1911 Tour de France
Route of the 1911 Tour de France
Followed clockwise, starting in Paris |
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| Race details | ||||||||||
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| Dates | 2–30 July | |||||||||
| Stages | 15 | |||||||||
| Distance | 5,343 km (3,320 mi) | |||||||||
| Winning time | 43 points | |||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||
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| Winner |
 Gustave Garrigou (FRA)
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| Second |
Paul Duboc (FRA)
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| Third |
Émile Georget (FRA)
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The 1911 Tour de France was the ninth edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 2 to 30 July. It was composed of 15 stages over 5,343 kilometres (3,320 mi), ridden at an average speed of 27.322 km/h. The results were computed by giving each rider points according to his finishing position on each stage, and the rider with the least points at the end of the race won the overall competition. It was a gruelling tour, with the longest stage, 470 km long, taking almost 18 hours for the fastest riders to complete. Out of the 84 riders who started the tour, only 28 completed the race. After the introduction of the Pyrénées in the previous edition, in 1911 the Alps were first visited; for this addition, the 1911 edition has been named the first modern Tour.
Newcomer Paul Duboc won four stages and was close to winning the Tour, but he fell sick mid-way through the race while he was in second place in the general classification. The winner was Gustave Garrigou, who also won two stages.
In 1910, the Tour de France included the Pyrenees mountains for the first time. That was a success, so in 1911 the Tour organisers also included the Alps. The favourite mountain of the Tour organiser Henri Desgrange was the Col du Galibier, about which he wrote "O, col Bayard, O, Tourmalet... next to Galibier you are worthless." During the 1910 Tour, cyclists had protested against the inclusion of high mountains, but at the 1911 Tour, all important cyclists were present.
What did not change was the points system; similar to the 1905–1910 Tours, this race was decided on points. A cyclist received points, based on their rankings. As in 1910, the points system was "cleaned up" two times: after the ninth stage and after the 14th stage. Cyclists who had abandoned the race were removed from the rankings of the previous stages, and the classification was recalculated.
Since 1906, the Tour de France had crossed the German border into Alsace-Lorraine. After 1910, the German authorities did not allow this any more, so the Tour stayed in France.
As in the year before, there were two categories of riders. The best riders started in sponsored teams; there were four different teams, with 37 riders in total. The stages had checkpoints where riders had to sign, and on these checkpoints the sponsored riders were allowed to be given food and drinks. The other category consisted of 67 isolated riders; they were not allowed to be given food or drinks during these checkpoints.
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