Tour de France 1905

Henri Degrange , who doubted the expediency of the race after the previous scandals, seriously reorganized it ^[1] . The number of stages was increased from 6 to 11, their length was reduced (each of the stages was shorter than 350 kilometers, in the previous year only one stage had such a short distance). The goal was to reduce driving in the dark when the judges found it difficult to control the purity of the fight. The overall winner was now determined not by time, but by penalty points: the winner of the stage received 1 point; the remaining riders scored 1 point more than the previous athlete who finished, plus 1 point for every 5 minutes behind him, but no more than 10 penalty points for a temporary gap, that is, in the worst case, 11 points more than the previous one.

In addition to the absolute standings, the classification among riders who are not entitled to replace the bike during the entire race has now been raffled off. For the first time, the route included serious mountain ascents, 1246-meter Coll Bayard in the Dauphiné Alps and 1178-meter Ballon d'Alsac in the Vosges with an average gradient of 5.2%. Degrange doubted the possibility of riders to overcome such ups, and turned them on under the personal responsibility of his assistant, who offered these mountains. The first 4 riders of the previous Tour were disqualified for several years and could not participate in the 1905 race; however, the punishment for Hippolyt Okutyurje was reduced to a reprimand, and he was able to start ^[2] .

In the race 60 racers started, only two of whom were foreigners, Belgians . 24 of them reached the finish line in Paris, although already at the 1st stage only 15 met the time limit: 125 kilograms of nails scattered on the first day route were echoes of the last year’s tricks ^[3] . Of the entire peloton, only one driver avoided punctures ^[4] ; 15 riders reached the finish line within the time limit, another 15 were out of the limit, the remaining half reached Nancy by train. The organizers went to meet the participants, allowing the failure to continue the race with 75 penalty points each. The victory at the stage was won by a soldier of the French army, Louis Trusselier , asking for a day's leave from his unit; after success, his vacation was extended to the end of the Tour de France ^[5] . At the 2nd stage, the participants were awaited by the first in the history of Tura Mountain, Ballon d'Alsac . The first to climb on its summit was Rene Pottier , who developed an average speed of 20 km / h. On the plain, Okutyurye, who won at the stage, caught up with him, but Pottie took the lead in the overall standings. He was also named the first "mountain king" of the Tour de France. However, at the 3rd stage, he had to quit because of tendinitis ^[6] , and the winner of this stage, Trussiellier, took the lead again.

The 4th stage included the alpine ascents of the Côte de Laffrey and Col Bayard . Julien Metron took the first place on them, and on the remaining distance the miner again caught up with Okutyurje, who won the stage and equaled Trussielier on points. But at the next stage, Trusselier won, and Okutyurier finished only 12th, too far to continue the fight in the overall standings ^[7] . At the beginning of the 7th stage, Trussmelier pierced the wheel, during the replacement of which the leaders had gone far ahead. Just before Bordeaux, he managed to catch up with them, and eventually win the finish line ^[8] . Out of 11 stages, Trousselier won 5, and naturally became the winner of the race. He was accused of unsporting behavior when he allegedly broke an inkwell at a control point in order to prevent his opponents from checking in ^[6] . Okutyurie finished the race second, Jean-Baptiste Dortinyak , the winner - the third; only three of the best overall riders won the stages. Finishing 8th overall Philippe Potra was the best in the classification of riders who did not change the bike.

After the race, Trussieu received 6950 francs as a prize, most of whom I skipped with friends that evening ^[1] . The system of spectacle classification was recognized by the organizers as successful, and was used on the Tour de France until 1913 . In 1953, on the 50th anniversary of the race, the point classification was restored as a side offset, for which the best sprinters are still fighting. Introduction to the route of mountain ascents also became a positive innovation, in 1906 Massif Central entered the route, and after a few more years - a series of stages at once in the Pyrenees and the Alps . Unlike the previous year, none of the riders were disqualified. The organizer of the race, the newspaper L'Auto , celebrated success again, increasing its circulation to 100,000 ^[9] .

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• Tour de France 1905 on the official website
• Pages of history: Tour de France-1905 on velolive.com