Tour de France 2023 Stages

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

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

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

1952 was an extraordinary year in the history of Tour de France, not only because the terrific performance of Fausto Coppi. But also, it was the first time, when a Tour de France stage ended on the top of the ascent: this was the legendary debut of Alpe d’Huez. The program of the 39th Tour de … Read more

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

It might sound unbelievable, but Fausto Coppi, the third Campionissio of the Italian cycling, one of the greatest legends of the sport rode Tour de France only 3 times. From our rather nostalgic point of view it appears as a longer period. But no. It happened only three times between 1949 and 1952. So big … Read more

Tour de France in 1949 was one of the peaks of the great rivalry between the two Italian superlegends Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi. Bartali has won the Tour already twice (1938 and 1948). Coppi never rode the race before, but he triumphed at the Giro d’Italia that year (it was his third victory after … Read more

1913 was the first times, when the route of the race went anti-clockwise. Six former Tour de France winner started the race (Louis Trousselier, Lucien Petit-Breton, François Faber, Octave Lapize, Gustave Garrigou and Odile Defraye), which is still a record.(Please note, that 3 of them, Petit-Breton, Faber and Lapize would not survive the 1st world … Read more

Odile Defraye was the first Belgian cyclist to win the Tour. Moreover, he was the first Belgian having a serious chance to win the race, so all Belgians in the race, regardless of their team, were helping him. Which, of course, made Henri Desgrange quite furious. Originally, Gustave Garrigou, winner of the previous edition was … Read more

After frequent visits to Alsace-Lorraine since 1906, the German authorities did not allow the race to cross the border anymore. The tension before World War I was growing already. The Alps were intorduced to the race, Col du Galibier became Henri Desgrange’s favourite climb. In the 9th stage Maurice Brocco was disqualified for serving another … Read more

The mighty ascents of the Pyrenees, including Col du Tourmalet were introduced to the race. The broom wagon, picking up the cyclists who abandoned the race, was introduced too. In the tenth stage, over the four mountains in the Pyrenees, cyclists were allowed to finish the stage in the broom wagon and still start the … Read more