The winner no one expected

Waiting in Grenoble’s velodrome on the afternoon of 24th July 1956 was the TV and radio presenter Léon Zitrone. Born in Russia, Zitrone had moved to France at the age of six when in 1917 his parents opted against returning to Russia from Sweden, where his father had been working. By the mid-1950s he was appearing on televised news bulletins, often reporting from some sporting event or other. It was in that capacity that he found himself in Grenoble with a microphone in hand and a brief to interview the key riders of the 43rd edition of the Tour de France.