Everything was an unlucky 13: the 13th day of July, the 13th stage of the Tour de France; his race number and the year added up to 13.
Twenty years ago, Tom Simpson set off with the remains of a rag-bag team of also-rans and part-timers to race from Marseilles to Carpentras.
The raggle-taggle army made it. But Tom Simpson dropped dead at the top of a ten-mile mountain, where molten tar ran down the gutters in rivulets. What killed him? The heat? His ambition? Overwork? Or was it drugs?
Les Woodland reconstructs the fatal day, with Simpson's team-mates, Vin Denson and Barry Hoban ; his widow Helen; team officials Harry Hall and Alec Taylor; supporter Albert Beurick and journalist Alan Gayfer. Producer LES WOODLAND BBC Manchester