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“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 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

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.

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

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

During World War I, also known as “the Great War”, many cyclists were involved in the fights. Some of them losts their lives. Among the death casualities of the international cyclists community there were three former Tour de France winners. Read More »Tour de France winners died in the Great War

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!

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)

Defending champion, Eddy Merckx won the 14th stage of Tour de France  up to the Mont Ventoux on the 10th July 1970. This was Merckx’s 6th stage victory from  the total of 8 stage wins at the Tour de France 1970. He took the yellow jersey on the 6th stage and never let it out of his hands. He won the Tour de France with 12 min and 41 sec ahead of Joop Zoetemelk. During the active cycling years of Eddy Merckx, Tour de France visited Mont Ventoux twice. Besides 1970, the second occasion happened in 1972, when Bernard Thévénet won the 11th stage arriving on the top of the famous “windy mountain”. Merckx, already… Read More »Eddy Merckx on Mont Ventoux (Tour de France 1970)