The Golden Age Begin's

One of my favorite blogs must be the postings coming from Dave Moulton, the framebuilder of the same frames. His views of the history of cycling are not copies of Wiki pages but rather things that he remembers from times past. He wrote a great article on Jean Robic, the first winner of the Tour de France after the end of the Second World War and the first World Cyclocross champs.

Jean Robic, Luchon - Pau 1947

His win just after the war gave the French a much needed boost to morale. Times were tough and people all over Europe turned to sport as a distraction. Leather-head, as he was known, for his constant crashes and thus wore a helmet to protect a already cracked skull was exactly what the doctor ordered. His win of the Tour came rather controversially on the last day and was the first winner of the Tour not to wear the yellow jersey during the Tour. He attacked Brambilla who was on the Franco-Italian team, both Germany and Italy not being invited. The sentiment in the peloton was not to help the Italian chase Robic, even though the Tour tradition is that the last day is more of a procession. Edouard Fachleitner was on the French team, the National teams were still in use, and went with the little giant. He would receive 100,000 Francs for his effort as Robic asked him to work for that same amount to help him. Fachleitner not going to kick a gift horse in the mouth happily agreed. The money was given to him but as the rules stated Robic gave the money to the French Team who would then split the prize money, René Vietto too his death bed told Fachleitner he should have asked for more.

Paul Neri et Jean Robic, Lourdes - Toulouse 1948

Photo from L'Eqippe
References: Wiki and Moulton
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On the Eve of War

The crowds had clearly caught onto the Tour de France by the thirties as can be seen in the photo below. They swarmed up the Tourmalet as the approaching was grew ever closer. I wonder if they had a feeling that there was something that was about to happen on such catastrophic scale. Could it be that history is about to repeat itself as the world heats up and tempers are starting to flare. Lets hope not.

The war effected the 1939 race as Italy, Germany and Spain did not send teams. This meant it was a rather one sided affair between the Belgians and French. A Belgian, Sylvère Maes, would win the last tour that would take place for eight years. The first seven stages saw a Devil Takes the Hindmost setup with the last rider over the line having to pack his bags. The stage going in the mountains was 311km long from Pau to Toulouse with Edward Vissers taking the honors as can be seen in the photo.

Photo's L'Equipe and info from Wiki

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Best of the rest

Secondo Martinetto quite funnily translates to "According to Jack". Try it by putting it into Google language tool. Back onto the actual post. I often find pictures of riders and there is very little story behind them. Trying to find out about the turn of the century riders that weren't amoung the winners is even more difficult. Martinetto is one of these riders but you never know what the future may bring up as my library increases.

Secondo Martinetto, Bayonne - Luchon

He was basically pack feed but this great photo show's the difference between the riders between then and now. Adversity was just part of the package and the riders were built like blocks of steel. I also really like the supporter, her face of sheer joy chasing this lone rider up the Tourmalet dressed to the T, gloves and all. Maritinetto would finish the race as the best of the Tourist's as they were known, riders without a team.

Photo via L'Equipe

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Brothers Buysse

The 1926 Tour de France was another dominated by the Belgians. Seems during the time what racing was hard that the men from the North came to the fore. The youngest of the three Buysse brothers, Jules, won the opening stage. The other Belgian outside the family to wear the yellow jersey was Gustave Van Slembrouck who held on as the opening stages ended in bunch sprints before heading to the hills. Most amazing about the win from Lucien Buysse was the fact that he found out of his daughters death on the third stage but would carry on to win. The picture shows Odile Tailleu trudging up the mighty Tourmalet where the race really got started, he would finish outside the top ten but being Belgian celebrated with the 15 other Belgians who made up the top twenty. Only five of the seventeen stages were pciked off by non Belgians, four of those from Nicolas Frantz from Luxembourg. This was probably one of the worst Tours where not a single Frenchman won even a stage.

Odile Tailleu, Bayonne - Luchon

Photo's from L'Equippe and info from wiki

Any information on this post or any stories you would like to share can be sent to me. Don't be shy, lets share the history of our great sport

No bannana's, lots of coffee

Bottecchia did the double in the 1925 Tour de France. He is famous for his limited French and apparently only knew how to say: "No bannana's, lots of coffee, thank you". You wouldn't get a more simple recipe to winning the greatest race on earth. This picture is of Léon Despontins and Eugène Dhers during the sixth stage from Bayonne to Luchon. Of the 130 riders starting only 49 would finish, back then the Tour was still made up of teams and touriste-routiers. Just finishing would be impressive but Léon Despontins managed to finish 16th and be the highest placed non-team rider.

Léon Despontins et Eugène Dhers, Bayonne - Luchon

Photo from L'Equipe and info from Wiki

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Bottecchia Battered

A rider I would really like to find out more about is Ottavio Bottecchia. The first Italian to win the Tour be was another character of the peloton. The picture from the stage over the Tourmalet show's the conditions these riders had to take part in. I think mountain bikers of today would bulk at having to climb scree like this but these machines were the working class, hard as nails and for a time where courage was the order of the day. Bottecchia himself was a bricklayer and and in the 1924 Tour he would go on to win the grand prize after rattling through the Pyranees and building up a 50 minute gap.

Ottavio Bottecchia, Bayonne - Luchon

Photo from L'Equipe

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The sprinter almost takes it

The 6th stage of the 1923 Tour saw the riders heading into the mountains again. Robert Jacquinot, who was primarily known as a sprinter, broke away and went over the first there mountains in the lead. He seemed to in for a chance with the win and take over the lead, but the last mountain was too much for Jacquinot, and he fell off his bike climbing the Peyresourde. Alavoine passed Jacquinot and went on to win the stage, while Bottecchia won back enough time to regain his lead from Bellenger, who lost a lot of time. Hector Heusghem actually lost the previous years Tour in 1923 because he took a spare bike which was disallowed before the rule change in the 1923 Tour. He would go on to finish 4th again in this ride.

Hector Heusghem, Bayonne - Luchon

Photo from L'Equipe

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Dejonghe takes on the Tourmalet

Albert Dejonghe was a Belgian hardman, winning the Paris Roubaix taking on the Tourmalet in 1921. I really like this photo as you can actually see the fans chasing up after him. Fast forward 100 years and nothing has changed. This truly was a Belgian dominated Tour with them leading from the start to end and also taking nine of the fifteen stages. This completely infuriated the French and Henri Desgrange  promised to change the rules as he saw the race as an individual effort and the team work of the Belgians was against this madman's way of thinking.

Albert Dejonghe, Bayonne - Luchon

Photo from l'Equipe
Any information on this post or any stories you would like to share can be sent to me. Don't be shy, lets share the history of our great sport

Tourmalet for the First Time

This year saw the centenary of the Tour heading into the mountains. Lequipe has had a set of great photo's of the Mountain that changed the Tour landscape. As if it wasn't hard enough riding around the French country side they now had to contend with high mountains. Unlike today these were no paved and riders would fear bears and wolves attacking them. Octave Lapize was the first rider over the col in 1910 yelling at the organizers 'Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!', even with my lack of French I can sense by the word assassins he was not happy with them. What lead to this outburst, surely climbing a mountain can not be that bad. Well the stage was 326km long and feature 7 cols to be climbed, all of thin with single gear bikes and possibly even fixed gear. Assassins indeed!!! 

Octave Lapize, Luchon - Bayonne

Photo from L'Equipe

Any information on this post or any stories you would like to share can be sent to me. Don't be shy, lets share the history of our great sport