At the turn of the century, when Tour de France was born, the tiny little details of a sport event could tell much more about the society than nowadays.
Bicycle was quite a democratic new vehicle in sense of every social class has found its own joy in it. But mostly in the bourgeoisie, the urban middle and upper middle class, the bicycle craze faced some rigid rules. Even Henri Desgrange, the strict founding father of Tour de France, was told in his younger years, that arriving to the workplace on a bicycle is considered as inappropiate for a clerk. He rather quit his job and focused entirely on cycling.
Also, at the start of the first Tour de France in 1903, there was a rider, who rode under the pseudonym ‘Samson’.
He was Julien Lootens, a Belgian cyclists, who came from a wealthy upper middle class family, where appearing in the news paper (except birth, marriage and desath) was considered inappropriate. But a cyclist’s name usually appears in a newspaper. So, not to embarrassing his family, he used a pseudonym.
Samson finished the first Tour de France 7th in the general classification. He rode also the next three editions. In 1904, he was one of the disqualified riders.The subsequent year he finished 11th, while his last Tour he abandoned on the 2nd stage.
MORE STORIES AND FUN FACTS FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF ROAD CYCLING (BEFORE 1914)
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