1923 Tour de France
Route of the 1923 Tour de France
Followed counterclockwise, starting in Paris |
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| Race details | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 24 June – 22 July | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 15 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 5,386 km (3,347 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 222h 15' 30" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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Winner |
 Henri Pélissier (FRA)
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(Automoto) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second |
 Ottavio Bottecchia (ITA)
|
(Automoto) | |
| Third |
Romain Bellenger (FRA)
|
(Peugeot–Wolber) |
The 1923 Tour de France was the 17th edition of the Tour de France, taking place 24 June to 22 July. It consisted of 15 stages over 5386 km, ridden at an average speed of 24.233 km/h. The race was won by Henri Pélissier with a convincing half-hour lead to his next opponent, Italian Ottavio Bottecchia. In total, 139 cyclists entered the race, of which 48 finished. Pélissier's victory was the first French victory since 1911, as the Tour de France had been dominated by Belgian cyclists since then.
The French cyclists Henri and Francis Pélissier had stopped the 1920 Tour de France after Henri received a penalty from the Tour organisation for throwing away a tire. This had caused a fight between the Pélissier brothers and tour organiser Henri Desgrange, and because of this fight, the Pélissier brother had been absent in the 1921 and 1922 Tours de France. In 1921, Henri Desgrange wrote in his newspaper: "Pélissier doesn't know how to suffer. He will never win the Tour" Still, Henri Pélissier was the most talented French racer of his period, and in 1923 had won every major race except the Tour de France. The Tour de France had been dominated by Belgian cyclists in the last years, which was not good for the popularity of the race in France. The organiser knew that Pélissier in the race would increase the interest in the race, but did not want to apologize to Pélissier. Therefore, Desgrange wrote in l'Auto that Henri Pélissier was too old to win the Tour de France, and that Pélissier would therefore probably never start in the Tour de France. This was the reason for Pélissier to enter the race the same day.
In the 1922 Tour de France, Hector Heusghem had lost the race because he received a one-hour penalty for illegally changing his bicycle. The rules about reparations were changed in the 1923 Tour: technical assistance from team directors was allowed. It was still not allowed to change equipment with other cyclists.
Another introduction was the time bonus for stage winners. After each stage, the overall time of the stage winner was reduced with two minutes.
In previous years, the cyclists had been divided in two classes, the sponsored class and the unsponsored class. In 1923, this system changed, and three categories were used: the "first category", of the top cyclist, the "second category", of lesser but still sponsored cyclists, and the touriste-routiers, the quasi-amateurs. The sponsors, who had joined forces in the previous tours under the name La Sportive, were now financially stable enough to have their own teams. Automoto, sponsor of the team with the Pélissier brothers, had commercial interests in Italy, so wanted to have Italian cyclists in the team. Several Italian cyclists were hired, who were supposed to come to France. Only one Italian cyclist showed up, Ottavio Bottecchia, who had started as a professional the year before. The sponsor then decided that the marketing plan would not work with only one Italian cyclist, and wanted to send him back. At the last minute, Bottecchia was allowed to stay on the team.
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