposed to retain the title in 1912, but a last-minute publicity stunt cost him. The Belgian Odile Defraye was included in the team and repaid them by outsprinting Garrigou in stages 2 and 3 on the way to victory. Garrigou finished third behind Eugene Christophe.
The Tour of 1913 saw the ending of the points system deciding the winner of the general classification. Garrigou finished in second place 8 minutes and 37 seconds behind another Belgian, Philippe Thys.
Garrigou was an all-rounder, also winning Paris–Brussels (1907), Milan – San Remo (1911) and the Tour of Lombardy. He was national champion in 1907 and 1908. His career ended with the outbreak of war in 1914.
Read more about this topic: Gustave Garrigou
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