Mythologies: Assassins of the Aubisque!

The 1910 Tour de France’s first ascent of the Col d’Aubisque has become a cornerstone of the Tour’s mythic history. The truth behind what really happened that day in July of 1910 is not quite the same as the story we all like to tell today.

L’Auto / BnF

We begin with what we already know, we begin with what the history books have repeatedly told us happened.

What the Historians Tell Us

A 03:30 hrs⁽¹⁾ in the morning of Thursday, July 21, 1910⁽²⁾, the 59 riders⁽³⁾ still in the eighth edition of the Tour de France⁽⁴⁾ started the race’s tenth stage⁽⁵⁾, 326 kilometres from from Luchon to Bayonne⁽⁶⁾. Between Luchon and Bayonne lay a series of climbs, starting with the Col de Peyresourde and the Col d’Aspin, followed by the Col du Tourmalet and climaxing with the three-in-one ascent of the Col du Soulor, Col de Tortes and the Col d’Aubisque.

It may actually have been two o’clock when the riders left Luchon, not three-thirty.⁽⁷⁾

On the eve of the stage Henri Desgrange took ill⁽⁸⁾ and he cabled for Victor Breyer to come down from Paris⁽⁹⁾ and take over control of the race.⁽¹⁰⁾ Once Breyer arrived in Luchon⁽¹¹⁾ Desgrange slipped out of town and back to Paris⁽¹²⁾, too scared to witness for himself the disaster he feared was about to unfold.⁽¹³⁾ So scared in fact was Desgrange of the prospect of the big mountains decimating the peloton that he issued a decree: even those who finished the stage in the broom wagon would be allowed to start the next day.⁽¹⁴⁾

Some say that Desgrange was so ill with worry that he’d been confined to his bed since before the Tour had even begun.⁽¹⁵⁾

For the riders, the first three of the day’s cols passed without much incident, Octave Lapize and Gustave Garrigou at the front of the race⁽¹⁶⁾, defending champion François Faber well down the running order.⁽¹⁷⁾

At the summit of the Aubisque⁽¹⁸⁾ Alphonse Steinès and Victor Breyer waited for the riders to arrive. Or was it three-quarters of the way up the climb?⁽¹⁹⁾ Or just halfway?⁽²⁰⁾

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