Lanterne rouge

Lanterne rouge
SportRoad bicycle racing
CompetitionTour de France
Awarded forLast in classification
English nameRed lantern
Local nameLanterne rouge (French)
History
First award1903
Editions110 (as of 2023)
First winner Arsène Millocheau (FRA)
Most wins Wim Vansevenant (BEL) (3 times)
Most recent Michael Mørkøv (DEN)

The lanterne rouge is the competitor in last place in the Tour de France. The phrase comes from the French for "Red Lantern" and refers to the red lantern hung on the rear vehicle of a passenger railway train or the brake van of a freight train, which signalmen would look for in order to make sure none of the couplings had become disconnected.

Cultural uses

In the Tour de France the rider who finishes last, rather than dropping out along the way, is accorded the distinction of lanterne rouge. Because of the popularity it affords, riders may compete for the last position rather than settling for a place near the back. Often the rider who comes last is remembered while those a few places ahead are forgotten. The revenue the last rider will generate from later appearance fees can be greater than if he had finished second to last, although this was more true when riders still made much of their income from post-Tour criteriums.

In the 1979 Tour de France, Gerhard Schönbacher and Philippe Tesnière were on the last two spots in the general classification, less than one minute apart. Tesnière had already finished last in the 1978 Tour, so he was aware of the publicity associated with being the lanterne rouge. In the 21st stage, a time trial, Tesnière therefore rode slowly. The winner of the time trial, Bernard Hinault, took 1 hour, 8 minutes and 53 seconds to cover the 48.8 km, Schönbacher used 1 hour, 21 minutes and 52 seconds, while Tesniere rode it in 1 hour, 23 minutes and 32 seconds; both were slower than all other cyclists. Tesnière's time was more than 20% slower than Hinault's, which meant that he had missed the time cut, and was taken out of the race.

The Tour organisation did not like the attention that the lanterne rouge received, and for the 1980 Tour devised a rule to make it more difficult to finish last: between the 14th and the 20th stage, the rider last in the general classification was removed from the race. Still, Schönbacher managed to finish last in that race. Before the Tour, Schönbacher was promised by his sponsor that he would receive extra money if he finished in last place. After the last stage of the Tour, his team leader Patrick Lefevere told Schönbacher that he would not get the money, and after a heated discussion, Schönbacher was fired.

Red lantern holders are often great sprinters or great riders of shorter races who are not fit enough for such a long race as the Tour de France, or who try to finish the race despite injury, as in the case of Sam Bennett, who finished last after breaking a finger in the opening stage of the 2016 Tour, but eventually won the green jersey in 2020.

In 2018 Lawson Craddock became the first rider in the history of the Tour de France to have the distinction of lanterne rouge for all stages of the entire tour. He crashed in the 1st stage resulting in facial lacerations and a fractured scapula. Despite his left eye being smashed and the pain of fractured scapula, he continued to race and finished the stage which led to a picture of his bloodied and grimacing face going viral. Later that day he posted an announcement on social media that he was donating $100 for every stage he finished to the Greater Houston Cycling Association to help rebuild the Alkek Velodrome that had been damaged by Hurricane Harvey. A GoFundMe page was also setup for donations to go directly to the velodrome. Craddock continued to ride all the remaining stages which garnered much publicity for the fundraising efforts and eventually over US$250,000 being raised for the cause. In this case the lanterne rouge has been described as being worn as "a badge of courage" and winning it as "a triumph of sporting endeavour".

Lanternes rouges of the Tour de France

Multiple lanternes rouges of the Tour de France

Wins Name Years
3  Wim Vansevenant (BEL) 2006, 2007, 2008
2  Daniel Masson (FRA) 1922, 1923
 Gerhard Schönbacher (AUT) 1979, 1980
 Mathieu Hermans (NED) 1987, 1989
 Jimmy Casper (FRA) 2001, 2004

Spain's Igor Flores received the lanterne rouge in 2002, and his brother Iker Flores received it in 2005.

Lanternes rouges of the Tour de France by nationality

Wins Country First Most Recent (if more than 1)
53  France 1903 2015
11  Italy 1934 2011
 Belgium 1963 2021
8  Netherlands 1938 2019
5  Spain 1960 2005
4   Switzerland 1947 1984
3  Germany 1932 2020
 United Kingdom 1955 2017
2  Luxembourg 1937 1954
 Austria 1979 1980
 Australia 1931 2022
1  Belarus 2009
 Canada 2013
 China 2014
 Denmark 2023
 Ireland 2016
 United States 2018

The first 24 red lanterns went to France between 1903 and 1930, with the French total reaching 53 in 2015. The rest of the world received its first red lantern in 1931, and eventually equaled France's total of 53 in 2019, and overtook it with 54 in 2020.

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-10-31 23:22 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari