Although the idea of a French cyclist in a striped shirt might seem like a little bit of a cliché, sometimes stereotypes are carrying quite much truth in themselves. Just take a look at Hippolyte Aucouturier! One of the most iconic characters from the early days of road cycling races. Nevertheless, he was not only … Read more
One of the reasons I’ve created the Faces from the peloton category on PelotonTales blog that there are so many cyclists from the good old black&white era, especially from the time period before the First World War who we know almost nothing about. Except the obvious thing, that they are the protagonsts of one of … Read more
On the 13 May 1909 115 cyclist started the first Giro d’Italia from the headquarter of Gazzetta dello Sport in Milano. The race contained 8 stages and covered 2447,9 km. The first stage was won by Dario Beni. Luigi Ganna was the first overall winner of the race.
During the early days of road cycling races, bicycle events quite often produced extraordinary scenes. One of the most hilarious (and also a bit sad) ones, almost like a comedy sketch happened at the Paris-Roubaix in 1907. French cyclist Georges Passerieu, leader of the race arrived to the gates of the Velodrome in Roubaix alone, … Read more
Josef Fischer, the winner of the first Paris-Roubaix (1896) was born on the 20th January, 1865 in Atzlern (near München, Germany). Fischer participated in several of the earliest long-distance bicycle races, like the 582,5 km long Vienna-Berlin race in 1893, where he triumphed. The route took him 31 hours. Next year, among others, he attended … Read more
Not only men, but also women liked to compete against the hour since the beginning of the history of cycling. Here are the women who set records during the last years of the 19th century. Mlle de Saint-Saveur 7 July 1893 Vélodrome Buffalo, Paris, France 26,012 km Renée Debatz 4 August 1893 Vélodrome Buffalo, Paris, … Read more
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 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
There is a story about Louis Trousselier (1881-1939), the winner of Tour de France in 1905, that’s makes him one of those very characteristic protagonists of the early days of road cycling races: he lost all his prize money earned during the Tour de France by playing dice with friends on the night of his … Read more
THE 19TH CENTURY CYCLING CONTENT MOVED TO. THE CYCLING REVOLUTION BLOG, THE NEWEST MEMBER OF PELOTONTALES BLOG FAMILY. Marie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1857-1906) were married on 26 July 1895. It was a wedding without religious service and Marie wore a simple blue dress she used to wear later as a laboratory outfit for … Read more