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1905 Tour de France

July 9 to July 30

Results, stages with running GC, photos and history

1905 Tour Quick Facts:

3.021 km raced at an average speed of 27.48 km/hr.

60 starters and 24 classified finishers.

Tour boss Henri Desgrange recast the Tour to fight the problems of rider cheating and spectator interference. The stages mostly ended outside the finish towns. There were more stages (11) and the stages were shorter so that the riders would not have to start in the night. Instead of calculating the General Classification on elapsed time, the Tour was scored on points in order to make judging simpler.

After demonstrating his climbing superiority, René Pottier dropped out of the third stage with tendinitis. He would go on to win the 1906 Tour. Aucouturier, winner of the 1903 and 1904 Paris-Roubaix took the lead and later relinquished it to Trousselier, who had won Paris-Roubaix that Spring. Trousselier's consistency is made clear by his 5 stage wins.

1905 Tour de France Complete Final General Classification:

Louis Trousselier (Peugeot-Wolber): 35 points
Hippolyte Aucouturier (Peugeot-Wolber): 61
Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq (Saving): 64
Émile Georget (Cycles JC): 123
Lucien Petit-Breton (Cycles JC): 155
Augustin Ringeval (Cycles JC): 202
Paul Chauvet (Griffon): 231
Philippe Pautrat (Cycles JC): 248
Julien Gabory (Cycles JC): 255
Julien Maitron(Peugeot-Wolber): 304
Aloïs Catteau: 355
Martin Soulie (Cycles JC): 358
Léon Leygoute (Peugeot-Wolber): 394
Camille Fily (Guerin Cycles): 415
Antony Wattelier (Peugeot-Wolber): 441
Henri Lignon (Cycles JC): 488
Maurice Decaup (Alcyon-Dunlop): 49
Maurice Carriere: 497
Gustave Guillarme (Renault): 509
Julien "Samson" Lootens (Cycles JC): 515
Pinchau (no record of his first name): 707
Eugène Ventresque (Saving): 797
Fernand Lallement (Peugeot-Wolber): 797
Clovis Lacroix (Saving): 870

Stage results with running GC. Times are listed, but points were what determined the General Classification.

Stage 1: Sunday, July 9, Paris - Nancy, 340 km

1. Louis Trousselier: 11hr 25 min. 1 point

2. Jean-Bapatiste Dortignacq @ 3min. 2 points

3. René Pottier @ 4min. 3pt

4. Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 26min. 8pt

5. Henri Cornet s.t. 8pt

6. Augustin Ringeval @ 1hr 40min. 20pt

7. Emile Georget @ 2hr 40min. 31pt

8. Germain Fourchotte s.t. 32pt

9. Julien Gabory @ 2hr 48min. 34pt

10. Henri Lignon @ 3hr 39min. 45pt

GC after stage 1:

1. Louis Trousselier: 1 point

2. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 2

3. René Pottier: 3

Stage 2: Tuesday, July 11, Nancy - Besançon, 299 km

Major Ascent: Ballon d'Alsace

1. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 10hr 11min. 1pt

2. René Pottier @ 10min. 4pt

3. Louis Trousselier @ 26min. 8pt

4. Julien Maitron @ 31min. 10pt

5. Henri Cornet @ 45min 30sec. 13pt

6. Germain Fourchotte @ 51min 30sec. 15pt

7. Lucien Petit-Breton @ 1hr 10min. 19pt

8. Julien Gabory s.t. 20pt

9. Emile Georget s.t 21pt

10. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 1hr 29min. 25pt

GC after Stage 2:

1. René Pottier: 7 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 9pt

3. Louis Trousselier: 9pt

Stage 3: Saturday, July 11, Besançon - Grenoble, 327 km

1. Louis Trousselier: 11hr 14min. 1 point

2. Lucien Petit-Breton @ 45sec. 2pt

3. Augustin Ringeval @ 50sec. 3pt

4. Henri Cornet @ 5min. 4pt

5. Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 10min 15sec. 6pt

6. Philippe Pautrat @ 19min 50sec. 8pt

7. Paul Chauvet @ 19min 51sec. 9pt

8. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 19min 52sec. 10pt

9. Julien Maitron @ 19min 53sec. 11pt

10. Julien Gabory @ 19min 54sec. 12pt

GC after Stage 3:

1. Louis Trousselier: 10 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 15pt

3. Henri Cornet: 25pt

Stage 4: Sunday, July 16, Grenoble - Toulon, 348 km

Major Ascents: Bayard, Laffrey

1. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 13hr 19min 45sec. 1 point

2. Louis Trousselier @ 24min 10sec. 6pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 24min 11sec. 7pt

4. Julien Maitron @ 59min 1sec. 14pt

5. Lucien Petit-Breton @ 1hr 8min 24sec. 16pt

6. Emile Georget @ 1hr 8min 26sec. 17pt

7. Philippe Pautrat @ 1hr 8min 26sec. 18pt

8. Paul Chauvet @ 1hr 51min 15sec. 27pt

9. Germain Fourchotte @ 1hr 51min 16sec. 28pt

10. Augustin Ringeval @ 2hr 26min 15sec. 35pt

GC after Stage 4:

