Francisco Cepeda (cyclist)

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Francisco Cepeda Road cycling
To person
Nickname Paquillo / Paco / El Negro
Date of birth March 8, 1906
date of death July 14, 1935
nation SpainSpain Spain
discipline Street
Last updated: May 6, 2019

Francisco "Paco" Cepeda (born March 8, 1906 in Sopuerta , Bizkaia , † July 14, 1935 in Grenoble ) was a Spanish cyclist. He was the first cyclist to die in a Tour de France accident.

Athletic career

Francisco Cepeda grew up in a middle-class family with five siblings - four brothers and one sister - in contrast to many of his later competitors, who often became professional cyclists out of economic hardship. He started cycling as a teenager, including cycling to Bilbao , some 30 kilometers away , to visit his cousin Teresa, who lived there. From 1925 he competed in cycling, but worked for four years at the same time in his hometown as the city justice of the peace , until he finally decided to go cycling in 1929. He won a total of 22 races during his career, most of them local and regional competitions.

Cepeda's greatest successes were victories in 1925 and 1929 at the Circuito de Getxo , in 1926 he finished fourth in the Tour of Cantabria , in 1929 he won the Vuelta a Alava . In 1926 and 1927 he was Basque road champion and in 1927 third in the Spanish road championship. He started four times in the Tour de France, once in the Vuelta a España . In 1930 he was a member of a Spanish national team on the tour 27th and was the first Spaniard and also the first Basque to complete the tour. He was the only Spaniard to take part in the 1931 Tour . He suffered sepsis and had to take a temporary break as a cyclist. In 1933 he was disqualified from the Tour after the first stage for exceeding the time limit. In 1935 he finished 17th in the overall ranking of the first edition of the Vuelta a España .

In 1935 Cepeda - called El Negro because of his dark complexion - started again in the Tour de France ; his father had tried to dissuade him, while his brothers supported him in his ambitions. On July 11, on the seventh stage from Aix-les-Bains to Grenoble , he fell on the descent from the Col du Galibier , near Le Bourg-d'Oisans . There are several versions of the course of the accident: According to one representation, he was so far behind that neither other drivers nor officials were in the vicinity, so that the course of the fall is unclear. After all, a race steward is said to have found Cepeda by chance in a ditch or ravine. According to another version, the Italian rider Adriano Vignoli was involved in the crash and spectators tried to put Cepeda back on the bike until he collapsed a few meters further. Witnesses also stated that a red car from the tour caravan caused the fall; others contradicted this representation. With a fractured skull base , Cepeda was taken to a hospital in Grenoble, where he died three days later in the presence of his brother Gerardo.

Since Cepeda's body had other injuries, including bruises on his arms and legs, a criminal investigation into manslaughter was initiated, but with no result. There were suspicions that the new type of duraluminium rims provided by the tour organization , which became very hot, were unsuitable and caused Cepeda's accident. For this reason, the tour guide has concealed the truth about Cepeda's death. While the cycling magazine L'Auto , which organized the tour, reported in detail about the abandonment of Antonin Magne , who was in second place and had been hit by an escort car, she only mentioned the Cepeda accident briefly on the back pages.

Francisco Cepeda was buried in his Spanish hometown. A small memorial in the La Baluga district and the Memorial Paco Cepeda junior cycle race , which was held for the 23rd time in 2012, commemorate him there. He was the first cyclist to have a fatal accident in a Tour de France race. The racing driver Adolphe Hélière had already died in 1910 during a Tour de France , but he drowned on a rest day off Nice in the Mediterranean. 1967 was Tom Simpson and 1995 Fabio Casartelli in the Tour killed.

successes

1925

1929

Grand Tour placements

Grand Tour 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935
Orange jersey Vuelta a España - - - - - 17th
Maglia Rosa Giro d'Italia - - - - - -
Yellow jersey Tour de France 27 DNF - DNF - DNF
Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

Teams

  • 1925 Sopuertas Sport
  • 1925 Benjamin
  • 1926 Benjamin
  • 1926 Atletico Club Bilbao
  • 1927 Areli
  • 1927 Aracil
  • 1927 Atletico Club Bilbao
  • 1928 Arenas Club Guecho
  • 1928 Dilecta-Wolber
  • 1929 Dilecta-Wolber
  • 1929 SC Bilbaina
  • 1930 UC Vitoriana
  • 1931 SC Bilbaina
  • 1932 GAC
  • 1932 SC Bilbaina
  • 1933 SC Bilbaina
  • 1934 Orbea
  • 1935 Orbea

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g David Guénel: Francisco Cepeda, première victime du Tour de France. In: velo-club.net. Retrieved May 6, 2019 . According to other accounts, Cepeda came from a rather poor background and he worked as a driver in the town hall.
  2. ^ A b Francisco Cepeda, la primera víctima del Tour. In: narraciondeportiva.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 6, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Harry Van den Bremt / Joël Godaert / Paul De Keyser: Gotha Velo . Velo - Travel Marketing, Mechelen 2005, ISBN 90-804763-3-1 , p. 103 .
  4. ↑ a b Beate and Hagen Boßdorf: 100 Highlights Tour de France 1903–2003 . Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-517-06681-8 , pp. 36 .
  5. ↑ La carta que no llegó nunca. In: jrivasalbizu.com. February 3, 2012, Retrieved May 6, 2019 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ Francisco Cepeda. La primera victima mortal del TOUR DE FRANCIA * Año 1935. In: memoriasclubdeportivodebilbao.blogspot.com. May 10, 2011, accessed May 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Monumentos de País Vasco (España). In: verpueblos.com. Retrieved May 7, 2019 (Spanish).
  8. ^ Memorial Paco Cepeda en Sopuerta. El Correo. In: El Correo. July 21, 2012, Retrieved May 7, 2019 (Spanish).

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Cepeda, Francisco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paco (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Sopuerta , Bizkaia
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1935
Place of death Grenoble