Shay Elliott took the Tour de France stage win into Roubaix on this day 50 years ago and with the first Tour yellow jersey of his career.
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A half a century to the day since Shay Elliott won a stage of the Tour de France into Roubaix and took his first yellow jersey in that race, journalist and author Graham Healy – who wrote “Shay Elliott; The life and death of Ireland’s first yellow jersey” – remembers the momentous achievement.
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Fifty years ago today, an Irishman achieved what no other had before, and only two others have achieved since. On that day, the 25th of June 1963, Shay Elliott became the first Irish wearer of the Tour de France yellow jersey.
Not only that, but he also won the stage to become the first English-speaker to win stages in the three Grand Tours.
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On the morning of his stage win, the riders lined up in Jambes where they would face 224 kilometres to Roubaix, tacking a number of cobbled sections. Coincidentally, nearly four years previously, on the 26th of June 1959, Elliott came so close to his first stage win just across the River Meuse in Namur.
On that day, he was caught on the climb to the Citadelle with just five hundred metres to the finish line. As they lined up for the stage to Roubaix, less than a kilometre from where he had come so close, it was perhaps this painful memory that would spur him on to win later that day.
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Elliott managed to infiltrate the main break of the day alongside his team mate, Jean Stablinski. The duo were supporting their team leader and reigning Tour champion, Jacques Anquetil. Therefore, with a couple of danger men in the breakaway neither contributed to the workload.
Elliott was to puncture twice during the stage, but managed to get back to the leaders both times.
With just 6 kilometres remaining, Stablinski deliberately led the group onto a bike path, thereby providing Elliott with an opportunity to jump clear on the cobbles. The others were stuck behind Stablinski on the bike path, who slowed down and frustrated the chase.
Elliott arrived into the famous velodrome at Roubaix half a minute clear of the others to take the stage and also the yellow jersey. As he was led to the podium shortly afterwards, the band started to play God Save the Queen, which had also happened to Harry Reynolds when he won his world title in Copenhagen in 1896.
Afterwards Elliott told reporters: “I am very happy, because it means something in the life of a cyclist to wear the yellow jersey, particularly for Ireland. Now people will realise that cycling also has its place elsewhere than on the Continent. In those final kilometres I was thinking of my son Pascal. I wanted him to be proud of what I was doing.”
He would hold on to the yellow jersey for four stages before losing it on the Stage 6b time trial. He would then go on to help his team leader Anquetil to claim a then-record fourth Tour de France.
It was 20 years before another Irishman would wear the maillot jaune, when Sean Kelly took over the lead of the Tour after the ninth stage of the 1983 race. He would only get to wear the jersey for one stage as Frenchman Pascal Simon took it from him the following day.
It was one of the highlights of Elliott’s career, during which he also finished on the podiums of the World Championships and the Vuelta. He would retire three seasons later disillusioned with cycling, and return to Ireland.
He eventually rekindled his interest in the sport, and started to help coach the Irish team for the ’72 Olympics. Unfortunately, he never got to see the culmination of his work with the team.
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“Shay Elliott; The life and death of Ireland’s first yellow jersey” By Graham Healy with Richard Allchin is published by Sport and Publicity-Mousehold Press. (With foreword by Pat McQuaid and Sean Kelly.)
Available from bookshops for €17.10
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