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"Never, Never!" The riders, whose agonies were real, fought hazards on every hairpin bend. Half of them dropped out. Several were seriously injured in collisions or falls; the leading Italian rider was sent sprawling by a well-wisher who hurled a cooling bucket of water at his head. In last year's race, France's favorite whirled off a mountain road and broke his back; last year's winner suffered the same fate in a warmup race last March. Most riders take five or six bone-jarring spills a year. Spain's Federico Bahamontes quit the 1957 race crying: "No human being is capable of this kind of torture." Pleaded his trainer: "For your wife, for Spain, for Franco!" Groaned Bahamontes: "Never, never, never.'' Two years later, he was back—and won.
The ten-man teams (from nine countries and three French regions) usually agree among themselves to help their fastest rider win, e.g., by shielding him from wind, accidentally bumping challenging rivals. Jacques Anquetil, the fair-haired, phlegmatic 1957 winner, wrestled bitterly with a teammate in 1959, last year refused to ride with him. This year, in unchallenged command, he extracted a loyalty oath from each team member. Seizing a spectacular eight-minute lead by the second day—the winner often scrapes in by seconds—he stayed so far ahead of the pack that he started "relaxing" as he neared the finish by week's end. He is assured of fame. In a survey a few years ago, only 25% of French soldiers interviewed knew the name of France's Premier; 97% could name the Tour de France winner.
Boost on Bus. The Tour has inspired myriad tales of heroism and villainy over the years. A bronze plaque in Bayonne commemorates the gallantry of one Eugène Christophe, who in 1913 simultaneously shattered his shoulder and his third bicycle, hoisted the wreck on his back and trotted 14 miles to a blacksmith's shop, where a new frame was hammered out.
(He lost anyway.) One of the Tour's ignoblest chapters was written in 1926 by 47 riders who got caught in a rainstorm and hopped a passing bus. Bribing the driver to put them off near the end of the day's run, they finished, pedaling furiously, half an hour ahead of the rest of the pack. The ruse was not discovered until the bus driver asked a race official for his 47 fares.
Though contestants in the past often kept going on Benzedrine or hypodermic injections, in recent years they have been allowed nothing more than the "refresher" they carry in jugs on the handlebars. Each rider claims his formula is secret, but most consist of fruit juice, dextrose, caffeine, vitamin compounds.
What makes men endure the tortures of the Tour? Not prize money, which seldom amounts to more than $4,000 and is usually shared by the winner with his team. The real profits come from personal appearances and advertising endorsements that can earn the winner more than $100,000 a year. Also-rans have the thrill of being called "angels" or "eagles" in the Paris papers. And any Frenchman who enters the Tour de France knows that he will hold friends and family entranced for the rest of his life. In the land of le vélo, he is forever un vrai héro.