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The beer stop conspiracy
Chainrings, beer tables, and 15 minutes of infamy: discover the delicious legend that changed Tour de France history—and how we ride today.
Today's riders fuel on carefully measured diets driven by science and data—gels timed to the minute, carbohydrates calibrated to the watt, every calorie accounted for. It wasn't always this way.
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Before sponsored teams transformed the race in the early 1960s, riders largely fended for themselves. They stopped at roadside cafés, drank local wine to dull the pain of 18-hour days in the saddle, and ate whatever they could carry. The Tour de France was as much a gastronomic adventure as a sporting contest. Then came Stage 17 of the 1935 Tour de France.
As the race rolled through the countryside, almost the entire peloton stopped at a roadside beer table to toast the locals. Only one rider kept going. He reached the finish 15 minutes and 33 seconds ahead of the field.
That rider was Julien Moineau.
What followed was the stuff of legend. The beer table, it emerged, had allegedly been arranged by Moineau's friends. He had also swapped his standard 44-tooth chainring for a larger 52-tooth ring—better suited to high-speed riding on the flats and perfect for a planned solo escape.
Would the peloton have stopped anyway? Perhaps. But that misses the point. Moineau never admitted to orchestrating any of it. Others say he didn't need to. The chainring told one story. The beer table told another. The gap of 15 minutes and 33 seconds told the rest.
Master tactician or genius cheat? The answer probably depends on which side of the beer table you were standing.
While food stops on our Tour de France Biking tours are pre-arranged—and the riding considerably more comfortable than 18-hour days in the saddle—the spirit of those early riders is still very much alive. The first Tours were as much about shared experience as competition. Riders who suffered together, ate together, and occasionally drank together to make it through another day.
A long lunch in a village restaurant. The cheese from the region you've just climbed through. A glass of wine that somehow tastes better after a mountain pass. Local food remains central to how we believe adventure should be experienced. But unlike Moineau, when we raise a glass, everyone stops.
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