Sport | Road bicycle racing |
---|---|
Competition | Tour de France |
Awarded for | Last in classification |
English name | Red lantern |
Local name | Lanterne rouge (French) |
History | |
First award | 1903 |
Editions | 110 (as of 2023) |
First winner | Arsène Millocheau (FRA) |
Most wins | Wim Vansevenant (BEL) (3 times) |
Most recent | Michael Mørkøv (DEN) |
The lanterne rouge (French pronunciation: [lɑ̃tɛʁn ʁuʒ]) 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.[1]
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Transcription
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. If you were driving in a car at the speed of light and you turned on your headlights what would happen? Would light be able to come out or would your headlights just stay dark? Or maybe, light would come out but it just pull up inside the headlight like a overflowing sink. Or maybe the light would come out but at twice the speed of light - at its normal speed plus the speed of your car. No, that doesn't sound right. None of these answers sound right because, of course, there is no answer. A car cannot travel at the speed of light. Nothing that has mass can. But come on, you say, there are things that can travel at the speed of light. Things that have no mass, like photons. Let's build a car out of light. Okay. Let's take that suggestion because imagining what it is like to be light, brings up a lot of questions about light, about why things are the way they are and about whether or not we are real. In order to see what I mean we need to talk about "C". The speed of light. It is Constant. As long as you aren't accelarating, you can move as fast or slow or in whatever direction you want and you will still always see light moving at light speed. Even when light appears to slow down, as it passes through different materials, the actual photons themselves are still always traveling at "C". They're just taking a longer path, which takes more time. This law always holds true because whenever you move, relative to other things, your measurements of them and their measurements of you change. When you move, everything not moving with you appears to you to be shortened in length and to be experiencing time more slowly. Whereas to everything else, it is you that these changes happen to. These changes really happen - just not noticeably or measurably at the speeds we usually travel at. For example, while walking to your refrigerator for a snack, you will measure your fridge to be a 100 quadrillionth of a meter nearer and thinner than you would while at rest with it. You'll also notice that it experiences time more slowly than you. Each one of its seconds will be a 100 quadrillionth of a second longer than yours. But your fridge will measure that these transformations are happening to you. These are small numbers, but at speeds nearer the speed of light these changes can be dramatic. As I mentioned in an earlier video, to a particle racing toward Earth at 99.9999999999991% the entire Earth would only appear to be 70 meters deep. Our whole planet. Now with all of this in mind, let's take a look at headlights being used by a stationary ship and one that is moving at 99 percent the speed of light. The Near Light Speed Ship would be flattened in the direction of its travel to us, while a stationary one would not. As their headlights come on the light coming from both ships travels at the same rate. The speed of a lights' source doesn't push it faster. The moving ships velocity does, however, give its headlight energy in the direction it's headed, causing a blue shift from the front and a red shift from behind. What's really cool though is that this is just what we would see, floating in space at rest with the stationary ship. The crew of the fast-moving ship wouldn't see their beams, only gradually gaining on them like we do, they would see it exactly what the crew the stationary ships sees. Light beams rapidly fleeing their headlights at the speed of light just as if they were moving at all. And here's why. Let's say this distance is a light second. The distance light travels in one second. Which is 299,792,458 meters. Now, after one of our seconds, sure enough, both beams will have traveled a light second. But the crew of the moving ship measures light speed to be the same as us. But how does that make sense? I mean, light hasn't traveled a light second from them yet. No problem. You see, what they measure a light second to be is shorter than what we measure. And they wouldn't agree that a second has passed yet either. Because, of course, to us time is slower for them. They count one second finishing later then we do, at which point their light has, indeed, traveled one of their light seconds from them. Observers will often disagree about time and space, but those disagreements with always conspire to make sure they agree on one thing. The speed of light. It is always the same for everyone. But what if you were travelling at the speed of light? Well, the only thing that could do that would be a massless vehicle. So, fine, let's assume that we can build one. Such a vehicle would travel with light. Light would never even pull a tiny tiny bit ahead of it. No matter how short it thought a meter was. No matter how long it thought a second was. It would never register light ever moving ahead of it. It would say