A quick overview, why it would be worth to visit PelotonTales blog frequently also in March.
First of all, the 5 facts of every Tour de France series is still on. My plan is to finish it right before Tour de France 2023 starts in July. As always, when it comes to the history of road cycling races, I try to find interesting small stories, little fascinating, funny, surprising or unbelievable moments from the past. Take a look at the posts of this category, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
There is a new special project of PelotonTales blog, Cycling Revolution, focusing a bit more on the revolutionary impact of the bicycle on the everyday life in the late 19th century (and early 20th century).
Last month I’ve found something interesting in the history of the early Tour de France races (1903-1914), that made me think a bit further.
I’ve always had a special interest in the impact of World War I (or the “Great War” as were still calling it sometimes) on road cycling races (just think about the origin of the phrase “Hell of the North”), and the fact, that between 1906 and 1910 Tour de France visited German occupied territories, made me want to dive deeper into this story. Microhistory is the non-fictional genre I’ve always fancied the most (because its similarities to novels, of course), who knows, I might start writing a book about this story putting it in a wider cultural historical context. Also, I still have my film script idea about a crime story loosely connected to the first Tour de France, another reason why I tend to dive deeper into the history of this time period.
For the reader of PelotonTales (and also Cycling Revolition) it means, that
more posts about cycling races and cycling in general from the first decades of the 20th century will be coming also in March.
Also, the Faces from the peloton series continues, and you will find surely some new fun facts posts about Tour de France or Giro d’Italia.
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Spring classics 2023
Every devoted road cycling fan knows, March (and also most of April) is about the spring classics. And you’ve come to the right place to find lot of spring classics, especially Monuments related content during the next 6-7 weeks.
Of course, writing about past events is always easier, in some or other way I usually find time for it in my schedule. Writing about the most recent cycling races is a bit trickier, because I have to adjust my daily routine to the race calendar. But as every year at the beginning of the spring classics season I promise myself again, that I try to write someting about every important one-day race of the spring.
For the current events, there is an overview posts of the Monuments 2023.
If you want to read older stories about the most important one-day races, here are some random posts on this topic:
The winners of the first Monuments
André Leducq crossing the finish line at Paris-Roubaix 1928
The first Milano-Sanremo (1907)
Season-long narrative
During the past few years I’ve tend to follow less and less multiple stage races (except the three grand tours, of course), but this year this will be a bit different. As we’ve witnessed it during the recent weeks, both Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) started the season quite well, and now they’ll meet at the Paris-Nice.
Of course it’s still 4 monts till Tour de France, and we don’t know yet will they be the main protagonsits of the race in July. But it seems to be a good idea to follow their duel also during the preparation.