How Tom Simpson Died During a Tour de France Stage

An Extract from conversation with Andy McGrath
“The Day Tom Simpson Died”

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Do we know what happened on as you say on that faithful day because Tom Simpson on month on 2 it’s one of the pivotal moments in cycling history has there been was there autopsies was there investigations into the debt is there a consensus now as to what actually happened

Um the C is it it’s been a few years since I finished writing the book so I can’t recall every detail of this um but I know the that morning Simpson was I think was on the end he was just inside the top 10 of the tour and he was really

Racing for his future like he wanted to win the Tour to France but to be completely honest he probably never had it quite within him to do that he was a great one- day racer he was a really good climber but he wasn’t you know the best

So he was overreaching anyway you could say with with HD side um he wasn’t bad but he wasn’t number one um so he was pushing himself I think already been ill a few days earlier in the race and and yeah you had this pivotal stage up

Finishing up I think was it finishing on two or was it going down on the other side not sure but anyway yeah I’m not sure big climb huge one of the toughest in the T fors as we know um and yeah he wasn’t having the best day he took some

Water from Finn from Finn Denson his teammate you know at the foot of the climb and Vin shouted at him die die which means come on go for it in Italian um and years later decades lat Thon feels bad about that because of what eventually happened you know he he did

Die you know in English um B basically Simpson got further and further up the climb and he dropped behind the leaders and he was weaving on his bike um I think he got to within tragically about 1,500 M from the summit so close and he killed over a few times and you

Know the mechanics in the car behind him they they tried to put him back on the bike obviously he was in toe Clips so sometimes he was just falling into the road you know these one all kind of two times and that final time with with 1.5

K to go he was basically like Delirious like unconscious and that’s when they realized you know they had a problem and uh and a helicopter was called you know landed on the scree of this Luna Escape there is m one too and they took him to the nearest hospital and they couldn’t

Save him you know sadly um but also that’s where I believe the race doctor or one of the doctors found found a box of um apetamin in his jersey pocket I can’t recall whether there was autopsy done um the family may not have wanted it but

I might be confusing it with my other book Frank Vanden Brook but anyway like the important thing is how it was reported by the media because that has guided us you know for the years and years afterwards and broadly speaking that is that it that it was a doping rated death

Uh we know that because of the stereotype the stigma attached to Tom Simpson um and this was this was like from this is such big news it’s hard to convey like this was a JF he moonlanding moment you know millions of people in France were listening to the radio when

This happened they were following it like that like the ABNB host who I had at the weekend who’s French told me he remembered Tom Simpson he remembered that moment like it sticks in their memory this sporting tragedy you know because to France athletes now as then are super superheroes they’re not meant

To to pass out let alone die no like everyone should come home from every sporting event from every Bike Race So it truly was a tragedy for him to be to die in his prime so if you like this video you should definitely check out this video cuz I know you’re going to

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