Brive - Agen: Koblet's grand exploit

We have been chasing flat out for more than 100 kilometres. But the more we pushed ahead the greater became his lead... Koblet must have a motor under his chest - Lucien Lazaridès

The greatest single stage in Tour de France history? The claims are many and various: Eddy Merckx in 1969 winning at Mourenx by eight minutes, doubling an already safe lead in the process. Or Ocaña's grand escape two years later to Orcières-Merlette, leaving the same Merckx for dead. Some would mark out the great rampages across the Alps by Bartali in 1938 and 1948; by Coppi in 1949 or Charly Gaul in that torrential storm in the Chartreuse in 1958. Or there were the psychological gains: small time gaps but massive mental damage to the beaten riders. One thinks of Hinault trouncing the field with Herrera at Avoriaz in 1985, or Miguel Indurain rewriting all expectations with a grand attack at Liège in 1995, immediately before the first big time trial, where convential wisdom would have made him first show his hand.

Falling into this latter category is the stage from Brive to Agen in the 1951 Tour, and the author of the great exploit was Hugo Koblet, previously better known as a pursuiter (he was Swiss champion at the discipline every year from 1947 to 1954, and a bronze medallist at the Worlds' in 1947). True, he had shown his stage racing pedigree in 1950, winning the Giro d'Italia that year, but the Giro wasn't the Tour, so the experts said. What could he do in the senior race?, wondered the critics. The answer wasn't long in coming, for in 1951 Koblet received his chance.

Koblet was soon in the thick of the action, attacking alone on the first stage before slipping back into the bunch after 40 kilometres. Riding alone was always a speciality, so perhaps it wasn't too much of a surprise when he won the opening time trial to Angers, beating Bobet and Coppi in the process. More of a surprise was Koblet's attack on the stage to Agen, for conventional wisdom held it that the stars would wait until the Pyrenees before showing their hands. Instead, with 140 kilometres of the stage still to ride, Koblet attacked under a burning sun. A minute was gained; the opposition considered he was just trying out his legs as on stage one. Two minutes. Three. Four...

Behind the big teams started to ride, but Koblet was well within himself. His manager, Alex Burtin, drove up to talk to him.

- "How do you feel?"
- "Very good", replied Koblet

With 70 kilometres to go, Koblet was still well ahead. Now was not the moment to lose all the benefit of his previous efforts. Once again Burtin drove up to Koblet.

- "Give it everything! Go on!"

Once more Koblet bent his back to the wheel. At the finish he crossed the line victorious, stopped his watch, took out a comb to comb his hair and waited the arrival of the peloton. Two minutes and thirty five seconds later Marcel Michel led a bunch of fifty riders into the finish. For nearly four hours one rider had fought against a bunch and won. One by one the tributes came in:

- "We have been chasing flat out for more than 100 kilometres. But the more we pushed ahead the greater became his lead... Koblet must have a motor under his chest" (Lucien Lazaridès)

- "If there were two Koblets in the sport I would retire from cycling tomorrow" (Raphaël Geminiani)

- "In the ten years that I have raced, I've never witnessed such an exploit" (Fiorenzo Magni)

- "The only way to beat him is to hope that he blows up tomorrow, but he is young, he will recuperate quickly." (Fausto Coppi)

The Tour of course was not over; indeed Koblet was still eight minutes down overall on leader Wim van Est (who was to lose his lead when he crashed on the Col d'Aubisque, earning the nickname "Le Roi des Tombeurs"), but Koblet had scored a crushing psychological blow. On the big Pyreneen stage to Luchon, traversing the Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde passes, Koblet punctured before the top of the Tourmalet, but calmly waited for service before chasing back his rivals. On the valley leading to the Aspin first Bartali, then Bobet, Ockers and Geminiani were dropped; by the summit Koblet had caught Coppi, whom he easily outsprinted at the finish. The yellow jersey was Koblet's, never to be relinquished. Second overall, but a massive twenty two minutes behind in Paris, was Raphaël Geminiani; he was to stay in the sport, for there turned out to be only one Hugo Koblet, and a series of injuries and a run of poor form ensured that Brive - Agen, 1951, was to remain the singular Koblet's finest moment.

