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29-580: A road leads over a pass near the peak at the Col du Ballon d'Alsace , 1,171 m (3,842 ft). The pass is noted as the site of the first official mountain climb in the Tour de France on 11 July 1905, the first rider to the top of the climb being René Pottier and the stage being won by Hippolyte Aucouturier . Stage 9 of the 2005 Tour crossed this pass on the centenary of the original climb. Ballon d'Alsace features Alpine and Cross Country skiing tracks. The mountain

58-695: A 100m lead to win. Aucouturier came to the Tour de France having won Paris–Roubaix . Speculation was that he and another prominent rider, Maurice Garin , would fight out the race between them. The paper published their picture and that of the German, Joseph Fischer on its front page on 1 July 1903. But Aucouturier abandoned after La Palisse, 320 km into the first stage, with stomach cramp said to be brought on by drinking too much. Nobody now knows if this means what it says, perhaps from unclean water, or if referred to drinking wine and sniffing ether , both aimed at numbing

87-431: A feverish sleep. The poor man has been beaten by his stomach... Lack of care has killed him. I'd foreseen Aucouturier's weakening [ effondrement ], but I thought it would have happened a lot further on. Brave Aucouturier! Your dream of glory has flown. Prepare your revenge! The rules allowed a rider who dropped out to start again next morning, but to compete for daily victories and not for the overall result. Aucouturier won

116-500: A monument to him was erected at the summit of the Col du Ballon d'Alsace. The Tour de France crossed over the Col du Ballon d'Alsace every year between 1905 and 1914, and then five times in the 1930s. Since World War II, the crossings have been less frequent, with the most recent being in 2005 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first passage. The tour has crossed the mountain twenty-one times in its history. Between 1967 and 1979,

145-560: Is a mountain pass situated close to the summit of the Ballon d'Alsace (1,247 m (4,091 ft)) in the Vosges Mountains of France. It connects Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle ( Vosges ) with Masevaux ( Haut-Rhin ) and Belfort . The Ballon d'Alsace was the first official mountain climb in the Tour de France on 11 July 1905 although the tour had crossed the slightly lower Col de la République (1,161 m (3,809 ft)) in each of

174-404: Is in a bad state." "Your stomach?", asked Géo Lefèvre. "Yes. It's finished, finished", Aucouturier replied. " Allons! Allons! Eat and you'll feel better", Géo Lefèvre said. He ate, he stood up, clenched his hands and slowly took hold of his machine. Poor beaten champion. The robust Hippolyte brought to ground by stomach pain, abandoned at La Palisse, 135km from the finish. Géo Lefèvre insisted

203-505: Is part of the so-called Belchen system , a group of mountains with the name "Belchen" (in German) that may have been part of a Celtic sun calendar . Ballon d'Alsace has a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfb ). The average annual temperature in Ballon d'Alsace is 6.6 °C (43.9 °F). The average annual rainfall is 2,263.6 mm (89.12 in) with December as

232-458: Is steep, in excess of 8%. The Ballon d'Alsace was first crossed by the Tour de France on the second stage of the 1905 tour , from Nancy to Dijon . In the first two Tours de France , the cycle race had crossed the Col de la République (1,161 m (3,809 ft)) south of Saint-Etienne . Following violent incidents at the Col de la République in 1904 , the tour's organiser Henri Desgrange decided to look elsewhere for challenges for

261-452: The velodrome at Roubaix alongside Claude Chapperon, 50 metres ahead of the others. Tradition had it that riders changed bikes at the entrance to the stadium, taking specialist track bikes to ride the three laps of the velodrome to the finish. Bikes waited for all the remaining riders and Chapperon mistakenly took Trousselier's machine. In the time it took him to realise his error and change to his own bicycle, Aucouturier passed him and took

290-535: The Ballon d'Alsace the following year and Pottier was again the first rider over the summit. He arrived at Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle 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 able to briefly keep in contact with Pottier although even he

319-430: The ascent of the Ballon d'Alsace ... was one of the most thrilling sights I have ever witnessed, and confirms my opinion that man's courage knows no limits and a highly trained athlete can aspire to remarkable performances. Thus was the myth born that the Col d'Alsace was the first mountain crossing in the history of the Tour de France, which is still maintained in the Tour's official history. The Tour returned to

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348-440: The cause was food poisoning. La Palisse, 2 July. Aucouturier has abandoned the race at La Palisse, telling me he could no longer continue the battle, that he had abominable stomach cramp caused by bad food. I followed Garin and Pagie from Nevers station to La Palisse, in other words all through the night... I saw Aucouturier demoralised at Moulins and he dropped out at La Palisse and he is now, it seems, in bed in his hotel, in

377-498: The finish line. Aucouturier and Garin slowed to a tactical crawl, each watching the other. Then Aucouturier sprinted away to win by two lengths. Aucouturier was one of the four leading riders disqualified at the end in a race so chaotic that Henri Desgrange swore he would never run another. The Tour had been bedevilled by protesters, some of whom attacked riders, and by trees felled across the road. So frequent were accusations of cheating among riders, including claims that some had taken

406-483: The moment they saw the Café Potard, a sprint broke out. Machines were thrown to the ground. Everyone rushed to be first to sign the register and to get away quickly. Tussles broke out over the pen-holder which sometimes disappeared, more or less intentionally, during the torment. Aucouturier was alone in the lead by early afternoon. Behind him in the rain, César Garin was catching him little by little until at Lens there

