THE LAST STAGE OF THE TOUR DE FRANCE

It is run today on the Dunkirk-Paris route (345 kilometers)

We have arrived at the end of the sporting drama which plays out every year on the border roads of France, and, although we are in the middle of the Olympic Games, this final will not fail to interest all those of our readers who followed the “tourists” in their vast and arduous trek.

In a few hours, they will arrive at the Parc des Princes, whose cement will seem very soft, very rolling, and also very flat, after the roughness, the hills and the dizzying descents that they encountered during the fourteen previous stages. What a wow! of relief will they not grow, when they have finished closing the loop!

Not all those who took off at dawn on Sunday June 22 will return to Paris today; fatigue, or discouragement, or even painful accidents have left them at the side of the highways. Among the most notorious, we would like to mention the Pélissier brothers.

The representatives of French cycling were not happy in this race! It would be necessary, in fact, for the first five or six in the general classification to be victims of a catastrophe today, for victory to escape the foreigners, that is to say Bottecchia (Italian), Frantz (Luxembourgish) , in Buysse (Belgian), in Aymo (Italian), in Beeckman (Belgian), which are currently at the top of this ranking. The first French. are: Muller (6), Alancourt (7), Bellenger (8), and they are about three hours from Bottechia!

Since the abandonment of the Pélissiers, we have been fixed on this subject! However, whatever the nationality of the winner, we must applaud his valor and the fine moral and physical form that he showed during this event.

In summary, today's stage presents itself as a 345 kilometer handicap in which the best would take time from the less strong. You only need to take a look at the ranking of the first fourteen at the end of the fourteenth stage to realize this:

                                                          h. m. s.

1. Bottecchia                               211 30 11

2. Frantz                                      212 8 37

3. Buysse                                     213 5 14

4. Aymo                                       213 5 48

5. Beeckman                              213 44 13

6. Muller                                    214 8 34

7. Alancourt                              214 14 32

8. Bellanger                              214 24 10

9. Tiberghien                           214 30 7

10. Huysse                                214-31 14

11. Thys                                    214 48 25

12. Cuvelier                             214 54 46 -

13. Valazza                              215.16 2 14.

Alavoine                                 215 28 46 Etc., etc.

Bottecchia is therefore more than half an hour ahead of Frantz, who himself precedes Buysse and Aymo by 57 minutes, who are 34 seconds apart, etc. It would therefore take an accident or a complete failure for the ranking of the first two to change today,

Huysse, 10th in the general classification, is first among the second category riders, and Pratési holds the lead among the “Road Tourists”. Although the result is predicted in advance, there will be a lot of people at the Parc des Princes. Moreover, there will be a fight today, because more than one of the classified will want to give themselves a consolation card by trying to win the final stage.

G. DE LAPRETE.

Note.- Here is the route and probable timetable for the stage:

Dunkirk (0 kilometres), 2 h. in the morning Calais (42 kilometres), 4 a.m.; Boulogne (82 kil.)" 5:50 a.m.; Abbeville (163 kil.), 9:10 a.m., Beauvais (248 kil.), 3 p.m.; Poissy (314 kil.), 3 p.m.; Parc des Princes ( 345 kilos), 16 hours.

At the Parc des Princes Vélodrome. competitors will have to cover an additional lap of the track (666 meters 66), The prices for the last stage are: 1,200, 600, 550, 400 fr., etc... -The prices for the general classification are: 10,000, 5,000, 3,000 , 2,000, 1,000, 500 and 250 fr.