Thomas SIMPSON

Tommy Simpson was the first truly great British road professional. He turned professional in 1960 after an amateur career which included an Olympic bronze medal in the 1956 team pursuit and a silver in the individual pursuit at the 1958 Commonwealth Games. In 1962 he became the first Briton to wear the maillot jaune at the Tour de France, though he held it but a day. His greatest year was 1965 when he won the Giro di Lombardia and the World Championship road race. Those wins occurred after a disastrous fall in the Tour de France when doctors feared they might need to amputate his arm. His other palmarès included Paris-Nice in 1967; Milano-Sanremo in 1964; the 1961 Ronde de Vlaanderen; and Bordeaux-Paris in 1963. In 1967, Simpson was ascending Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France when he collapsed and fell from his bike. He could not be revived and died that day. He was later found to have been quite heavily drugged with stimulants and his death was directly responsible for many of the anti-drug regulations put in place by international sporting organizations. A memorial to Simpson was placed on Mont Ventoux near where he collapsed.