René Vietto

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**René Vietto**
Personal information
Full name	René Vietto
Date of birth	February 17, 1914(1914-02-17)
Date of death	October 14, 1988 (aged 74)
Country	France
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Major wins
Tour de France 1934: Polka dot jersey Parice-Nice 1935
Infobox last updated on:
June 11, 2007

René Vietto (February 17, 1914 – October 14, 1988) was a French road racing cyclist, born in Rocheville-Le Cannet. He died in Orange, France.

In the 1934 Tour de France, Vietto, then a relative unknown, suddenly got wings on the mountains. This was not a complete surprise, because he had already won the Grand Prix Wolber. He was prepared for the roads on the Alps, and won easily on the steepest terrain. Although he liked to remain silent, his star kept on rising after each mountain climb. After he had won the two major Alpine stages, the journalists reported that this 'boy' could grow to be the purest mountain climber that France ever knew.

During the 1934 Tour, he was poised to assume the race leadership after his team leader Antonin Magne crashed during stage 16. Vietto was up the road and unaware of Magne's situation; his resulting lead gave him the virtual race lead. A course marshal on a motorcycle caught up Vietto to inform him that his team captain was on the side of the road, with teammate Lapébie ahead, and the other teammates hopelessly behind the yellow jersey. Vietto turned his bike around and rode back up the mountain into the pack of descending riders (reversing course was then legal, but is no longer so), in order to give Magne his bike. Magne mounted Vietto’s bike and with the help of a waiting Lapébie, managed to close the gap to preserve his overall race lead and win the 1934 Tour. A well-known photograph shows Vietto sitting dejectedly on a stone wall as the race passes him by.

This generous deed made him a star in France. The image of a 20-year old boy who sacrificed his chance of winning the Tour the France, doubled his popularity. Vietto was still named the Tour's best climber. Vietto finished 5th in that tour, almost 1 hour behind winner Antonin Magne.

Vietto never won the Tour de France. He was closest in 1939, when he received the yellow jersey in Lorient in one of the first stages and kept it a long time, but high in the mountains, what used to be his favorite place, he was left behind by Belgian cyclist Sylvère Maes. After that Tour, WWII broke out and the race wasn't held for several years.

In 1947, when the Tour de France started again, Vietto was still loved by France. Vietto, who wanted to show that he still had the same capabilities, attacked from the second stage. As a result, he received the yellow jersey in Brussels, to lose it only 1 day before the Tour finished, in a time trial of 139 kilometers.

Despite failing to hold the lead, Vietto wore the race leader's Yellow Jersey during the 1938 Tour de France for 15 stages and during the 1947 Tour de France for 14 stages. In so doing, he became of the first of a long series of immensely popular French near-winners of the Tour, finishing second in 1939, fifth in 1934 and 1947, and eighth in 1935.

Vietto lost a toe to sepsis in 1947. Legend has it^[1] that Vietto insisted that his domestique, Apo Lazarides, cut off one of his own toes to match. According to the legend, Vietto's toe is preserved in formaldehyde in a bar in Marseilles.