Individual time trial at Tour de France (TDF 2023 Stage 16 )

Defining historical events of the 20th century often left  their marks on road cycling history. Just think about, for istance, the impact of World War 1 on the mythology of some famous races, like Paris-Roubaix. The born of the famous phase of “Hell of the North” is a quite well known story among cycling fans. … Read more

Although Henri Desgrange was always keen to preserve Tour de France as a competition for individuals1,  cyclists who were sponsored by the same bicycle manufacture naturally worked as a team. Alcyon for example, delivered four overall victories (François Faber, 1909; Octave Lapize,1910 ; Gustave Garrigou, 1911; Odyle Defraye, 1912) before 1914 and dominated most of … Read more

It’s a well known fact, that many of the big road cycling races were created for marketing reasons: sport newspapers were selling better by including reports about cycling events. But it’s a lesser known story, that even the format of the individual time trial at the Tour de France based on the rivalry between two … Read more

The first Tour de France without Henri Desgrange in charge since the creation of the event in 1903 didn’t go down well in the history of road cycling at all.   In 1937 Jacques Goddet was full in charge and with him came the first big change: it was the first time when gear change … Read more

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