The Tour de France is full of stories. Every day we highlight a historical moment that can be linked to the upcoming stage. Today stage 1: the police officer who caused a serious crash by taking a photo.
“He didn’t even do it for himself,” said Belgian champion Wilfried Nelissen in 2013 about the French police officer Christophe Gendron. On July 3, 1994, he stood in front of the barriers during the first stage of the Tour and took a photo of the peloton, which was sprinting towards the finish in Armentières. The consequences are terrible.
Nelissen crashes full on the agent and smashes hard against the asphalt. Laurent Jalabert and several other riders tumble over the Belgian just before the finish. The riders are transferred to the hospital in Lille, where it becomes clear how great the damage is. Nelissen has a severe concussion and Jalabert breaks his eye socket, jaw and several teeth.
Later it turns out that Gendron, whose leg is broken in two places, did not take the photo for himself. According to the police report, an eight-year-old girl from behind the barriers had asked the agent to take a photo.
“Of course he made a big mistake, but who doesn’t make mistakes in their life? I never wanted to sue that man either,” says Nelissen. His team Novemail-Histor, the formation of team leader Peter Post, thinks differently about that. Through that process, Gendron would have lost his job and even his house.
The agent does not yet know that his action will have a major impact on Jalabert’s career. The Frenchman transforms from sprinter to complete rider and wins the Vuelta a España a year later. After that he wins countless races. “That’s where I became a different rider,” Jalabert later says about the crash in Armentières.