00:00Dunkirk train station in late June 1960, not where you would expect to find the defending
00:13champion of the Tour de France. And yet here was Federico Bahamontes abandoning the race
00:18before it had even really begun. Stage two took the peloton from Brussels to Malle au
00:25Le Bain in Dunkirk with thousands coming out to cheer the riders on as they made their way
00:29across Belgium. But Bahamontes was out of form and suffering with stomach issues. After
00:35about 50 kilometres, the Spaniard was halted by a mechanical problem.
00:47The Team Spain mechanics working hard to get their leader moving again, but he was losing
00:52an awful lot of time.
00:58No fewer than six of his team mates had waited up to try to bring Bahamontes back to the peloton.
01:04But the French, the Belgians and the Italians weren't hanging around and the man nicknamed
01:09the Eagle of Toledo wouldn't get the chance to spread his wings in this 1960 edition. With
01:1545 kilometres to go, he decided to give up the chase.
01:22Well, Bahamontes was almost 15 minutes back when he stepped off his bike to the fury of
01:30some of his team mates who felt that they had sacrificed their own chances for nothing.
01:34But neither they nor the sporting director could change the Spaniard's mind and he jumped
01:39in the broom wagon. Dunkirk was the end of the line for his tour title defence.
