greenjersey

In the Cav era the expectation is that the green jersey contenders will spend most of the Tour in the laughing group and pop up now and then to win a stage. Back in the fifties it was different and don’t get confused by Cav/Darrigade comparisons. All they share is having won twenty plus stages and a rainbow jersey but the Frenchman was far more complete than the Manxman.

Check out the top twelve in the green jersey competion in the 1959 Tour and then look at their positions overall. They are all beyond Cav’s wildest dreams. Even Oscar couldn’t compete with this lot. I haven’t a clue how the points were awarded but I see that in the previous Tour the Points winner had the lowest total so presumably that year it was one point for the win and so on.

Green jersey posn.             Points total        Overall posn.

Darrigade                            613                    16th

Saint                                    524                      9th

Anquetil                               503                     Third

Gaul                                      425                    12th 

Bahamontes                         425                     First

Graf                                      394                     21st

Riviere                                  390                      4th 

Hoevenaers                          387                     8th

Anglade                                383                      Second

Van Aerde                            366                     22nd

Baldini                                  315                      6th

Robinson                              314                      19th   

Here is the programme. Some race eh? 160 hilly miles, it should have been the UK’s version of the Tour of Flanders. Not sure about the Southall finish though! Click on the pages to enlarge. You will see that there is a lucky programme draw (third prize a pair of nylons!), My copy is numbered 3772. Did they really flog that many programmes at 6d a pop and if so, who to?