In the eleventh stage, the first mountain stage of the race, Gino Bartali was away together with French Jean Robic. There was a lot of crowd, and they pressed forward to see the cyclist coming. This caused Bartali to fall down during the descent of the Col d'Aspin, and this caused Robic to also fall down. Bartali got up and won the stage, but felt threatened by spectators, who punched and kicked him. One spectator had threatened Bartali with a knife. Bartali told his team manager Alfredo Binda that he was leaving the Tour de France, and that all Italian cyclists should abandon the race. Not all Italian cyclists wanted to leave: the members from the second Italian team (the Italian Cadets) and Adolfo Leoni wanted to stay. Some Italian cyclists said they wanted to stay in the race to help Magni defend the leading position. Magni felt bad about giving up the chance to win the Tour de France, but accepted the decision. The Tour organisation wanted to keep the Italian cyclists in the race, and among other compromises offered to give them neutral gray jerseys, so the spectators would not recognize them. None of this helped, and both Italian teams left the race. As a consequence, the fifteenth stage, that was originally scheduled to end in Italy (Sanremo), was rescheduled to end in Menton.