1914 Tour de France
The twelfth Tour de France took place between July 26, 1914 June 28. Overall, the drivers had to travel on 15 stages 5405 km. The average speed was 27.028 km / h The start of the tour was at Saint-Cloud, the goal at the Paris Parc des Princes. 54 Of the 145 riders started reaching the goal.
Race course
The team of Peugeot dominated the tour: She dominated 11 of the 15 stages and placed three members on the final podium.
On the first day of the Belgian Philippe Thys could take over the overall lead and did not let on to your destination. From the second to the sixth stage he had to share with his fellow countryman Jean Rossius the lead, however. Thys won the first stage at the same time before Rossius. The second stage was won by Rossius, Thys was at the same time in second. Now, since both had the same time and identical stage placements, they shared the first rank. During the sixth stage succeeded Thys themselves from Rossius. Rossius finished the Tour in fourth. Thys was in the end only a lead of 1:50 minutes on Henri Pélissier, because he had received a time penalty of 30 minutes. On the penultimate stage of Longwy after Dunkirk he had used an unauthorized road.
On the day of the first stage of Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, which triggered the First World War. Many participants were recruited after the tour because of the general mobilization of the military. Until 1919 there should be no Tour de France more.