This brokenhearted, destitute man is the subject of the greatest of all Tour stories. The man who became the biggest star in World Cycling at a time when Le Tour was the major concern of every Frenchman and women. The man whose story encapsulates all that is great about cycling. This is the man who, while leading the race, stopped on the road and gave his team leader his wheel and then sat, crying at the side of the road while his team car dawdled up the hill to him. This is the man who blew his own chance of greatness to help his friend yet by this very action came to eclipse all his contemporaries and be regarded as one of the greatest of all time.

This is Rene Vietto.

In 1934, Vietto came good. Early in the year he won the Grand Prix Wolber, yet few would have chosen him as a jersey contender. When in the mountains the road started to rise however, so did Rene Vietto's star. He won in the Alps on some of the steepest roads taking stages 7, 9 and 11 and the lead in the mountains classification. On stage 15, the French Team Leader, (and 1931's TdF winner) Antonin Magne, punctured and Vietto gave him his wheel, then waited for the team car, chased, and rejoined. His selfless action probably cost him the stage. The next day, stage 16, Vietto was again well ahead when his team leader crashed again, this time buckling his front wheel irrepairably. The race in these days was contested by national teams - it was vitaly important to the national psyche for the French Team to lead the race but here was their leader, the Great White Hope for 1934, lying on the road, his front wheel ruined, his race finis! Hearing of the predicament, Vietto turned his bike around and rode back up the mountain, back through the oncoming peleton, to give his leader his wheel. He sat then, weeping at the side of the road, watching his chances of the overall disappear up the road with his wheel. His selfless act was seen and apprieciated by millions. Magne won in Paris and Rene came fifth, but Vietto was the hero.

He never did win the Tour - but to his millions of French fans, it did not matter. He was the MORAL Victor and that's what really counts.

Allez! Rene Vietto! He died in 1988, a real gentleman, a beacon of loyalty and class in a world where these qualities have become rare.