The race will go through Port-de-Couze with 25km to go as it speeds towards Bergerac. It’s here that the greatest ever tragedy to afflict the Tour de France occurred.
Stage 19 of the 1964 Tour de France went from Bordeaux to Brive. Along the way was Port-de-Couze, so-called for the canal and infrastructure used to make the Dordogne river navigable and sustain several factories in the valley.
The road layout has changed since. Back then there was a tight bend with a bridge over the canal. On the day of the race a vehicle in the publicity caravan skidded on the bend. Seeing the danger, the waiting crowd were moved off the bridge and to the other side of the road by local police.
After the caravan had passed a police tanker truck carrying kerosene to fuel a helicopter lost control on the same bend. Only this time it swerved to the other side of the road, hitting the crowd and falling into the canal, taking many people into the water with it.
People in the crowd spontaneously started a rescue mission, one spectator plunged into the water to rescue the truck driver and several lives were saved. The race itself reached the scene within a few minutes and the Tour’s medical staff worked to help the victims as stunned riders look on, grizzly reports tell of body parts floating. Nine or ten people died according to accounts, including four children, and many more sustained grave injuries.
Shocked riders opted to ride on, at first in a slow procession. A few kilometres later a man beside the road who had been waiting for the delayed peloton and unaware of the tragedy heckled the riders for being lazy. One rider, Pierre Everaert, got off his bike to punch his lights out. It needed the police to pull him off.
Today the Tour organisers fear an accident in the race convoy and publicity caravan as much as the peloton, for all the peloton safety talk the caravan is as important. A boy died in 2002 after he was struck by a publicity vehicle, a woman died in 2009 she was hit by a motorbike. Police on the race are not just there for the peloton, they also test anyone with Tour accreditation for alcohol levels and enforce the public speed limits when in past years the closed roads were treated the roads as a private track.
There is a statue in memorial beside the road today with 24km to go. One thing to observe today is if anyone else mentions the tragedy. The 1964 Tour de France is held up as one of the best ever editions but the Port-de-Couze tragedy is a buried memory. The organisers have swept past before without stopping. As Swiss journalist Simon Meier wrote “the winners get to write history“.
Thank you for this. It is sobering but salutary to remember how close we all are to tragedy.
It’s something to note today as the race does go right past. Tomorrow’s postcard will be more cheerful.
Yet another interesting insight.
Be nice to hope the current organisation does stop and leave a tribute
I’m sure they will, the Tour seems especially good at honouring its heritage.
I had no idea of this, thank you for including – this blog is truly one in a million.
Very much enjoyed reading.
(I was also heartened to see the repercussions from stage6 led to a healthy 170comments a few days back from a good variety of voices, beyond just me and Gabriele, so however angry it may have made some, Pog still certainly brings in the crowds!)
Agreed! As for Remco at the finish line, I think my comments – and what may have seemed as anger – was just as much frustration about the current lay of the land.If I’ve upset anyone in the heat of the moment, I sincerely apologize.
No need to apologise!
It’s a free for all here and better for it.
I went a bit barmy here a few years ago at the giro and started thanking everyone for their comments which is hindsight was a bit crazy, I just like that people can talk here with knowledge and thoughtfulness away from the usual hysteria of fan forums!
Thank you! It’s important to remember also the more sobering sides of the Tour.
Thanks again for giving us something else to think about aside from winning or being a fan in the side of the road. Like most people here didn’t know that this happened at all.
Sadly when I see the relationship between the Tour bikes and the Tour vehicles I fear another tragedy can’t be far away. It just seems like a free-for-all and riders off the back of the peloton appear especially vulnerable.
It looks like a free-for-all to me also … and I was a bit stunned to see a group standing side by side around the apex of a hairpin bend on a fast descent.
Thank you for this very sensitive post.
Interesting and tragic story. I watched today on eurosport in English (international feed) and there was no mention of this tragedy at all.
Sadly there was another incident right the next day after this blogpost, where a press vehicle crashed into barriers during the arrival in Ussel in Corrèze on Sunday, injuring eight spectators, one of them seriously