435-445: The pain of long days riding on bad roads with little food. The previous year he had had typhoid fever and he may not have recovered. The historian Pierre Chany , wrote: The big athlete in his blue and red jersey collapsed on a chair. He was crying and tears ran down the pink creases in his dusty face. "I've never felt like this before. My will is strong [ La tête est bonne ], my legs are good, but I'm not making progress. My stomach

464-449: The poor boy limps markedly. His unhappiness at not having been able to ride the race right to the end, to have abandoned it on the first stage, is without limit. A victory in the first Tour de France wouldn't have crowned his sporting career, because he still has long years in front of him, but it would have been his greatest glory. Console yourself, brave Aucouturier. Perhaps you will win the second Tour de France? The Paris–Roubaix of 1904

493-420: The previous two years. The first rider to the top of the Ballon was René Pottier , with the stage being won by Hippolyte Aucouturier . Stage 9 of the 2005 Tour crossed this pass on the centenary of the original climb. The "historic" ascent, as used in the early Tours de France, is from Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle (north). From here, the ascent is 9.0 km long climbing 619 m at an average of 6.9%. From

522-413: The riders and at the same time gain publicity for the tour and distract the public from the cheating that had taken place in 1904. Although only 17 metres higher than the Col de la République, the climb to the Ballon d'Alsace was steeper and Desgrange declared that no cyclist would be able to ride over it. Despite Desgrange's "over-dramatic" concerns, René Pottier crossed the summit first by riding all

551-463: The second stage, 374 km from Lyon to Marseille in 14h 28m, and the following stage from Marseille to Toulouse , 423 km in 13h 19m. He left the race for good the following day, racing to Bordeaux , when he crashed in Moissac . Aucouturier reached Paris, but not by bike. Lefèvre met him there: His crash... while not serious, troubles him a lot. He has one leg wrapped in a thick bandage and

580-478: The south, the climb starts at Malvaux, 4.5 km north of Giromagny . The climb is 12.4 km long, gaining 643 m at an average of 5.2%. From Sewen (east), the climb is 13.2 km long, at an average of 5.1%, gaining 678 m in height. This climb starts on the D466 and joins the route from the south after 10 km, at the col du Langenberg (1,060 m (3,478 ft)). The middle section (between 4 and 9 km)

609-516: 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. Pottier was found hanged at his home the following January, having committed suicide. Following his death,

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638-554: The tour had four mountain top finishes at the summit of the Col du Ballon d'Alsace. The col was crossed on Stage 8 of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes . The Col du Ballon d'Alsace is also used by amateur cyclists on the "Trois Ballons" sportive ride held in June (together with the climbs over the Grand Ballon and the Ballon de Servance ). Hippolyte Aucouturier Hippolyte Aucouturier (17 October 1876 – 22 April 1944)

667-404: The way to the top and, although he was passed by Hippolyte Aucouturier before the finish at Besançon , Pottier became the leader of the tour. Unfortunately, the pace of his ascent exacerbated injuries that he had sustained in a fall on Stage 1, and Pottier was forced to withdraw from the race the next day. Following the 1905 tour's successful passage over the Ballon d'Alsace, Desgrange declared:

696-560: The wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 14.9 °C (58.8 °F), and lowest in January, at around −1.2 °C (29.8 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Ballon d'Alsace was 32.3 °C (90.1 °F) on 24 July 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −19.1 °C (−2.4 °F) on 20 December 2009. Col du Ballon d%27Alsace The Col du Ballon d'Alsace (1,178 m (3,865 ft))

725-499: 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 second in the 1905 Tour de France . He also won Paris–Roubaix twice, in 1903 and 1904 . His elder brother Francois was also a racing cyclist. Aucouturier was an outspoken man whom the Tour organiser, Henri Desgrange , referred to in L'Auto as Le Terrible . The 1903 Paris–Roubaix , on 11 April,

754-404: Was decided when Aucouturier organised a chase to bring back a group which had escaped on the côte de St-Germain. Aucouturier took up the pursuit on the way to Pontoise , taking with him Louis Trousselier and others. They caught the fugitives and a new group formed on the côte d'Ennery. Aucouturier, recovered from typhoid the previous year, tested the group repeatedly before Doullens . He entered

783-433: 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

812-441: Was less than a minute between them. The two came together with 45 km to go. Garin fell when a car carrying journalists from La Vie au Grand Air ran into him. But the two were still together at Roubaix and raced on to the track to the cheers of a scant crowd. They had ridden so fast that only 20 people had arrived in time and judges from L'Auto arrived only just before the finish. Until their arrival, there had been no judge at

841-562: Was the first to be run without pacers. Until then, riders had been sheltered by tandems of two and three riders. Aucouturier, rider number 15, was in the leading group when the race reached the first signing-in point at Pontoise. The second check was at Beauvais , 49 km later. Race historian Pascal Sergent said: The crowd had started gathering outside the Café Potard, site of the control, from 6am. The leading group had been reduced to nine: Acouturier, Samson, Lepoutre, Chapperon, Wattelier, Pagie and Pothier. The nine riders came into town and

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