that light was stationary. It would not agree that light travelled at the speed of light. Right? Not really. You see, at the speed of light there is nothing to see. Not because there's nothing to see but because there is nothing to do any seeing. As we have seen, as an object's velocity approaches "C", time for everything around it approaches a standstill. An object traveling very very very very very very near the speed of light could travel for billions of our years before a single second past for it. But a massless vehicle, travelling at the speed of light, could travel forever before an instant even began for it. It experiences no time. And it would have no time to do anything. Certainly no time to turn on its headlights. The concept of time doesn't even really apply. A massless vehicle couldn't even have its headlights on before it hits "C", because object with no mass must always travel at "C". Such an object would never have a before. Its origin, its journey and its destination are simultaneous for it. A billion light year trip from a distant quasar might take a photon a billion years to us. But it literally takes no time for the photon. And to the photon, the distance to us from that quasar is literally nothing. Photons are how we see. How we know anything about our place in the universe, and the energy they bring our planet from the Sun is responsible for nearly all life on Earth. But despite that list of accomplishments, they don't think much of themselves. In fact, as far as they're concerned, they don't even exist. Outside observers, of course, see them and would measure them to be moving along at the speed of light with nothing passing or gaining on them. So if you were moving at the speed of light, you'd have to be massless, like a photon, and you wouldn't notice anything, because to you there would be nothing, and no time to notice it. Other people would see you doing nothing and you would be unaware of yourself. You could never turn on headlights because you would feel exactly like you felt before you were conceived. But why is the speed of light what it is? I mean, this is how far light travels in a second. Could it also travel this far, or this far, or this far? Could we conceive of a universe where light traveled that quickly? Yeah, easily. So then, why is it that the universe we live in is only one of these ways? Why are the laws of physics what they are? Instead of some other way they could be. Well, there are a lot of theories, but so far we're not exactly sure how to test any of them, because we are stuck in this universe and don't yet know how to create universes of our own for experiments. But perhaps there is something we have yet to discover that compels reality to be this way, and only this way. Or, perhaps, nothing compels it to be this way but instead there's a multiverse. Every single possible universe exists. Some of them collapsed immediately, some of them are empty and dark, some of them involve you watching this very video but Earth has two Suns. For those of you, in that universe watching, that was probably very confusing what I just say because your Earth does have two Suns. But the point is, the multiverse would be a pretty elegant explanation. Or maybe, universes are born inside black holes. Universes whose physical laws are only slightly different from the universe that gave birth to it. In this way, universes could replicate according to natural selection. Universes that are more fit for creating black holes would then have more baby universes, making universes that support black holes more common, like maybe the one that we're in. And that's pretty lucky because universes that support black holes support Suns, and us. Or - and here's my favorite theory - maybe we're just living in a simulation. And someone or something else programmed it up. That sounds pretty sci-fi. Sure. But I like how Julian Baggini puts it in "The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten". If you assume, that at some point in time, virtual reality could become good enough that even its own inhabitants didn't know they were in a simulation, and if you assume creating such simulations would be way easier than creating real flesh-and-blood creatures that require an entire universe and billions of years. Well, then it's pretty easy to conclude that many many many many more simulated, faked beings could be created than real ones. Say, 999 fake ones for every one real one. What's more likely? That you're part of the 0.1% that are real, or that you are part the 99.9% who think they're real but aren't. Perhaps, we live in a simulation created by some other intelligent species. John Gribbin, however, points out one possible way to dismiss this idea: irrational numbers. Like the square root of 2 or Pi. These numbers don't end. I mean, they contain a never-ending, never repeating sequence of digits, which would mean that whoever programmed this universe could fit in all of, say, Pi. So, if in our tireless pursuit of calculating more and more and more digits of Pi, we ever run into an endlessly repeating series or the end, that could be a pretty good sign that we live in a simulation. A universe that is not real. But so far we haven't found that and we don't think that we will. So, thank you irrational numbers, for keeping it real. And as always, thanks for watching.
