The history of Tour de France isn’t a fairy tale. Even the life of its greatest and most shining starts overshadowed by tragedies. And there are those ones, who didn’t get enough time to prove their talents, like Roger Riviére (1936-1976)
Roger Rivière made his name in the history of cycling by set the hour record (46 km and 923 m) in 1957. He was good both on track and on the road.
With the absent of Jacques Anquetil, Rivière was considered the biggest favourite of Tour de France in 1960. As his previous results showed, he was good in time trials, which was a much more significant component of the racethose days, than nowadays. However, in the early phase of the race, his teammate Henry Anglade delivered a better performance in general classification.
Rivière, who already competed the Tour de France previous year (and won a stage), was a careless kind of a talent. When he made his move on the 6th stage, he was told by team manager Marcel Bidot to give up his attack, because the riders could go with him, Gastone Nencini and Jan Adriaensens considered to be too dangerous opponents, he ignored the advice. As Henry Anglade later commented his behaviour, most likely this was the moment when the French team lost the Tour de France that year.
Anglade’s words proved to be right in the mountains, where Rivière relentlessly followed every move of Nencini, one of the best descenders, till the tragic incident on the 14th stage.
On the descent of Col de Perjuret Rivière hit a low wall, fell over it, rolling down the slope. He broke his back and never recovered. He was forced to live in wheelchair. He died of throat cancer at the age of 40.
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