One-day races and Classics Hippolyte Aucouturier (17 October 1876 – 22 April 1944)[1] was a French professional road bicycle racer.

Aucouturier was an outspoken man[2] whom the Tour organiser, Henri Desgrange, referred to in L'Auto as Le Terrible.

[2] The 1903 Paris–Roubaix, on 11 April, was decided when Aucouturier organised a chase to bring back a group which had escaped on the côte de St-Germain.

[4] But Aucouturier abandoned after La Palisse, 320 km into the first stage, with stomach cramp said to be brought on by drinking too much.

Nobody now knows if this means what it says, perhaps from unclean water, or if referred to drinking wine and sniffing ether, both aimed at numbing the pain of long days riding on bad roads with little food.

[5] The historian Pierre Chany, wrote:[6] The big athlete in his blue and red jersey collapsed on a chair.

Eat and you'll feel better", Géo Lefèvre said.He ate, he stood up, clenched his hands and slowly took hold of his machine.

The robust Hippolyte brought to ground by stomach pain, abandoned at La Palisse, 135km from the finish.Géo Lefèvre insisted the cause was food poisoning.

Aucouturier has abandoned the race at La Palisse, telling me he could no longer continue the battle, that he had abominable stomach cramp caused by bad food.

I saw Aucouturier demoralised at Moulins and he dropped out at La Palisse and he is now, it seems, in bed in his hotel, in a feverish sleep.

A victory in the first Tour de France wouldn't have crowned his sporting career, because he still has long years in front of him, but it would have been his greatest glory.

[3] Aucouturier, rider number 15, was in the leading group when the race reached the first signing-in point at Pontoise.

Race historian Pascal Sergent said: The crowd had started gathering outside the Café Potard, site of the control, from 6am.

Garin fell when a car carrying journalists from La Vie au Grand Air ran into him.

Aucouturier was one of the four leading riders disqualified at the end in a race so chaotic that Henri Desgrange swore he would never run another.