Despite his career almost perfectly overlaps the years when Eddy Merckx was active, Felice Gimondi (1942-2019) managed to win pretty much everything. Gimondi is one of the few riders won all the three grand tours at least once, he also gained the rainbow jersey and won three different monuments. Gimondi and the grand tours Felice … Read more
One of the uncountable records Eddy Merckx holds is his success to win four consecutive grand tours in a row. No one ever has won all the three grand tours in a year ((and no one should ever win, because we don’t want a peloton where only one rider is so overwhelmingly dominant, do we?)), … Read more
Raymond Delisle was one of those cyclists who was always lurking around the favourites in the most important and/or most iconic Tour de France stages without having significant success. Delisle started his professional career in 1965 in team Peugeot, where he was racing till 1976. (His last year as professional cyclist he spent with the … Read more
Belgian one-day specialist Roger De Vlaeminck is the third cyclist in road cycling history who managed to win all the five monuments at least once during his career. Before the season 1977 he already had 3 Paris-Roubaix (1972, 1974, 1975, meanwhile his historical 4th one he managed to win two weeks after his Ronde van … Read more
The race in 1972 was Bernard Thévenet’s second Tour de France. In his devutant year, in 1971 he finished fifth in the general classification and also won stage. It was a bit of a surprise performance, but in the subsequent year he was considered as one of the favourites. The 7th stage of Tour de France … Read more
One of the oddest images from the history of Tour de France pictures Lucien Van Impe after the crash with a motobike on Alpe d’Huez on 19th July 1977. The Belgian cyclist won the Tour de France in 1976, and had a chance to repeat his success in the subsequent year. Before the 17th stage … Read more
Lucien Van Impe was second in the general classification with 2 ‘ 41″ behind Raymond Delisle before the 14th stage of Tour de France 1976. The program of the day on the 10th of July 1976 was a 139 km long route in the Pyrenees between Saint-Gaudens and Saint-Larry-Soulan, including Col de Menté, Col du … Read more