The Final Descent, by Michael Thompson

Title: The Final Descent – The Untold Story of the First Rider to Die in the Tour de France
Author: Michael Thompson
Publisher: Thompson
Year: 2023
Pages: 213
Order: Thompson
What it is: A biography of Francisco ‘Paco’ Cepeda, who died while taking part in the 1935 Tour de France
Strengths: Thompson’s dogged research has scraped away the layer of myth and lies that have become attached to Cepeda’s story, allowing him to get to the truth beneath and offer a fitting tribute to the first rider to die during the Tour as a consequence of a racing accident
Weaknesses: As with a lot of cycling books, a few more pictures would be appreciated

Rising in the north of the Massif des Écrins and fed by the meltwater of the Plate des Agneux glacier, the Romanche river flows down through the valley that bears its name, passing Bourg-d’Oisans and Vizille before emptying into the Drac near Grenoble, after just 78 kilometres. In the early part of the twentieth century the river fed local industries, its water producing electricity which powered paper mills and steel works in the villages along its length.

Rioupéroux is one such village, about halfway between Bourg-d’Oisans and Vizille. Little distinguishes it from other villages in the Romanche valley. But in 1935, toward the end of the seventh stage of the twenty-ninth Tour de France, Rioupéroux’s name was written into the history books. It was there, on Thursday July 11th, on an innocuous stretch of road on the outskirts of the village, that the Spanish rider Francisco ‘Paco’ Cepeda fell and fractured his skull. His unconscious body was rushed to a hospital in Grenoble where, three days later, he succumbed to his injuries and died. He was the Tour’s first racing fatality, and only the second rider to die during the race, after Adolphe Hélière’s rest-day death in 1910 while swimming.

Except … the history books do not remember Rioupéroux. Cepeda’s death, they almost all tell you, occurred on the descent off the Galibier. Most keep it that simple, he died descending Henri Desgrange’s favourite mountain. Some of the more inventive add garish colour by having Cepeda plunge off the road into a ravine.

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