René Pottier (5 June 1879 in Moret-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne – 25 January 1907 in Levallois-Perret) was a French racing cyclist. Pottier won the amateur category of the 1903 Bordeaux–Paris race before turning professional. He came second in Paris–Roubaix 1905 and Bordeaux–Paris 1905, then third in 1906's Paris–Roubaix, before winning the Tour de France in 1906. Pottier tdf06

He was considered the finest climber of the Tour. In the 1905 race he was first up the

Ballon d'Alsace The Ballon d'Alsace german: Elsässer Belchen (el. 1247 m.), sometimes also called the Alsatian Belchen to distinguish it from other mountains named " Belchen" is a mountain at the border of Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche-Comté. From its top, vi ...

but lost the lead to

Hippolyte Aucouturier Hippolyte Aucouturier (17 October 1876 – 22 April 1944) was a French professional road bicycle racer. Aucouturier, a professional between 1900 and 1908, won two stages at the first Tour de France in 1903 and won three stages and finished ...

after nails punctured his final spare tyre. He finished the stage only when Aucouturier gave him one of his spare tyres. Injury due to a fall on the next stage to Grenoble caused him to abandon. The following year he took five stage wins out of thirteen and overall victory with 31 points. Again he was first up the Ballon d'Alsace but this time he stayed ahead, finishing as Dijon 48 minutes before his nearest competitor. He also won in Grenoble by fifteen minutes and at Nice by 26 minutes. He completed the 4,546 km in 189 hours, 34 minutes at an average 23.98kmh. In September 1906 he won the Bol d'Or 24-hour cycle race at the Vélodrome Buffalo in Paris with 925.290 km. On 25 January 1907 he committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

by hanging himself on his bike hook after hearing his wife had found a lover while he was away at the Tour. A few weeks later,

Henri Desgrange Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 – 16 August 1940) was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France. Yo ...

, patron of the Tour, erected a

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

in his memory at the top of the

, a summit in Vosges.

1906 Tour de France

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

, the Tour crossed the

Col du Ballon d'Alsace The Col du Ballon d'Alsace () is a mountain pass situated close to the summit of the Ballon d'Alsace () in the Vosges Mountains of France. It connects Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle (Vosges) with Masevaux (Haut-Rhin) and Belfort. The Ballon d'Alsace ...

for the second time and Pottier was again the first rider over the summit. He arrived at

Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle (, literally ''Saint-Maurice on Moselle'') is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Vosges department The following is a list of the 507 communes ...

in a group of 19 riders: according to ''L'Auto'': "At the foot of the climb, Pottier bolted, as if the bell had sounded the final lap of a track race. He hadn't reached the first hairpin before the group was torn apart." The other riders soon dropped away with only

Augustin Ringeval Augustin Ringeval was a French cyclist of the early 1900s. He was born in Aubigny-aux-Kaisnes in 1882. Among other competitions, he participated in his first Tour de France in 1905. He went on to participate in many other Tours until 1913, He ...

able to briefly keep in contact with Pottier although even he was dropped well before the summit:

Pottier and Ringeval are alone now. A brief but terrifying duel breaks out, until, making a final demand from his boundless reserves, the leader pulls away into the teeth of the gradient. Ringeval loses ground, makes it up again with a magnificent effort, then drops back again, done for!

Pottier crossed the summit alone, over four minutes ahead of the next rider and maintained his lead into the stage finish at Dijon, going on to win the whole race in Paris three weeks later.

Those of us who witnessed his interminable, solitary, high-speed ride were left wondering whether it had not all been a dream, and asking ourselves what mysterious force it is that possesses the human organism and allows it to push back the boundaries of the possible.

Following his death, a monument to him was erected at the summit of the Col du Ballon d'Alsace.

Tour de France results

1905 Tour de France The 1905 Tour de France was the third edition of the Tour de France, held from 9 to 30 July, organised by the newspaper '' L'Auto''. Following the disqualifications after the 1904 Tour de France, there were changes in the rules, the most importan ...

: Abandoned after the 3rd stage *

1906 Tour de France The 1906 Tour de France was the fourth edition of the Tour de France, and the second to use the points system. Taking place from 4 to 29 July, the total race distance was run over 13 stages, with the winner averaging . New to this year's edition ...

Overall winner and winner of 5 stages

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pottier, Rene 1879 births 1907 suicides Sportspeople from Seine-et-Marne French male cyclists Tour de France winners French Tour de France stage winners Suicides by hanging in France Cyclists from Île-de-France