First time Tour de France started outside Paris (1926)

You might wonder which Tour de France edition was the slowest and wich. one the fastest. Here you have the answer.The slowest Tour de Francewas the 13th edition, held between 29th June and 27 July in 1919. The 5560 km long route of the race was  divided into 15 stages. (And it wasn’t even the … Read more

They used to say history remembers only the winners. Fortunately this is not the case of Tour de France history. The last ones, the receivers of the famous lanterne rouge get enough attention too. Lanterne rouge is an actual red lamp used to be served to the last rider of the race as some of … Read more

There are only three riders who managed to win eight stages during a single Tour de France edition. One of them is Eddy Merckx, of course. He achieved it twice, in 1970 and 1974. The other two cyclists  are Charles Pelissier (1930) and Freddy Maertens (1976). Charles Pelissier (1930) Charles Pelissier, the youngest brother in … Read more

The iconic yellow jersey of Tour de France was introduced to the race in 1919. Eugène Christophe  was the first rider to wear it. Of course, on the top of the list there are those riders, who won 5 times the Tour de France. Also, there are cyclists, like Fabian Cancellara or René Vietto, who … Read more

It happened three times during the 110 years of Tour de France history, that there were no previous winners in the peloton. Obviously, in 1903 there couldn’t be any, because it was the very first edition. In 1927, it seems to have been a generational change in the peloton of Tour de France. Several riders, … Read more

Horquette d’Ancizan has a short history regarding its appearances at Tour de France. 2022  Thibaut Pinot (FRA) 2019 Simon Yates (GBR) 2016  Chris Froome (GBR) 2013  Daniel Martin (IRL) 2011 Laurent Mangel (FRA) Horquette d’Ancizan will part of the program Tour de France 2024.

Unfortunately, Col de Menté, a mountain pass in the central Pyrenees  is well-known because of the tragic stories happened there during the Tour de France. In 1971, a nasty crash on the descent of Col de Menté ended Luis Ocaña’s dreams of winning the Tour de France that year. (Nevertheless, Ocaña managed to win Tour … Read more

The smoking cyclists of Tour de France 1927 is one of the most famous vintage cycling images from the heydays of road cycling races. It’s popular because  it conveys a certain aspect of the many differences between our time and the life hundred years ago. The dissonance between our 21st-centurian knowledge that smoking is very … Read more

A cyclist running while carrying his bike on his shoulder. Surely, you’ve seen this vintage cycling image several times. Now it’s time to learn a bit more about the protagonist of the picture. Victor Fontan (1892-1982) in the Faces from the peloton series of PelotonTales blog. A local rider World War I (as did World … Read more

The 10th stage of Tour de France 1926 is often dubbed as the toughest stage ever in the history of the race. The 326 km long route between Bayonne and Luchon  on the 6th July 1926 went down in history also as one of the most chaotic ones thanks to the extreme weather conditions in … Read more

Giusto Cerutti (1903-1993) had at least one bad day at the Tour de France in 1928.We don’t know much about the grumpy cyclist with the broken bicycle. But one thing is sure, he is the unlucky (anti)hero of one of the most searched vintage cycling images on the internet.According to  ProCyclingStats, Cerutti abandoned the race … Read more

During the first few decades in the history of Tour de France, mountain routes were kind of “terrae incognitae”, uncharted territories. We all know the story when Alphonse Steniès persuaded Henri Desgrange to include Tourmalet in the program of Tour de France 1910. He was struggling even to find a car driver, a local guide … Read more

After the quarell between Henri Desgrange and Henri Pelissier last year, a new rule was made, that any rider that harmed the Tour’s image would be banned for the next years. Team Automoto had a really strong line-up: Ottavio Bottecchia (Tour de France winner 1924 and 1925) , Philippe Thys (Tour de France winner 1913,1914,1920)  … Read more

Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian cyclist to win Tour de France. Also, he was the first rider to take the yellow jersey on the first day and to keep it until Paris. (Leading the race from the very first day was not a novelty, it happened at the very first Tour de France already. … Read more