Tour de France - Our ten worst moments

Simon Smythe recalls his ten worst moments - tell us your top ten or top two below in the Forum (Maybe winning a prize)

We have told you our best top ten and now it's the turn of the worst.

13 July 1967 Simpson collapses on Mont Ventoux
The British star literally rode himself to death on the searing hot moonscape of Mont Ventoux in Provence. Suffering from stomach problems, Tom Simpson had lost time in the second week, but still considered himself in with a chance at the overall. He had been seen drinking brandy earlier in the stage before the riders hit the Ventoux, and dehydration and heat exhaustion overcame him about 2km from the top and he collapsed. He reputedly asked to be put back on his bike, but collapsed again shortly afterwards. Amphetamines were found in his blood and he had more in his jersey pockets

12 July 1975 Merckx’s bodyblow
On stage 14 a French spectator on the Puy de Dome punched the great Eddy Merckx in the stomach while trying to win his sixth Tour de France. Merckx had become unpopular with the French fans, who were unhappy that a Belgian might beat the record of five wins held by a Frenchman, Jacques Anquetil. Merckx carried on, despite fracturing his jaw a few days later, and finished second to Bernard Thevenet, less than three minutes down. He didn’t enter the Tour de France the next year, finished sixth in 1977 and retired in 1978.

18 July 18 1995 Death of Fabio Casartelli
On stage 15 the 24-year-old former Olympic champion crashed on the descent of the Portet d’Aspet in the Pyrenees and slid headfirst into a concrete block. He was airlifted to Tarbes but couldn’t be saved. There was considerable controversy over whether wearing a helmet would have saved his life, and as there was no autopsy since the cause of death was clear, we’ll never know the answer. Casartelli’s Motorola team – including Lance Armstrong – rode in formation the next day in front of the peloton, crossing the line together. There’s a memorial sundial near the crash site, where the shadow falls on the dates of Casartelli’s birth, death and the day he won Olympic gold.

Jan Ullrich was caught pill popping at the disco - Pic Andrea Hofling

26 February 2007 Ullrich announces his retirement
OK, it didn’t happen during the Tour, but it was one of the saddest moments for the Tour de France when Jan Ullrich announced that he would never ride in it again. Ullrich was suspended the day before the start of the 2006 Tour when he was linked to Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, the Madrid doctor around whom Operacion Puerto would blow up. Always the underdog during the Armstrong era, always struggling with his weight or some other personal problem, but always a fighter and loved by the fans – it was a sorry end.

8 July 1998 The Festina Affair kicks off
Three days before the Tour was due to begin in Dublin, customs officials in Neuville-en-Ferrain stopped Festina team masseur Willy Voet. The car was packed with bottles and capsules of doping products – around 400 doses. The Festina team was expelled from the race before the start of stage seven and Voet was jailed. Richard Virenque and Pascal Herve were the only Festina riders who ones who did not admit to doping

27 July 2006 Landis tests positive
Floyd Landis tested positive for excess testosterone after stage 17, where he had sensationally attacked the peloton with 130km to go and clawed back the time he’d lost in a disastrous stage the day before. Everybody had written him off, but Landis climbed the Joux Plane alone and finished in Morzine an incredible seven minutes ahead of race leader Oscar Pereiro, putting himself back within seconds of the yellow jersey – which he went on to win. Two years on, he has been stripped of the yellow jersey but is still fighting to clear his name.

1999-2005 The era of long socks
It’s no coincidence that the long socks era coincides with the Armstrong era. It wasn’t just long socks, it was long, black socks on some days. We’ve come to accept Paula Radcliffe in them, but nobody, especially the French, liked Armstrong’s look. To rub salt into the wound, Nike designed some black cycling shoes – the Nike Lance – to match them. Lance has gone now, and everything’s all white again.

25 January 1907 Pottier commits suicide
The Frenchman Rene Pottier, nicknamed ‘the Butcher’ was the first rider to be feted for his climbing ability. In the 1905 Tour he rode up the Ballon d’Alsace at 20kph dropping everyone. He abandoned the next day with tendonitis, but came back to dominate and win the 1906 Tour de France. However, the following winter he hanged himself with the hook he had used to hang up his bicycle. It was claimed that Pottiers’s wife had been unfaithful while he had been away at the Tour and for the quiet, moustachioed 29-year-old, that was too much to bear. There is a monument to Pottier on top of the Ballon d’Alsace.

26 July 2007 Rasmussen is sent home
The Danish rider, who was certain to win the overall, was removed by his Rabobank team after it was revealed that he had lied about his whereabouts when he missed out-of-competition drug tests. Michael Rasmussen had taken a decisive stage-16 victory on the Col d’Aubisque the day before and was set to be the first pure climber to win the Tour de France since Marco Pantani in 1998.

26 June 1924 Pelissier quits the Tour in disgust
Defending champion Henri Pelissier was so upset with the rules of the Tour de France that he withdrew in the Normandy town of Coutances after being fined for throwing away a jersey. Riders were required to finish a stage with every item they started with, and the longest stage in that year’s race was 482km. It was an era when Tour de France riders were treated like ‘convicts of the road’ and founder Henri Desgrange was determined to make the race so hard that only one rider was capable of finishing.

Tell us your top ten or top two below in the Forum (Maybe winning a prize)