1. Louis Trousselier: 16 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 16pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 44pt

Stage 5: Tuesday, July 18, Toulon - Nîmes, 192 km

1. Louis Trousselier: 7hr 24min. 1 Point

2. Maurice Decaup s.t. 2 pt

3. Emile Georget @ 20sec. 3 pt

4. Lucien Petit-Breton @ 30sec. 4pt

5. Germain Fourchotte @ 50sec. 5pt

6. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 1min. 6pt

7. Augustin Ringeval @ 32min 30sec. 13 pt

8. Philippe Pautrat @ 32min 40sec. 14pt

9. Julien Gabory @ 33min. 15pt

10. Léon Leygoute s.t. 15 pt

GC after Stage 5:

1. Louis Troussellier: 17 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 34pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 50pt

Stage 6: Thursday, July 20, Nîmes - Toulouse, 307 km.

1. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 12hr 7min 45sec. 1 point

2. Lucien Petit-Breton s.t. 2pt

3. Louis Trousselier: @ 2sec. 3pt

4. Emile Georget @ 3sec. 4pt

5. Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 4sec. 5pt

6. Maurice Decaup @ 5sec. 6pt

7. Germain Fourchotte @ 6sec. 7pt

8. Alois Catteau @ 7sec. 8pt

9. Jean-Baptiste Fischer @ 8sec. 9pt

10. Julien Gabory @ 9sec. 10pt

GC after Stage 6:

1. Louis Trousselier: 20 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 39pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 51pt

Stage 7: Sunday, July 23, Toulouse - Bordeaux, 268 km

1. Louis Trousselier: 10hr 12min 40sec. 1 point

2. Philippe Pautrat @ 1sec. 2pt

3. Maurice Decaup @ 2sec. 3pt

4. Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 3sec. 4pt

5. Paul Chauvet @ 4sec 5pt

6. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 5sec. 6pt

7. Léon Leygoute @ 6sec. 7pt

8. Emile Georget @ 7sec. 8pt

9. Julien Gabory @ 8sec. 9pt

10. Camille Fily @ 9sec. 10pt

GC after Stage 7:

1. Louis Trousselier: 21 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 43pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 57pt

Stage 8: Tuesday, July 25, Bordeaux - La Rochelle, 257 km

1. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 8hr 25min 45sec. 1 point

2. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 1sec. 2pt

3. Louis Trousselier @ 2sec. 3pt

4. Augustin Ringeval @ 3sec. 4pt

5. Emile Georget @ 4sec. 5pt

6. Paul Chauvet @ 16min 55sec. 9pt

7. Jean-Baptiste Fischer @ 16min 56sec. 10pt

8. Camille Fily @ 16min 58sec. 11 pt

9. Lucien Petit-Breton @ 23min 17sec. 13pt

10. Julien Maitron @ 23min 20sec. 14pt

GC after Stage 8:

1. Louis Trousselier: 24 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 44pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 59pt

Stage 9: Thursday, July 27, La Rochelle - Rennes, 263 km.

1. Louis Trousselier: 10hr 25min 45sec. 1 point

2. Maurice Decaup @ 1sec. 2pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq @ 2sec. 3pt

4. Emile Georget @ 3sec. 4pt

5. Lucien Petit-Breton @ 4sec. 5pt

6. Philippe Pautrat @ 5sec. 6pt

7. Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 6sec. 7pt

8. Augustin Ringeval @ 7sec. 8pt

9. Gustave Guillarme @ 8sec. 9pt

10. Henri Lignon @ 9sec. 10pt.

GC after stage 9:

1. Louis Trousselier: 25 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 51pt

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 62pt

Stage 10: Saturday, July 29, Rennes - Caen, 167 km.

Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 6hr 33min 1sec. 1pt
Maurice Decaup @ 1sec. 2pt
Lucien Petit-Breton @ 2sec. 3pt
Louis Trousselier @ 3sec. 4pt
Philippe Pautrat @ 4sec. 5pt
Julien Maitron @ 5sec. 6pt
Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 6sec. 7pt
Augustin Ringeval @ 8sec. 9pt
Aloïs Catteau @ 9sec. 10pt.

GC after Stage 10

Louis Trousselier: 29 points
Hippolyte Aucouturier: 58pt
Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 63pt

11th and Final stage: Sunday, July 30, Caen - Paris, 253 km.

Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 7hr 30min. 1 point
Lucien Petit-Breton @ 1sec. 2pt
Hippolyte Aucouturier @ 2min 30sec. 3pt
Louis Trousselier @ 17min 1sec. 6pt
Augustin Ringeval @ 23min 8pt
Emile Georget @ 25min 15sec. 9pt
Paul Chauvet @ 1hr 18min 10sec. 20pt
Henri Lignon s.t. 20pt
Antony Wattelier @ 1hr 18min 15sec. 22pt
Camille Fily @ 1hr 40min. 27 pt

Final 1905 Tour De France General Classification

The Story of the 1905 Tour de France

This excerpt is from "The Story of the Tour de France", Volume 1 If you enjoy it we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print or electronic. The Amazon link here will make either purchase easy.