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.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4] 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,[5] while Tesniere rode it in 1 hour, 23 minutes and 32 seconds; both were slower than all other cyclists.[6] 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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9][10]
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.[11][12] 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".[11]
Lanternes rouges of the Tour de France
- 1903 Arsène Millocheau (FRA)
- 1904 Antoine Deflotrière (FRA)
- 1905 Clovis Lacroix (FRA)
- 1906 Georges Bronchard (FRA)
- 1907 Albert Chartier (FRA)
- 1908 Henri Anthoine (FRA)
- 1909 Georges Devilly (FRA)
- 1910 Constant Collet (FRA)
- 1911 Lucien Roquebert (FRA)
- 1912 Maurice Lartigue (FRA)
- 1913 Henri Alavoine (FRA)
- 1914 Henri Leclerc (FRA)
- 1915–18: no tour due to World War I
- 1919 Jules Nempon (FRA)
- 1920 Charles Raboisson (FRA)
- 1921 Henri Catelan (FRA)
- 1922 Daniel Masson (FRA)
- 1923 Daniel Masson (FRA)
- 1924 Victor Lafosse (FRA)
- 1925 Fernand Besnier (FRA)
- 1926 André Drobecq (FRA)
- 1927 Jacques Pfister (FRA)
- 1928 Edouard Persin (FRA)
- 1929 André Léger (FRA)
- 1930 Marcel Ilpide (FRA)
- 1931 Richard Lamb (AUS)
- 1932 Rudolf Risch (GER)
- 1933 Ernest Neuhard (FRA)
- 1934 Antonio Folco (ITA)
- 1935 Willy Kutschbach (GER)
- 1936 Aldo Bertocco (FRA)
- 1937 Aloyse Klensch (LUX)
- 1938 Janus Hellemons (NED)
- 1939 Armand Le Moal (FRA)
- 1940–46: no tour due to World War II
- 1947 Pietro Tarchini (SUI)
- 1948 Vittorio Seghezzi (ITA)
- 1949 Guido De Santi (ITA)
- 1950 Fritz Zbinden (SUI)
- 1951 Abdel-Kader Zaaf (FRA)
- 1952 Henri Paret (FRA)
- 1953 Claude Rouer (FRA)
- 1954 Marcel Dierkens (LUX)
- 1955 Tony Hoar (GBR)
- 1956 Roger Chaussabel (FRA)
- 1957 Guy Million (FRA)
- 1958 Walter Favre (SUI)
- 1959 Louis Bisilliat (FRA)
- 1960 José Herrero Berrendero (ESP)
- 1961 André Geneste (FRA)
- 1962 Augusto Marcaletti (ITA)
- 1963 Willy Derboven (BEL)
- 1964 Anatole Novak (FRA)
- 1965 Joseph Groussard (FRA)
- 1966 Paolo Mannucci (ITA)
- 1967 Jean-Pierre Genet (FRA)
- 1968 John Clarey (GBR)
- 1969 André Wilhelm (FRA)
- 1970 Frits Hoogerheide (NED)
- 1971 Georges Chappe (FRA)
- 1972 Alain Bellouis (FRA)
- 1973 Jacques-André Hochart (FRA)
- 1974 Lorenzo Alaimo (ITA)
- 1975 Jacques Boulas (FRA)
- 1976 Aad van den Hoek (NED)
- 1977 Roger Loysch (BEL)
- 1978 Philippe Tesnière (FRA)
- 1979 Gerhard Schönbacher (AUT)
- 1980 Gerhard Schönbacher (AUT)
- 1981 Faustino Cueli (ESP)
- 1982 Werner Devos (BEL)
- 1983 Marcel Laurens (BEL)
- 1984 Gilbert Glaus (SUI)
- 1985 Manrico Ronchiato (ITA)
- 1986 Ennio Salvador (ITA)
- 1987 Mathieu Hermans (NED)
- 1988 Dirk Wayenberg (BEL)
- 1989 Mathieu Hermans (NED)
- 1990 Rodolfo Massi (ITA)
- 1991 Rob Harmeling (NED)
- 1992 Fernando Quevedo (ESP)
- 1993 Edwig Van Hooydonck (BEL)
- 1994 John Talen (NED)
- 1995 Bruno Cornillet (FRA)
- 1996 Jean-Luc Masdupuy (FRA)
- 1997 Philippe Gaumont (FRA)
- 1998 Damien Nazon (FRA)
- 1999 Jacky Durand (FRA)
- 2000 Olivier Perraudeau (FRA)
- 2001 Jimmy Casper (FRA)
- 2002 Igor Flores (ESP)
