1934 TDF Left behind...

The courageous RENE VIETTO alone in his sacrifice....

Stage 15: Friday, July 20, Perpignan - Aix les Thermes, 158 km with major ascent, the Cold de Puymorens.

 

After yellow jersey Antonin Magne crashed on the descent of the Col de Puymorens he asked for the bike of René Vietto who was accompanying him. Vietto dutifully gave his team leader the front wheel of his bike. Unfortunately, Magne's frame was bent in the crash. When world champion Georges Speicher showed up, Magne took Speicher's bike.

So, young Vietto was left alone. and stayed behind on the Puymorens waiting for help.

There is a picture of Vietto, weeping by the side of a mountain road, the front wheel of his bike missing. He knows that the Tour is going down the road without him. In some pictures of the scene a man in street clothes holds a smashed wheel in his hands.

 

And this was still not the last sacrifice of Vietto. There was more to come in the 16th stage....

 

(picture "100 years Tour de France 1903-2003", "Het Laatste Nieuws", 2003)

 

 

Done