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PelotonTales is blog about road cycling. History and present. Great stories.

cycling appears quite frequently in classic novels and short stories too

How to mount a bicycle

“When you have reached the point in bicycling where you can balance the machine tolerably fairly and propel it and steer it, then comes your next task–how to mount it. You do it in this way: you hop along behind it on your right foot, resting the other on the mounting-peg, and grasping the tiller with your hands. At the word, you rise on the peg, stiffen your left leg, hang your other one around in the air in a general in indefinite way, lean your stomach against the rear of the saddle, and then fall off, maybe on one side, maybe on the other; but you fall off. You get up and do it… Read More »How to mount a bicycle

Cycling heroes from the early days. Peloton&Tales special content in the cycling life in the 19th century

Cycling Who’s Who: Edmond Jacquelin

Edmond Jacquelin, one of the first stars in the history of cycling races was born on the 15th March 1875 in Santenay, France. He started his professional career in 1893. This was the time period when cycling races were predominantly track events. Jacquelin won the Grand Prix Turin in 1898, the Grand Prix de Paris and the World Championship in 1900. His career is still most memorable from the famous cycling duel between him and the American Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor in the Parc des Princes velodrome. Edmond Jacquelin retired from cycling in 1914. Although he earned a fortune as cyclist, he spent all his money too quickly and  had to work as a day… Read More »Cycling Who’s Who: Edmond Jacquelin

cycling appears quite frequently in classic novels and short stories too

“He was flying like a racer”

“A solitary cyclist was coming towards us. His head was down and his shoulders rounded, as he put every ounce of energy that he possessed on to the pedals. He was flying like a racer.” (Arthur Conan Doyle: The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist) In this case of Sherlock Holmes a young music teacher woman is followed by a mysterious cyclist on the road between her workplace and the train station.  When she appears at Baker Street 221/b seeking help from Holmes to solve the case, the detective recognizes instantly, that she is a cyclist too. The story was published in 1903 and insists that at this time riding a bicycle was already accepted and… Read More »“He was flying like a racer”

Lisette world champion 1896

Cycling Who’s Who: Lisette Marton

Lisette Marton, “Mademoiselle Lisette”, or  Amélie le Gall”,  the women’s world champion in 1896 was born in 1869, in Quintin, France. In the early days in cycling history, the bicycle was first of all a new vechicle for the every day life, which had to be intruduced to potential costumers, and there were plety of exhibition contests. (Well, basically, all the cycling races with professional participants usually sponsored by bicycle manufactures can be considered as exhibition contest in this early period.) Lisette’s career started at this kind of events in France, but very soon she competed also abroad, like at the Royal Aquarium in London. She competed sometimes against men too. She became world champion… Read More »Cycling Who’s Who: Lisette Marton

Iconic spring classic monuments moments Adrie van der Pole wins Tour of Faknders. Ronde van Vlaanderen 1986

Adrie van der Poel wins Ronde van Vlaanderen (1986)

The 70th Ronde van Vlaanderen was held on the 6th April 1986. After the Koppenberg, a 10-man breakaway group formed. With 30 km to go, Eddy Planckaert and Steve Bauer rode away from this group. On the Muur Kappelmuur (Muur van Geraardsbergen) Planckaert dropped, menawhile Sean Kelly, Jean-Philippe Vandenbranden and Adrie van der Poel joined Bauer at the front of the race. In the finale, Adrie van der Poel beat Sean Kelly and won the race.

The route of Tour de France 2022

Tour de France 2022 stages

Stage 1 1 July Copenhagen (Denmark) 13 km (8.1 mi) Individual time trial Stage 2 2 July Roskilde to Nyborg (Denmark) 199 km (124 mi) Flat stage Stage 3 3 July Vejle to Sønderborg (Denmark) 182 km (113 mi) Flat stage 4 July Rest day Stage 4 5 July Dunkirk to Calais 172 km (107 mi) Medium-mountain stage Stage 5 6 July Lille to Arenberg 155 km (96 mi) Medium-mountain stage Stage 6 7 July Binche (Belgium) to Longwy 220 km (140 mi) Medium-mountain stage Stage 7 8 July Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles 176 km (109 mi) Mountain stage Stage 8 9 July Dole to Lausanne (Switzerland) 184 km (114 mi) Medium-mountain… Read More »Tour de France 2022 stages

Firmin Lambot, the winner of the Tour de France 1919

The slowest Tour de France ever

The slowest Tour de France in history was the 13th edition between 29th June and 27 July in 1919. The race included 5560 km, divided into 15 stages. This was the second longest Tour de France in history. Due to the recent war times (World War I between 1914 and 1918) most of the riders had not enough possibilities to train. This is one of the reason why mostly the older riders with more racing routine dominated the competition. On the other hand, the international elite peloton suffered some important losses: three of the former Tour de France winners, Lucien Petit-Breton (winner of 1907 and 1908), Francois Faber (1909) and Octave Lapize (1910) died during… Read More »The slowest Tour de France ever

Paul Deman the winner of the first Ronde van Vlaanderen -sentenced tobdeath and almost executed twice!

Sentenced to death and almost executed – twice!

Paul Deman was the first winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (1913). During the WW1 he was working as a courier for underground resistance movements and carrying messages around Belgium and also in the Netherlands. In November 1918 he had already 14 successful missions, but unfortunately on the 15th, he was stopped by the Germans. He was arrested, jailed and sentenced to death immediately. Fortunately, while he was awaiting his execution, the Armistice was signed. But it still wasn’t a happy ending for Deman. The British Army took over the prison where he was jailed and believed him a German because of his accent. They wanted to execute him too. At the end a letter… Read More »Sentenced to death and almost executed – twice!

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It started with a great pilot episode (Tour de France 2021 Grand Depart)

I’m pretty sure, you all know the good old cycling bon mot, that one-day races are like thrillers and grand tours (a. k. a the big three week long events) like soap operas. Indeed, it seems to be a witty remark considering how thrilling the last few kilometres of the Milano-Sanremo can be or how many unexpected plot twists we can witness during Ronde van Vlaanderen or Paris-Roubaix. And of course, if we take a look at the story of the birh of the Tour de France, we possibly couldn’t more agree, that the form, how people are following an event day by day, because they want to know what’s next in the story, reminds… Read More »It started with a great pilot episode (Tour de France 2021 Grand Depart)