Stage winners

	Stage	Winner	Overall Leader
Stage 1	Metz - Reims, 185km	Giovanni Rossi	Giovanni Rossi
Stage 2	Reims - Ghent, 228km	Jean Diederich	Jean Diederich
Stage 3	Ghent - Le Treport, 219km	Georges Meunier	Diederich
Stage 4	Le Treport - Paris, 188km	Roger Levêque	Diederich
Stage 5	Paris - Caen, 215km	Serafino Biagioni	Serafino Biagioni
Stage 6	Caen - Rennes, 182km	Edouard Muller	Roger Levêque
Stage 7	La Guerche - Angers, 85km TT	Hugo Koblet	Levêque
Stage 8	Angers - Limoges, 241km	André Rosseel	Levêque
Stage 9	Limoges - Clermont Ferrand, 236km	Raphaël Geminiani	Levêque
Stage 10	Clermont Ferrand - Brive, 216km	Bernardo Ruiz	Levêque
Stage 11	Brive - Agen, 177km	Koblet	Levêque
Stage 12	Agen - Dax, 185km	Wim van Est	Wim van Est
Stage 13	Dax - Tarbes, 201km	Biagioni	Gilbert Bauvin
Stage 14	Tarbes - Luchon, 142km	Koblet	Hugo Koblet
Stage 15	Luchon - Carcassonne, 213km	Rosseel	Koblet
Stage 16	Carcassonne - Montpellier, 213km	Koblet	Koblet
Stage 17	Montpellier - Avignon, 224km	Louison Bobet	Koblet
Stage 18	Avignon - Marseille, 173km	Fiorenzo Magni	Koblet
Stage 19	Marseille - Gap, 208km	Armand Baeyens	Koblet
Stage 20	Gap - Briançon, 213km	Fausto Coppi	Koblet
Stage 21	Briançon - Aix-les-Bains, 201km	Ruiz	Koblet
Stage 22	Aix-les-Bains - Geneva, 97km TT	Koblet	Koblet
Stage 23	Geneva - Dijon, 197km	Germain Derijcke	Koblet
Stage 24	Dijon - Paris, 322km	Adolphe Deledda	Koblet

In a nutshell

• For the first time since 1926, the start is not held in Paris
• First major excursion into the Massif Central
• Van Est abandons whilst yellow jersey after a crash on the Col d'Aubisque. He was the first Dutch Yellow-Jersey wearer

Results

Overall

1st: Hugo Koblet, Switzerland, 4697km in 142h 20' 14" (32.979km/h)
2nd: Raphaël Geminiani, France, @ 22' 00"
3rd: Lucien Lazaridès, France, @ 24' 16"
4th: Gino Bartali, Italy, @ 29' 09"
5th: Stan Ockers, Belgium, @ 32' 53"
6th: Pierre Barbotin, France, @ 36' 40"
7th: Fiorenzo Magni, Italy, @ 39' 14"
8th: Gilbert Bauvin, Est - Sud-Est, @ 45' 53"
9th: Bernardo Ruiz, Spain, @ 45' 55"
10th: Fausto Coppi, Italy, @ 46' 51"

(66th: Abd el Kader Zaaf, Algeria (Afrique du Nord) 3h 51' 00")

Mountains

1st: Raphaël Geminiani, France, 66
2nd: Gino Bartali, Italy, 59
=3rd: Fausto Coppi, Italy; Hugo Koblet, Switzerland; Bernardo Ruiz, Spain, 41

Team

1st: France 426h 47' 36"
2nd: Belgium @ 44' 37"
3rd: Italy @ 1h 22' 13"

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