- 2003 Hans De Clercq (BEL)
- 2004 Jimmy Casper (FRA)
- 2005 Iker Flores (ESP)
- 2006 Wim Vansevenant (BEL)
- 2007 Wim Vansevenant (BEL)
- 2008 Wim Vansevenant (BEL)
- 2009 Yauheni Hutarovich (BLR)
- 2010 Adriano Malori (ITA)
- 2011 Fabio Sabatini (ITA)
- 2012 Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA)
- 2013 Svein Tuft (CAN)
- 2014 Ji Cheng (CHN)
- 2015 Sébastien Chavanel (FRA)
- 2016 Sam Bennett (IRE)
- 2017 Luke Rowe (GBR)
- 2018 Lawson Craddock (USA)
- 2019 Sebastian Langeveld (NED)
- 2020 Roger Kluge (GER)
- 2021 Tim Declercq (BEL)
- 2022 Caleb Ewan (AUS)
- 2023 Michael Mørkøv (DEN)
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
References
- ^ Strickland, Bill. "The Tour's Master of Last Place". The Wall Street Journal, 25 July 2008.
- ^ "Lanterne Rouge". 14 July 2012.
- ^ "Lanterne Rouge: The Honor Of Being Last In The Tour de France".
- ^ "Tour: Clasificaciones Oficiales". El Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 19 July 1979. p. 21. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ "66ème Tour de France – 21ème étape". Memoire du Cyclisme (in French). Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ a b "Kostbare vergissing Tesnière". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 20 July 1979. p. 9. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ "67ème Tour de France". Memoire du Cyclisme (in French). Archived from the original on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ "Schönbacher weer laatste". Leidsche Courant (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 21 July 1980. p. 10. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ^ Startt, James (24 July 2016). "Aérogramme: Red Lantern". Peloton Magazine. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
It is always impressive to look at the long list of established champions that have won this dubious prize, as it is often won by great sprinters or classics riders. Many are great riders in their own right, but they simply are not fit for the overall rigors of the three-week Tour. ... Sam Bennett ... was caught up in the spectacular crash on stage 1 with the finish line just in sight. ... For the record, Bennett suffered a broken finger in his right hand. ...
- ^ Michel, Lucas (20 September 2020). "TOUR DE FRANCE : BENNETT S'IMPOSE AU SPRINT SUR LES CHAMPS-ELYSÉES (Tour de France: Bennet wins the sprint on the Champs-Élysées)". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 20 September 2020.
De lanterne rouge en 2016 à maillot vert en 2020 (From red lantern in 2016 to green jersey in 2020)
- ^ a b Ingle, Sean (August 6, 2018). "Last but not least: Craddock wears Tour's red lantern as badge of courage". theguardian.com. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
The American rider may have come last in the Tour de France but his grit and persistence in carrying on after a dreadful first-stage crash made it a triumph of sporting endeavour....So far the donations stand at more than $250,000.
- ^ Scott, Roxanna (July 29, 2018). "American cyclist Lawson Craddock is last in Tour de France, raises $192K for velodrome". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 29, 2018.