1934 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

The first stage was won by 1933 winner Speicher, and again wore the yellow jersey. In the second stage, he lost his lead as there was a split, with Speicher in the second part and Magne in the leading group, and Magne took over the leading position.

In the fifth stage, Le Grevès and Speicher finished close together. After examining the photo finish, both cyclists shared the time bonus, although Le Grevès was named winner.

After stage six, before the heavy climbing in the alps, Magne was leading with almost 8 minutes on second-placed Martano. In the alps, Vietto was the best. He won stages 7 and 9, and climbed to third place in the general classification, half an hour behind Magne. Had he not lost 40 minutes in the first two stages due to flat tires, he would have been the leader of the race. Martano had been able to reduce the margin to Magne to 125 seconds.

The stages 12 to 14, between the Alps and the Pyrénées, were won by French cyclists, without important changes in the general classification. In the fifteenth stage, Magne attacked on an early climb, but Martano did not drop. The big climb of the day was the Puymorens, and Vietto lead while Magne and Martano followed. On the way down, Magne crashed on a pothole, and broke the wooden rim of his front wheel. Martano saw his chances, and raced away. Magne asked Vietto for his bicycle, but Vietto only gave him his front wheel. Magne's frame had been bent in the crash, so when Speicher, the next French cyclist, showed up, Magne took Speicher's bicycle. Vietto had to wait several minutes to get a replacing front wheel, and lost all chances for the stage victory. A photographer was present to take a picture of Vietto, weeping with a bike without a front wheel. When this picture was published, the cycling world was touched, and newspapers proclaimed him "Le Roi René" (King René).

In the sixteenth stage, things got worse for Vietto. He was first over the first two mountains, with his team leader Magne and Martano closely following. On the descent of the Portet d'Aspet, Magne crashed again, and broke his rear wheel. Vietto was unaware of this, and continued. When he was down, a Tour course marshall informed him that his team leader had crashed. Lapébie was far ahead, and all the other French cyclists were far behind, so Magne was without support. Vietto then turned around, and rode back up the mountain. When he reached Magne, Magne took Vietto's bicycle. Magne rode down, reached Lapébie who had waited for him, and together they caught Martano. Vietto had to wait for the service car to bring him a new bicycle, and finally finished four minutes behind Magne, Martano and Lapébie. Vietto was not happy with what had happened, and he said that Magne did not know how to ride, and that Lapébie should not have been so far ahead. Magne on the other hand was grateful for what Vietto and Lapébie did.

In the seventeenth stage, Magne was able to get away from Martano who broke his frame, and finished 13 minutes ahead of thim while winning the stage. Magne now lead with almost 20 minutes. In the eighteenth stage, Magne lost four minutes to Martano. It could have been more, had not Vietto and Lapébie collected the time bonuses on the mountains and the finish.

In the next flat stages, nothing really changed the general classification except the individual time trial in stage 21. Magne won there, increasing the margin to Martano by 8 minutes. Vietto had won back enough time to end in fifth place in the general classification, and won the mountains classification. Magne had ridden consistently in the entire Tour, and had benefitted from his team support. He won his second Tour de France, the fifth in a row for France.