article by Nicholas Pucci
The legend of the cycling pioneers is strengthened by stories and heroes whose memory is still preserved today. Between these, the Belgian Philippe Thys undoubtedly deserves an exceptional place, if only for the fact that he was the first pedal champion to drop the trio in the Tour de France. Which, said between the lines, is not really a trivial undertaking.
The year is 1912 and this big Flemish boy born in the Anderlecht district of Brussels on 8 October 1890, who in his youth practiced athletics with excellent results and then, at 16, discovered his passion for cycling, enters be part of the platoon of professionals, already with the palm of the first national cyclo-cross champion for the title conquered two years earlier in Tervuren. And that he knows how to do it, on roads that still know very little about asphalt, is confirmed by the first participation in the Tour de France where the Belgianwho runs with the jersey of Peugeot, takes a promising sixth place in a classification defined with the formula of the points classification and which sees the success of compatriot Odile Defraye.
In 1913 the general classification was once again established on the basis of arrival times at the finish line of each stagea, change that will remain definitive. The departure is scheduled from Boulogne-Billancourt, while the final arrival is, as usual, in Paris, at Princes Parkand if for the first time the direction of rotation is reversed starting towards the west, you will still return to the capital from the east.
The race is characterized by abandonments and falls so much that of the 140 starters they finish the race Big loop only 25 runners, e records the domain of Peugeot who manages to place three riders on the podium, despite the other teams joining forces to stem their superiority. The trend of leadership is mixed. Own Thys leaps to the top of the standings by winning the sixth stage in Luchon, at the expense of Defraye himself who aims to give an encore, the day in which Philippe goes on the run with his teammate Eugene Christophe, winner of the Milan-Sanremo in 1910, unfortunate protagonist for breaking his fork in the Tourmalet descent and who, although a blacksmith has offered to repair it, he refuses as it is not permitted by the regulation, fixing it by himself. The Frenchman arrives at the finish line several hours late, thus losing any chance of final victory. The next day Thys gives up the leader’s jersey (it’s not yet the yellow one, although Henri Desgrange asked him to wear a colored jersey to distinguish himself, an invitation Thys declined saying that making it more visible would encourage the other riders to attack him to the advantage of the other Belgian Marcel Buysse). After the ninth stage Thys takes back the lead of the race, keeping it until the end and despite a dramatic crash in the penultimate stage, towards Dunkirk, which risks cutting him off for the final victory. The Belgian is still leader of the standings for eight of the fifteen scheduled stages and finally imposes himself with 8’37” on the French Gustave Garrigou and 3h30’55” on Buysse himselfto complete an all-Peugeot podium.
In 1914 the Tour de France departure was moved to Saint-Cloud, while the final arrival was confirmed at Princes Park. The route follows the trend of the previous edition, starting towards the west to arrive in Paris from the east and of the 145 runners who take part, 54 complete the race. Thys wins straight away in Le Havre on day one, maintaining the race lead from start to finish despite a 30-minute penalty for an unauthorized wheel change on the penultimate stage, ironically the same Longwy-Dunkirk into which he had fallen the year before. His victory seems uncertain at this point, the advantage was reduced to just 1’50” over Henri Pelissier but in the last stage, in which the Frenchman should attack to overtake his rival in the standings, his supporters, who were expecting victory over the Belgian, prevent the their favorite to launch the decisive escape. The tussle between Thys and Pelissier is at the limit of regularity, the Frenchman wins the stage but the Belgian closes in on his wheel and for the second time in a row he takes the top step of the podium in the Tour de France. Jean Alavoine, third with a delay of 36’53”, wears the Peugoet jersey like the two challengers, and once again the team occupies the first three positions of the final standings.
Thys is undoubtedly the most accomplished cyclist on the planetif it is true that winning the Tour de France twice in a row is a feat managed, for the moment, only by Lucien Petit-Breton, who was the best in 1908 and 1909. But the First World War had a hand in it, the France is a land of battle and between 1915 and 1918 the Grande Boucle closed its doors. It is equally true that other races are regularly staged, such as the Paris-Tours which Thys makes his own in 1917 and, drawn in the opposite direction, in 1918, as well as the Giro di Lombardia in which the Belgian prevails in the same 1917 beating again Henri Pelissier, but in order to return to compete in the Tour, we have to wait for 1919, the year in which Thys is not performing, never winning in the season and retiring in the first stage. But the following year, 1920, is really another music.
113 riders will participate in the 14th edition of the Tour de France, of which only 22 will make it to Paris. AND if the Belgian Louis Mottiat wins the first stage, now yes wearing the yellow jersey established the previous year, Thyswhich now runs for the Consortium La Sportivedirected by Alphonse Baugé and which brings together the main manufacturers and equipment and hires the strongest riders, conquers the finish line in Cherbourg, taking over the compatriot at the top of the rankings for a record he will hold until the end of the race. The Anderlecht champion also imposed himself on the finishes in Nice, Strasbourg and Metz, and if Pelissier, his main opponent, retired in protest after five stages and after having conquered the villages of Brest and Les Sables d’Olonne, the Belgians are absolutely protagonists, occupying the first seven positions of the final standings, with Hector Heusghem second with a delay of 57’21” and Firmin Lambot third at 1h39’35”. For the first time no Frenchman gets on the podium and Philippe Thys, the first rider in history to succeed, takes a trio in the Tour de France which will then be succeeded by Louison Bobet in 1955 after him.
E as patron Henri Desgrange wrote: “France is aware that, without the war, the Anderlecht rider would not be celebrating his third Tour, but his fifth or sixth“. How to blame him?
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