A moment in time Robic wins the ‘Tour of the Liberation’
In 1947, at the first Tour after the War, France’s Jean Robic failed to claim the yellow jersey – until the very last day
Much anticipation gripped the towns and villages of France in the early summer of 1947. It had been eight years since the Tour de France had taken to the nation’s roads and the return of cycling’s greatest race was a hugely significant event in post-war Europe.
As the start date neared, French journalists wrote of the importance of the race in the fabric of French life, recalling fond childhood memories of seeing the race pass their homes for the first time, and journals ran pictures from previous races – riders eating with their teams at long tables and crowding over benches laden with fruit – enthusing that these are the ‘pictures we will see again soon’.
Twelve months earlier two five-stage races had been organised by rival publications. L’auto, which had run the Tour de France before the outbreak of war, had been closed down when peace returned, having been accused of sympathetic leanings towards the occupying forces, with all of its assets, including the Tour, sequestrated by the state. In an attempt to demonstrate they deserved the rights to future Tours, the publications Ce Soir and Le Parisien Libéré organised the Ronde de France and the Course du Tour de France respectively.
Italy’s Giulio Bresci won the Ronde while the Course was claimed by Apo Lazaridès. Second to Lazaridès was René Vietto, who was riding for France’s national team, while third was
Jean Robic, riding for the regional Ouest squad. Robic, a small, brusque yet talented rider from Brittany, was nicknamed ‘leatherhead’ because of the helmet he always wore following a crash during the 1946 edition of Paris-roubaix.
Vietto was a popular rider who had finished second in the final Tour before the war and was fully focussed on going one better when the race returned. ‘We will be unbeatable next year,’ he said after the finish of the Course in Paris. ‘If the Tour escapes us, I’ll start pedalling a sewing machine.’
For his part Robic – a gifted climber who, according to writer René De Latour, ‘endured his suffering willingly and even cheerfully’ – was equally bullish, if nowhere near as popular as Vietto: ‘I lost alone to the French team, but I was the best. I will do that to them next year… we will have the chance to talk again!’
A Pyrenean parade
The first post-war Tour was dubbed the ‘Tour of the Liberation’ and was ultimately organised by Le Parisien Libéré and the newly founded L’equipe. On 25th June 1947, 100 riders rolled out from the Palais-royal along the Champsélysées at the start of the 34th edition of the Tour. Once again Robic, whose face rarely seemed to fit whatever form he showed, was riding for the Ouest team, while the national team’s hopes were pinned on Vietto.
Much to France’s delight, Vietto started the race strongly. He claimed the second stage into Brussels and won the ninth stage into Digne that scaled the Izoard, Vars and Allos. As the sun set on the third of five rest days, Vietto was in yellow, while Robic lay fifth, more than 25 minutes off the lead despite having claimed a brace of impressive stage wins. Nevertheless Robic remained confident. Never shy of offering a few soundbites – he once claimed he was so powerful he had the equivalent of ‘a [Louison] Bobet in each leg’ – his blunt approach meant relations with fellow riders were often strained to near breaking point. As the Pyrenees came into view Robic claimed he felt unstoppable, no matter that his standing on the general classification said otherwise. Cue much bemusement among his teammates.
Stage 15 was 195km from Luchon to Pau and featured the four-headed monster of the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque. Robic was active early on the slopes of the Peyresourde, attacking alongside Italy’s Pierre Brambilla and putting Vietto into immediate
Never shy of offering a few soundbites, Robic’s blunt approach meant relations with fellow riders were often strained to near breaking point
difficulty. On the Aspin, a mountain he would lead the Tour’s peloton over three times during his career (1947, 1948 and 1953), Robic’s pace was too great for the Italian, who fell away.
A classic Pyrenean pursuit followed, but Robic was strong and by the time he rode into Pau his winning margin was nearly 11 minutes. The Frenchman had been at the front of the race all day and crucially had led over each of the four major climbs. With the time bonuses available at each summit added to his winning margin, Robic ended up gaining more than 15 minutes in one remarkable day of racing. Nevertheless, Vietto still led the race overall and Robic was still fifth, now just over eight minutes back. But something had shifted.
Vietto was now complaining that he ‘dreaded the short stages’ like that 195km-long slog over four Pyrenean peaks and that instead he needed an ‘old-style Tour with long stages’, while Robic was buoyant and promising the show wasn’t over.
Five days after his Pyrenean raid, Robic grabbed back a chunk of his remaining deficit during a mammoth 139km time-trial, coming in second, 9min 46sec ahead of Vietto, who fell to fourth overall. The yellow jersey passed to
Brambilla, who now had a lead of nearly three minutes over Robic, who had climbed to third. And that was how things remained until the final day.
Today, of course, a truce is traditionally called on the last day of the Tour, with the race leader allowed to ride into Paris unchallenged. Not so in 1947. Robic was far from done and he attacked on the only gentle rise of the final stage 140km from Paris and got a lead over Brambilla. Édouard Fachleitner, a fellow Frenchman who was riding for the national team, tracked the move.
Fachleitner was well placed himself overall but crucially was a few minutes down on Robic. The Breton convinced Fachleitner that he would not be able to beat him and so he might as well work with him instead (the 100,000 francs he reportedly promised in return probably helped). Robic came into the Parc des Princes eighth, but more importantly over 13 minutes ahead of Brambilla. In what L’equipe called a ‘spectacular twist’, Robic had won the Tour of the Liberation on the final day, without ever wearing yellow on the roads of France.
Giles Belbin is the author of Tour de France Champions: An A to Z (thehistorypress.co.uk)