Firmin Lambot

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Firmin Lambot
Personal information
Firmin Lambot, c. 1920
Full name	Firmin Lambot
Born	(1886-03-14)14 March 1886 Florennes, Namur, Belgium
Died	19 January 1964(1964-01-19) (aged 77)
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France General Classification (1919, 1922) 6 Stages (1913, 1914, 1919, 1920, 1921)
Infobox last updated on 23 May 2008

Firmin Lambot (pronounced: [fiʁ.mɛ̃ lɑ̃.bo]; 14 March 1886 – 19 January 1964) was a Belgian bicycle racer who twice won the Tour de France.

Born in the small town of Florennes,^[1] Lambot worked as a saddler. He worked 12 hours a day, starting at 6am.^[1] He bought his first bicycle at 17 and began riding 50 km a day to and from work. His first race was in a local village; he won five francs as first prize. He then bought a racing bike.

He began racing professionally in 1908. In that year he won the championships of Flanders and Belgium. He rode the Tour de France from 1911 to 1913 but the First World War ended the race for the next five years.

When the Tour returned in 1919 it was a miserable affair of war-torn roads, fractured logistics and former contenders no longer alive to compete. Only 11 riders finished. Lambot was approached at the Buffalo track in Paris, where he had ridden a 24-hour race, to ride the Tour in the Globe Cycles team. He was second for much of the race but took the lead when Eugène Christophe broke a fork. Observers felt Lambot owed his victory more to Christophe’s bad luck than his own ability and a collection for Christophe surpassed the prize money Lambot received. His performance brought him a contract from the larger Peugeot team at 300 francs a month.^[1] He was engaged to ride just the Tour de France.

In the 1920 and 1921 Lambot placed respectably and in 1922 he won for the second time after Hector Heusghem was handed an hour penalty for swapping his bicycle after breaking the frame. He became the first to win the Tour without winning a stage. Lambot was 36 when he won the 1922 Tour, the oldest winner of one of the big cycling tours (i.e. the tours of France, Spain and Italy) at that time. He kept the record for over 90 years, until it was broken by 41-year-old Vuelta winner Chris Horner in 2013. He remains the oldest Tour winner to date.

By the end of his career he was paid 1 800 francs a month by his team.^[1] In retirement, he returned to work as a saddler.

Palmarès

1908

Andenne

Fosses-la-Ville

Genappe

Mazy

Velaine-sur-Sambre

1913

Tour de France:

Winner stage 9

1914

Tour de France:

Winner stage 7

1919

Tour de France:

Winner overall

Winner stage 14

1920

Tour de France:

3rd place overall classification

Winner stages 5 and 6

1921

Tour de France:

Winner stage 9

1922

Tour de France:

Winner overall classification

Grand Tour results timeline

	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924
Giro	DNE	DNE	DNE	DNE	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	DNE	DNE	DNE	DNE	DNE	DNE
Stages won	—	—	—	—	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour	11	18	4	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1	3	9	1	DNF-6	DNF-8
Stages won	0	0	1	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1	2	1	0	0	0
Vuelta	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Stages won	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Legend
1	Winner
2–3	Top three-finish
4–10	Top ten-finish
11–	Other finish
DNE	Did Not Enter
DNF-x	Did Not Finish (retired on stage x)
DSQ	Disqualified
N/A	Race/classification not held
NR	Not Ranked in this classification

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Bicycle, UK, 26 March 1952, p6

External links

Firmin Lambot profile at Cycling Archives
Official Tour de France results for Firmin Lambot

v t e Tour de France winners of the General classification

1903–1919	1903 Maurice Garin 1904 Henri Cornet 1905 Louis Trousselier 1906 René Pottier 1907–08 Lucien Petit-Breton 1909 François Faber 1910 Octave Lapize 1911 Gustave Garrigou 1912 Odile Defraye 1913–14 Philippe Thys 1915–18 World War I 1919 Firmin Lambot

1920–1939	1920 Philippe Thys 1921 Léon Scieur 1922 Firmin Lambot 1923 Henri Pélissier 1924–25 Ottavio Bottecchia 1926 Lucien Buysse 1927–28 Nicolas Frantz 1929 Maurice De Waele 1930 André Leducq 1931 Antonin Magne 1932 André Leducq 1933 Georges Speicher 1934 Antonin Magne 1935 Romain Maes 1936 Sylvère Maes 1937 Roger Lapébie 1938 Gino Bartali 1939 Sylvère Maes

1940–1959	1940–46 World War II 1947 Jean Robic 1948 Gino Bartali 1949 Fausto Coppi 1950 Ferdinand Kübler 1951 Hugo Koblet 1952 Fausto Coppi 1953–55 Louison Bobet 1956 Roger Walkowiak 1957 Jacques Anquetil 1958 Charly Gaul 1959 Federico Bahamontes

1960–1979	1960 Gastone Nencini 1961–64 Jacques Anquetil 1965 Felice Gimondi 1966 Lucien Aimar 1967 Roger Pingeon 1968 Jan Janssen 1969–72 Eddy Merckx 1973 Luis Ocaña 1974 Eddy Merckx 1975 Bernard Thévenet 1976 Lucien Van Impe 1977 Bernard Thévenet 1978–79 Bernard Hinault

1980–1998	1980 Joop Zoetemelk 1981–82 Bernard Hinault 1983–84 Laurent Fignon 1985 Bernard Hinault 1986 Greg LeMond 1987 Stephen Roche 1988 Pedro Delgado 1989–90 Greg LeMond 1991–95 Miguel Indurain 1996 Bjarne Riis 1997 Jan Ullrich 1998 Marco Pantani

2006–present	1999–2005 results vacated because of doping 2006 Óscar Pereiro 2007 Alberto Contador 2008 Carlos Sastre 2009 Alberto Contador 2010 Andy Schleck 2011 Cadel Evans 2012 Bradley Wiggins 2013 Chris Froome

Persondata
Name	Lambot, Firmin
Alternative names
Short description	cyclist
Date of birth	1886-03-14
Place of birth	Florennes, Belgium
Date of death	1964-01-19
Place of death

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