Henri Desgrange

Three riders in yellow jersey in the peloton at once

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Tour de France 1929

I really wish there was somewhere a coloured picture of three cyclists wearing yellow jersey at the same time. A unique situation that would deserve a visual representation. But unfortunatelly, there are only few pictures about Tour de France 1929 out there. Nevertheless, this particular edition of Tour de France was notable also for another … Read more

25 July 1937 Roger Lapébie wins the Tour de France

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Roger Lapêbie, winner of the Tour de France 1937

The 31st Tour de France (held between 30th June and 25th July 1937) was the first race for the new director Jacques Goddet.  Since the beginning in 1903, Henri Desgrange, the “founding father of Tour de France” was the race director, now he has retired. He still visited the race frequently untill his death in … Read more

Duel between Marcel Berthet and Oscar Egg for the hour record

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Portraits of the cyclists Oscar Egg and Marcel Berthet

The hour record, riding the longest distance as possible during exactly 60 minutes was a populare challenge since the birt of the bicycle. Actually there were several “first” records during the 19th century: James Moore, a British cyclist set the record of 23,3 km in 1873, but most likely it wasn’t an accurataly measured distance, … Read more

Henri Desgrange, the cyclist

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How good was Henri Desgrange as a rider himself?

The founding father of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange (1865-1940)  was a cyclist in his younger days. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 km (1893) Apparently, Desgrange saw a bicycle race for a very first time while visiting the finish of Bordeaux-Paris in 1891. First he raced … Read more