Defining historical events of the 20th century often left  their marks on road cycling history. Just think about, for istance, the impact of World War 1 on the mythology of some famous races, like Paris-Roubaix. The born of the famous phase of “Hell of the North” is a quite well known story among cycling fans.… Read More »When Tour de France went abroad before 1914

Although the first ever Italian Grand Depart of Tour de France will take place in 2024, the race visited Italy for plenty of times, usually during mountain stages in the Alps. Turin is one of the most visited Italian cities by Tour de France.  In 1956, peloton made a trip to the place in 17th… Read More »Tour de France visits Turin (Tour de France 1956)

Col du Galibier is one of the oldest participats among the ascents the peloton of Tour de France used to climb in the Alps. It was already part the program of the 1911 edition when the race visited the Alps for the very first time.     In 1936, Col du Galibier, alongside with Thélégraphe… Read More »Fédérico Ezquerra on the Galibier (Tour de France 1936)

Federico Bahamontes rode Tour de France for the very first time in 1954. Of course, the real race for him started in the Pyrenees. On the 12th stage, which included Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde, he arrived at the finish with Jean Malléjac and Gilbert Bauvin, who won the stage with 1 sec ahead of Bahamontes,… Read More »Federico Bahamontes on the Galibier (Tour de France 1954)

After the introduction of the Pyrenees to the race in 1910, the next big challenge of Tour de France was how to include the “giants of the Alps” into the program.  The story behind using Galibier, Thelegraphe, Aravis, and Lautarer was far less dramatic than the organizers’ first encounter with Col du Tourmalet. Nevertheless, the… Read More »10 July 1911 The first mountain stage in the Alps at Tour de France

The first Tour de France started at 3 pm on the 1st of July in 1903 from the Café au Reveil Matin (Paris).

Winners of both Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix in the same year: Henri Suter 1923 Romain Gijssels 1932 Gaston Rebry 1934 Raymond Impanis 1954 Fred De Bruyne 1957 Rik Van Looy 1962 Roger De Vlaeminck 1977 Peter van Petegem 2003 Tom Boonen 2005 Fabian Cancellara 2010 Tom Boonen Belgium 2012 Fabian Cancellara 2013 Mathieu van… Read More »Double winners of Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix

Of course, they weren’t called “monuments” those days, but here are some interesting stuff about the winners of the first editions of the five most important one-day races. Léon Houa, Liége -Bastogne-Liége (1892) Belgian cyclist Léon Houa (1867-1918) actually won the first three editions of La Doyenne. The first two of them were amateur events.… Read More »The first monument winners

Eddy Merckx leads the list of cyclists with the most Milano-Sanremo victories with seven occasions.  Fun fact: at the time of Merckx’s big  triumphs Cipressa was not introduced to the race yet . (It happened only in 1982.) Eddy Merckx (BEL) 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976 Costante Girardengo (ITA) 1918, 1921, 1923, 1925,… Read More »Most Milano-Sanremo victories