Puy de Dôme is back – TDF 2023 Stage 9 (Saint-Léonard -de Noblat -Puy de Dôme)

Tour de France 2023 presented a great gift for every road cycling history fans: after 35 years Puy de Dôme was reintroduced to the race. Although the 9th stage of Tour de France 2023 was only the 14th appearance of the ascent, it became one of the most iconic places in the history road cycling… Read More »Iconic Tour de France places: Puy de Dôme

Puy de Dôme is back on the 9th stage of Tour de France 2023. Tour de France 2023 Stage 9 9 July 2023 Saint-Léonard -de Noblat -Puy de Dôme   Click here to refresh the page Michael is the new conquerer of Puy de Dôme. 350 m Woods is heading to win the stage finishing… Read More »Puy de Dôme is back – TDF 2023 Stage 9 (Saint-Léonard -de Noblat -Puy de Dôme)

Between 1952 and 1988 Puy de Dôme was included into the program of Tour de France 13 times. Among the winners on the top are Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Federico Bahamontes  Lucien van Impe, Luis Ocaña or Joop Zoetemelk. In fact, the two latter are those riders, who were able to win a Puy de… Read More »Ocaña and Zoetemelk doubled on the top of Puy de Dôme

The first Tour de France started at 3 pm on the 1st of July in 1903 from the Café au Reveil Matin (Paris).

Fausto Coppi was the first rider to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year (1949) In 2024, 26 years after Marco Pantani’s double victory, Tadej Pogacar managed to win both Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year. The list of the riders Fausto Coppi (ITA) 1949… Read More »Giro d’ Italia -Tour de France doubles

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 France was 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… Read More »The slowest and the fastest Tour de France

During its 120-year long history, it happened only three times, when the peloton of Tour de France did not includ any previous winner. 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… Read More »Tour de France editions without previous winners in the peloton

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 »Lanterne rouge – list of the last cyclists of every Tour de France

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 »8 stage victories during a single Tour de France edition

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 »Most days in yellow jersey

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.

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 »When Tour de France went abroad before 1914

Henri Pépin was neither an eccentric aristocrat, nor a rookie cyclist when he hired two other persons to join him to ride the Tour de France just for fun. Pépin (1864-1915) was an active cyclist in the 19th century already. He even published a book about him and (possibly) his son riding a tandem from… Read More »The Tour de France contestant who hired two other cyclists just for having fun

It’s well known that many major road cycling races were originally created for marketing purposes, as sports newspapers saw increased sales by covering these events. However, a lesser-known story is that even the format of the individual time trial in the Tour de France was influenced by a rivalry between two newspapers. L’Auto, the daily… Read More »The first individual time trial at Tour de France

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 »When Tour de France went abroad before 1914

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 »The years of La Sportive consortium (1919- 1921)

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 »The most scandalous Tour de France ever

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, like World War… Read More »Faces from the peloton: Victor Fontan (1892-1982)

In the year when Giro d’Italia organizers decided to pay Alfredo Binda for not to participate the race, a 21-year-young neo-pro rider, Luigi Marchisio had the chance of his lifetime in the Legnano team. And that’s it. This is pretty much his story, because besides winning the Giro d’Italia in 1930, he had very few… Read More »Faces from the peloton: Luigi Marchisio (1909-1992)

The youngest Giro-stage winner ever, Olimpio Bizzi (1916-1976) was active as professional cyclist between 1936 and 1952. Practically, he was racing in the shadow of the greatest generation of Italian cyclists, including Learco Guerra, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, or Giorenzo Magni Nevertheless, Bizzi had his own successes during his career. Besides some minor one-day race… Read More »Faces from the peloton: Olimpio Bizzi (1916-1976)

Thank you for being a devoted reader of PelotonTales. You are the reason why it’s worth spending so many hours to create new content and trying to improve this website. If you would show appreciation to my work, please consider supporting the blog with a small donation. Thank you! Raymond Delisle was one of those… Read More »Faces from the peloton: Raymond Delisle (1943-2013)