Tour de France 2024: exploits, failures, borders… when the race changed in Occitania

Oscar Pereiro (à droite) avait pris le maillot grâce à une échappe fleuve entre Béziers et Montélimar lors du Tour 2006. EPA – OLIVER WEIKEN

Unforgettable exploits, memorable slacks, devastating border shots: the passage of the Tour in Languedoc sometimes rhymed more with emotion than transition. Memories sequence.

A land of transition between the Pyrenees and the Alps, Languedoc has often been a delight for sprinters on the Tour. Even a few adventurers, taking advantage of the relief of the Cévennes and the heat to carry out daring raids.

We almost forget that the race was also played at home. And more often than not in turn… Let's first mention these rare and dramatic moments like the fall of Roger Rivière in the descent of Perjuret (1960) which shattered much more than his hopes of victory, affected spinal cord.

The failure of Coppi in 1951

Nine years earlier, it was the great Fausto Coppi himself who had lost all his illusions on July 20, 1951 in a Carcassonne – Montpellier during which he burned his wings in a chase against a breakaway where Hugo Koblet, the yellow jersey, had managed to slip through. With more than half an hour out of pocket upon arrival, the Italian had paid a high price for his failure.

The contrary wind of destiny has often been fierce among us. Particularly when the mistral blows on platoons stretched like an endless day. In 2007, one of these nasty border shots launched by Vinokourov's Astana, trapped Christophe Moreau in Petite Camargue, who lost three minutes and his chances of victory in the process. In 2009, the same scenario, on the road to La Grande-Motte, allowed Lance Armstrong to trap Alberto Contador and place himself back in the general. To meditate on for today?

Jalabert in Mende on July 14

In the cupboard of memories, a few exploits packed with panache cannot be overlooked: Roger Pingeon's long ride between Font-Romeu and Albi in 1968 or that of Laurent Jalabert, July 14, 1995 for a fireworks display at the top of the Croix Neuve, in Mende.

Closer to home, it was during one of these stages that were destined for general flatness that the 2006 Tour de France experienced one of its major events. We are talking about this long breakaway, between Béziers and Montélimar, which allowed Oscar Pereiro to take an improbable yellow jersey.

Having escaped with Jens Voigt, winner of the stage, Sylvain Chavanel, Manuel Quinzato and Andriy Grivko, the Spaniard took back more than half an hour from all the favourites. In a rare event, the entire peloton had even arrived late… but was drafted.

Pereiro's incredible breakaway in 2006

Pereiro would keep his jersey until the Montceau-les-Mines time trial, the day before the finish, giving in to pressure from Floyd Landis. The American would eventually test positive for testosterone, two days after the finish in Paris. Pereiro would therefore be declared the winner on the green carpet. A first on the Tour, which will leave him with a taste of unfinished business.

“I quickly thought that I hadn't been able to celebrate my victory on the Champs as I could have, that Landis had prevented me from doing that. I knew that I would never relive this moment that should have been a great joy for me”, the Spaniard will declare.

We doubt that the peloton will leave today such room for maneuver to the escapees of the day…