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This was Anquetil first ever mountain stage victory at the Tour de France, although he has already won the race three times.   

Read More »2 July 1963 Jacques Anquetil won the stage in the Pyrenees (Tour de France)

The first Belgian Tour de France winner, who meant to be the first Belgian Tour de France winner. Odiel Defraeye was born on 14th July 1888, his professional career started in 1909. He was the protégé of the Belgian star cyclist Cyrille van Hauwaert, who was hoping Defraeye would be the first Belgian Tour de France winner. And so it happened in 1912. Defraeye participated in the Tour de France seven times between 1909 and 1924, but he managed to complete it only in his winning year. He also won Milano-Sanremo in 1913 and played a big part of that the first Ronde van Vlaanderen was organized in the same year. After his retirement Defraeye… Read More »Mini Cycling Who’s Who: Odiel Defraeye

Ali Neffati, the first African participant of the Tour de France, was born on 22th January 1895 in Tunis. Neffati started his career with being a track cyclist in Tunisia. His talent was discovered by Henri Desgrange, thus he got an invitation to the Tour de France in 1913. He also rode the next year’s edition, but haven’t finished any of them. In 1914 he had to abandon the race due to a crash with a car from the organization. After the WW1 he returned to racing, later started to work as a driver for the newspaper l’Auto. Ali Neffati died on th19 April 1974 in Paris. [su_box title=”Read more on the early days of… Read More »Cycling Who’s Who: Ali Neffati

The race was 5,287 km long divided into 15 stages. It was held between 29 June and 27 July 1913. The Belgian Philippe Thys triumphed at the end, he also won Stage 6 ( Bayonne to Luchon) which included Tourmalet. This was the race when the fork of the extreme unlucky Eugene Christophe’s bike broke, and he had to repair it himself. After several editions (1905-1912) used a point system to manage the general classification, in 1913 (and from then on), the Tour used elapsed time to calculate the standings.  

René Pottier was probably the finest climber of the early years of Tour de France. He was born in 1879 in Moret-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne. In 1903 he won Bordeaux-Paris and had also several other podium results (f. e. at Paris-Roubaix). Pottier attended the Tour de France only 2 times, in 1905 and 1906. The first time he had to abandon the race but next year he won it, including five stage wins.  He crossed the Ballon d’Alsace (the first climb of the Tour de France ) as first rider both occasions. On 25 January 1907 Pottier committed suicide after learning his wife found a new lover while he was winning the Tour de France.  

Every year the highest peak of the Giro d’Italia is called “Cima Coppi”, in honour of the great cyclist Fausto Coppi (1919-1960). In the inauguration year, the highest peak of the route was Passo dello Stelvio. The race was a real spectacle due to the heavy snowfall. Graziano Battistini crossed the finish line first on that memorable day.

The mountain pass is best known for being a part of Paris-Nice. Between 1969 and 1995 the race was decided on the last day’s mountain time trial. Sean Kelly won the ITT five times of his seven participation. Col d’Èze was also several times included in the program of Paris-Nice in the 21st century. Last time on the last stage in 2019, which was won by Ion Izaguirre. .The Tour de France visited the ascent twice: 1953 and 2009. Profil: Related posts: Tour de France 2020 –  Stage 2  Tour de France  2020 – List of all stages Tour de France 2020 – Startlist How to watch a cycling race Five promising changes in the… Read More »Tour de France 2020 Climbs – Col d’Èze (Tour de France 2020 – Stage 2)

Tour de France 29.08-20-09. 2020  Read More »Tour de France 2020 – Startlist

And some stage profiles (hopefully, the ASO will publish the profiles for the entire course soon)Read More »Tour de France 2020 – All Stages