On the hilly road which leads from Nice to Gap, the Yellow Jersey is struggling on August 1, 1950. But it resists. He only has one difficult step left the next day and then it’s a red carpet to a first bouquet in Paris. The Swiss Ferdi Kübler encourages himself as he is used to, he even shouts at himself, insults himself. The day before, he won in Nice. No question of giving in. And he will hold on to finish on the top step of the podium in the capital, with 9 minutes ahead of the Belgian Stan Ockers and 22 over Louison Bobet. He thus becomes the first Swiss rider to win the Tour. A particular Tour.
The big favorite, Fausto Coppi, winner the previous year, was injured during the Giro a few weeks earlier. He is forfeited. The Bretons Jean Robic and Louison Bobet are therefore aiming for the yellow jersey that Gino Bartali also covets, the Italian who has already won twice in 1938 and 1948. But it is another thirty-something who will surprise everyone: Ferdi Kübler, a whimsical character and intrepid.
Bartali’s cautious withdrawal
Heckled in the Pyrenees by spectators reproaching him for having knocked down Robic, Bartali, the captain of the Italian team, got scared and withdrew during the 12th stage. And the whole Italian team with him. Kübler has become the leader of a race that has gone mad. The planned passage of the Tour in Italy was canceled for fear of reprisals. The Swiss do not want a victory on the cheap. He attacks, steals to earn his golden tunic. And he is sacred, finally, Ferdinand I, King of France, for at least one summer.
He won no more, leaving his compatriot Hugo Koblet, the charming pedaler, to win the laurels the following year. Kübler, he was rather brutal, a face cut in the billhook, and follower of witticisms which flourish in the post-war gazettes. To Raphaël Géminiani, the Grand Fusil, who warned him during his attack in the Ventoux in 1954: “Be careful, Ferdinand, the Ventoux is not a pass like the others”, he replied: “Ferdi is not no no longer a runner like any other! “In the evening, after his abandonment, Kübler said:” Ferdi, he’s too old. He is hurt. Ferdi killed himself! Ferdi killed himself in Ventoux! But on August 1, 1950, Ferdi was not too old. He was alive, well alive even, and stronger than the others.
