1929 Tour de France

In 1928, many stages were in the team-time-trial format, where the teams started separately. The Tour organisation had invented this rule to make the flat stages more competitive, but it had the effect that the public stopped following the race. Therefore, in 1929 the most stages were run in the normal format, except for stages 12, 19 and 20, the stages that were expected to be raced slower than 30 km/h.> In 1928, cyclist could be helped when they had a flat tire; in 1929 this rule was reversed, and cyclists had to fix their flat tires by themselves. ==Participants==

, winner of the 1929 Tour de France In the first stages, the cyclists remained close to each other. Aimé Dossche won the first stage, and kept the lead for the next two stages. In the fourth stage, Maurice De Waele and Louis De Lannoy escaped from the bunch. De Lannoy won the stage, while Dewaele took over the lead in the general classification. In the seventh stage, De Waele had two flat tires, and was not in the first group. Three man from that first group now shared the lead. De Waele then punctured and lost eight minutes. Fontan was caught by the Spaniard Salvador Cardona, but his second place in the stage gave him the lead in the general classification. After the race was over, Jef Demuysere received 25 minutes penalty time in the general classification because he had taken drinks where this was not allowed. This moved him from the second place in the general classification to the third place. ==Results==

In stages 12, 19 and 20, the cyclists started in teams. The cyclist who reached the finish fastest was the winner of the stage. In the other stages all cyclists started together. The time that each cyclist required to finish the stage was recorded. For the general classification, these times were added up; the cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey. Stage results General classification During the 1929 Tour de France, the cyclists did not race in trade teams, but still the cyclists of the same team cooperated. Other classifications The organisers, from the newspaper l'Auto, named a meilleur grimpeur (best climber), an unofficial precursor to the modern King of the Mountains competition. This award was won by Victor Fontan. ==Aftermath==

After Victor Fontan had to give up in the tenth stage because of mechanical problems while he was leading the race, journalist Louis Delblat wrote that the rules should be changed, because a Tour should not be lost because of mechanical problems. Eventually the rule changed, but only after Tour director Henri Desgrange retired. Between 1935 and 1937, the concept was seen back, and returned again in 1954. Henri Desgrange was angry at the outcome of the race. The strongest trade team decided who the winner was, while Desgrange wanted the strongest individual to win. Immediately after the 1929 Tour de France, he announced that he would drastically change the rules for the 1930 Tour de France. He removed the trade teams completely, and replaced them by national teams. ==Notes==