This is Eugene Christophe, winner of Milan-San Remo (1910), Paris-Tours (1920), Bordeaux-Paris (1920 and ’21) and 3 stages in the 1912 Tour de France. He was the first cyclist ever to wear the yellow jersey, had several top 10 Tour placings, but he’s most famous for broken bikes - specifically broken bike forks.He had forks fail on him 3 times in different Tours, but the most famous incident was on the descent of the Col du Tourmalet in 1913 when he was leading the race by some distance.
He was 10 kilometres from the bottom of the climb when the forks went, and Christophe knew he’d have to repair them because no replacement parts were allowed. He picked up his bike and began jogging down the mountain. This is a summary of what happened taken from L’Auto, the sponsoring newspaper.
Christophe found a blacksmith in the valley village of Ste-Marie-de-Campan. He stoked up the forge, took some metal tubing from the smith, and fashioned a new fork blade. It was difficult, Christophe needed both hands for the repair, but forges require blasts of air to keep the fire hot enough to work metal. Christophe asked the boy who worked there to operate the bellows for him, and it was noted by the race officials who had stopped to see he did the repair himself. Tour de France rules said he must.
With the repair done Christophe set off to complete the stage, but he knew he’d broken race rules by having the blacksmith’s lad help him. He knew the officials would penalise him, and he was angry. Earlier, when one of them said he was going out to the village to get some food, Christophe growled; “Stay there and eat coal. While you watch me, I am your prisoner, and you are my jailer.”
The work took three hours, then Christophe had to climb the Aspin and the Peyresourde, eventually arriving in Luchon three hours and 50 minutes behind the stage winner, Philippe Thys.
He’d taken nearly 18 hours to complete the 326 kilometres. Officials added 10 minutes to his time but reduced it on appeal to 3. Eugene Christophe never won the Tour de France, 1913 turned out to be his best chance.
