00:00The cyclists pushed their way through the crowd, stormed into the cafe, stole all the wine they
00:05could get their hands on, then they jumped back on their bikes and they continued on with the
00:09Tour de France. But despite taking off without paying and dropping bottles and breaking things
00:13in their rampage, the cyclists never got in any trouble for their looting. And that's because,
00:18as absurd as it might seem, this was all part of the race. See, in 1930, the founder of the
00:24Tour de France, Henri de Grange, had a bit of a problem. The grueling race that he'd birthed
00:29over two decades earlier to help him sell newspapers, wasn't quite living up to his own
00:34expectations. De Grange had designed the race to be an impossible, gladiatorial test of human limits.
00:41But with the advent of more efficient bikes, training and strategies, the completion rate of the race
00:46was starting to skyrocket. And to de Grange, that was unacceptable. So in 1930, de Grange implemented
00:52a couple key changes. He forced the top riders to use identical bicycles that were supplied by the
00:58race, and he limited every rider to only four bottles of water per stage. He figured that the
01:03changes would increase the level of suffering, force dramatic collapses and rivalries, and would
01:08give him more fodder and drama to report on in his newspaper. But instead, the changes created a
01:15different, unintended spectacle entirely. Because after being driven insane by thirst and suffering
01:21under the strict bottle limits, riders found a loophole. See, riders weren't technically allowed to
01:26accept outside help from strangers, but they were allowed to use the environment along the course
01:32as a part of their own self-reliance. They could pick fruit off a tree on the side of the
01:36road,
01:37they could drink water from a roadside well, but well water was often contaminated with bacteria.
01:43Wine and beer, however, were considered a safer option. So support riders began heading out on
01:49organised cafe raids. They'd break away from the pack, barge into a bistro, grab wine, beer, champagne,
01:56and sometimes water, and then stuff the bottles into their jersey pockets for their team leaders.
02:01At first, de Grange was furious, but because it was the riders doing it themselves, it didn't
02:06technically violate his ban on external support. And he could see that the sheer absurdity of the
02:11spectacle simply gave him more stories to write, helping him sell even more newspapers. So rather
02:18than relaxing his strict fluid limits or allowing support vehicles, de Grange accepted cafe raids
02:24as a quasi-official part of the race. At the end of the race, cafe owners would tally up everything
02:29that was stolen or broken and then submit the bill to the Tour de France organisers who reimbursed every
02:35cent. But in 1936, de Grange stepped down as the race director. A lot of his rigid restrictions
02:41disappeared and in the 1960s, when alcohol was reclassified as an illegal stimulant, support
02:47vehicles and designated feed zones were expanded, making cafe raids no longer a necessary part of
02:53the race.
