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Luxembourg's proud Tour history Posted: Friday July 05, 2002 6:00 AMLUXEMBOURG (Reuters) -- Tiny Luxembourg, where the Tour de France begins Saturday, is a minnow in most international sports but boasts a proud record in cycling. While most countries would be delighted to be drawn against Luxembourg in a soccer competition, the European Union's smallest nation, wedged between France, Germany and Belgium, has often matched its big neighbors in terms of cycling prowess. Alpine skier Marc Girardelli was perhaps the best-known Luxembourg sports personality internationally, though the five-time World Cup champion raced for the Grand Duchy only after falling out with team officials in his native Austria. But the real heroes in the country's sporting history are cyclists. The Grand Duchy has had three Tour winners in Francois Faber, Nicolas Frantz and Charly Gaul, which is more than the United States, Switzerland and even a big cycling nation like the Netherlands. To be fair, Faber, who won the 1909 race, was the son of a Luxembourg citizen but had lived in France all his life, in Colombes near Paris. Faber, who had worked as a removals man before taking up cycling, can be blamed for how gruelling a race the Tour has become. "It was very easy," he said dismissively after his 1909 victory. "A rider makes much more money than a removals man and works far less." The remarks prompted then Tour director Henri Desgranges to seek ways to make the race more demanding and he decided to take the peloton up the Pyrenees for the first time. Faber still holds a Tour record as the man with most successive stage victories in one race -- five in 1909. Mountain angel But the most successful Tour rider from the Grand Duchy was Frantz, who won the race in 1927 and 1928. He could thank Faber for his victories as Frantz, nicknamed "The Locomotive," was especially good in the mountains. In 1928, his dominance was such that he became the first man to hold the leader's yellow jersey from start to finish. In the hearts of many, Gaul, one of the most exceptional climbers in cycling history, remains the most cherished Tour winner from Luxembourg. Dubbed "The Mountain Angel," Gaul shocked the whole of France in 1958 when he overtook Gallic hero and three-times winner Louison Bobet in a time trial for his only Tour victory. He was crowned king of the mountains in 1955 and 1956. The last Luxembourg cyclist to ride the Tour was Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal team mate Benoit Joachim in 2000. The Tour first stopped in Luxembourg in 1947 and the race also started from the Grand Duchy in 1989. This year, Luxembourg, which is just 2,600 square kilometres in size and has a population of 435,000, hosts the prologue on Saturday, Sunday's first stage and the start of Monday's stage before the race moves into France.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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