Desgrange understood that he had to make the race easier to supervise, in order to reduce cheating. The 1903 and 1904 versions of the Tour had been decided on elapsed time, but for 1905 Desgrange changed to points to determine the winner. The rider with the lowest total when his placings were added up won the race. If a racer won all 11 stages he would have a points total of 11. This method continued until 1913. Today, this system is used, with some refinements and adjustments, to determine the winner of the sprinter's competition for the Tour's Green Jersey.

Desgrange also shortened the stages and increased their number. The 1905 edition had 11 stages, reducing the amount of riding in the dark. The longest stage of 1905 was the fourth stage, 348 kilometers. It was still terribly long by modern standards but nothing like the stages of the earlier Tours that could approach 500 kilometers. The 1905 Tour was substantially longer, being 2,994 kilometers, compared to the roughly 2,400 kilometers of the first 2 editions.

The 1905 Tour is notable for another big change. One of Desgrange's staffers, Alphonse Steinès, had a vision of how to make the Tour even more heroic. He wanted to include mountains. Up until now the Tour had been raced almost entirely on flat roads. So far the 1,145 meter high Col de la Républic was the only lump the Tour had the racers climb. At Steinès' urging, Desgrange had the Tour take a trip through the Vosges Mountains in Eastern France with the Ballon d'Alsace (12.5 km of a 5.2% average gradient, with a patch of 10%) and the Col Bayard climbs. Desgrange was terribly afraid of a failure. He reluctantly buckled under Steinès' advocacy, telling him if the racers could not get over the mountains, the blame would be his. Yet Desgrange, true to form, took the credit when it was a roaring success.

Fans still scattered nails to hinder the riders. It was estimated that 125 kilograms of nails were used on the roads of the first stage. Since only 15 riders were able to make it to the finish of that first stage on their bikes, Desgrange let riders who arrived by car or train start the next day without disqualification. Yet, for all that, the 1905 edition was more civilized than the year before. Louis Trousselier, riding for Peugeot, won the first stage and the lead.

Louis Trousselier

A L'Auto caricature of Louis Trousselier

The second stage, from Nancy to Besançon, had the feared climb up the Ballon d'Alsace. The riders were allowed to change to bikes with lower gears. On the climb, it came down to a contest among 4 riders, Trousselier, René Pottier, Hippolyte Aucouturier and the winner of the 1904 Tour, Henri Cornet. Trousselier succumbed first, then Aucouturier couldn't take the pace. It was left to the young Cornet and Pottier in the final kilometers. Finally Cornet had to yield and let Pottier ride away. At the top of the mountain Pottier changed bikes. To make that defeat more painful, Cornet had to wait at the top of the mountain for 20 minutes for his replacement bike with a higher gear for the descent and run-in to Besançon. His support car with the bike had broken down. Aucouturier caught and dropped Pottier, the first "King of the Mountains" and won the stage by 10 minutes. At the end of the stage, Pottier did have the lead in the General Classification with 7 points to the 9 held by both Aucouturier and Louis Trousselier.

Pottier, having suffered a crash during the stage, was unable to start stage 3.

The next day, stage 4 from Grenoble to Toulon included the Bayard and Laffrey climbs. Aucouturier and Trousselier dueled in the mountains with Aucouturier the winner. He rode into Toulon 24 minutes in front of Trousselier. While the time differences are a good tool to understand the relative strengths of the riders, they in no way affect the standings. A win by a second is as good as a win by an hour.

The General Classification after stage 4:

Louis Trousselier: 16 points

Hippolyte Aucouturier 16

Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq 44



The August 6, 1905 edition of La Stampa Sportiva. In the upper square is Lucien Petit-Breton. The big picture taken from above is of 1905 Tour winner Louis Trousellier signing in at the start of the final stage in Caen. The lower left picture is of Henri Cornet, who was awarded the 1904 victory after the cheating scandals.

Trousselier won 2 more stages and made sure that he had high placings in the others. His consistent riding earned him a clean victory. He ended up with only 35 points to Trousselier's 61. Remember, the lowest points total won. Trousselier, nicknamed "Trou-Trou" by the public, had a tough edge. At one checkpoint where the riders were required to sign in, he broke the inkstands so that following riders could not sign in.

The night after he won the final stage, Trousselier spent the entire evening gambling and drinking with his friends. When the night was over, Trousselier had lost every bit of his Tour winnings, 6,950 Francs. Since he had taken an unofficial leave from the army to ride the Tour, the next day, broke, he rejoined his regiment.

Lois Trousselier

Louis Trousselier in 1905.

Final 1905 Tour de France General Classification:

1. Louis Trousselier: 35 points

2. Hippolyte Aucouturier: 61 points

3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq: 64 points

4. Émile Georget: 123 points

5. Lucien Petit-Breton: 155 points

1905 Tour de France

July 9 to July 30

Results, stages with running GC, photos and history

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