Le TourWhen Henri Desgrange began a new bicycle road race in 1903, he saw it as little more than a temporary publicity stunt to promote his newspaper. The sixty cyclists who left Paris to ride through the night to Lyons that first July had little idea they were pioneers of the most famous of all bike races, which would reach its centenary as one of the greatest sporting events on earth. Geoffrey Wheatcroft's masterly history of the Tour de France's first hundred years is not just a hugely entertaining canter through some great Tour stories; nor is it merely a homage to the riders whose names -- Coppi, Simpson, Mercx, Armstrong -- are synonymous with the event's folly and glory; focusing too on the race's role in French cultural life it provides a unique and fascinating insight into Europe's twentieth century. |
Contents
Prologue Paris 1903 | 1 |
To the Mountains 19091914 | 31 |
3 | 61 |
Convicts of the Road 19251929 | 76 |
5 | 101 |
6 | 116 |
7 | 140 |
Bobet Divides France 19521957 | 171 |
Anquetils Apotheosis 19581962 | 180 |
Put Me Back on My Bike 19631967 | 189 |
Merckx Devours the Field 19681973 | 211 |
Heart and Nerve and Sinew 19741980 | 225 |
The Yanks Are Coming 19811987 | 249 |
Indurain in Excelsis 19881994 | 264 |
The American Enemy 19992002 | 298 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
22 stages abandoned Alavoine Alps Anquetil Armstrong Aucouturier Bahamontes Ballon d'Alsace Bartali Belgian Belgium bicycle bike racing Bobet Bordeaux Bottecchia Briançon Brittany Buysse century Champs-Elysées climb Coppi crashed cycling cyclists Delgado Desgrange directeur sportif Eddy Merckx English escape Faber field Fignon finish football Frantz French rider Frs Winner Galibier Garin Garrigou Giro Green Jersey Grenoble Hinault Induráin International Challenge Italian Jalabert Jean July June kilometres Koblet Lanterne rouge Lapize later Le Vésinet lead Leducq LeMond Luchon Maes Magne maillot maillot jaune Merckx minutes ahead Mont Ventoux Mountains prize never Normandy Ocaña Parc des Princes Paris Pélissier peloton Petit-Breton Poulidor prize money Prologue punctured Pyrenees reached ridden riding road Robic rode shortest sport sprint stages longest Sylvère Maes Team prize team-mate Thévenet Tour de France Tourmalet trial Ullrich victory Vietto Virenque win the Tour won the stage yellow jersey Zoetemelk