Professional Cycling - The early tour years

What was the tour like 50-100 years ago? Did they ride up the large mountains and have time trials? How long were they and how many riders participated? I am just interested in learning more of the history of the tour, so any input would be great. Any good books on its history?

G'day,

the tour in the '50's wasn't a lot different to what we see today, although I don't think they had the TTT. I have a book which is probably available in the states, called 'The tour de france 1903 -2003'...it has a chapter on each year, plenty of pictures & all the stage reults from every year....a really great book & will answer all your questions. Lance wrote the 'foreword' for it....tthings i do know, was that usually all the stages were longer, less rest days, crap equipment, (by today's standards) & most of the mountain stages were on unsealed roads!...get the book if you can, you'll love it,

cheers,

Hitchy

This picture is from the Tour de France.
Not sure about the year but I think its from the 30's
Note the spare tube hung on their shoulders,
and yes they are smoking cigarettes !!!

Awesome picture!

Hitchy, I'll have to get the book!

g'day Scott,

yeah get it...it's full of pictures exactly like this!,

cheers,

Hitchy

What was the tour like 50-100 years ago? Did they ride up the large mountains and have time trials? How long were they and how many riders participated? I am just interested in learning more of the history of the tour, so any input would be great. Any good books on its history?
the earlt tour was a very simple race. there were no time trials and there were no mountains. in fact, when henri desgranges added a mountain stage in the pyrenees in 1910, he was acused of being an "assassin." the first high mountains in the tour were le col de tourmalet in 1910 and le col de galibier in 1911.

it's not that the tour in the early days was so easy without the mountains. the shortest stage in the 1903 tour -- the first tour -- was 268 km, with all but one of the remaining five stages being more than 400 km. remember, this was all done on single-speed bikes weighing about 22 kg.

even in 1919, the year the tour organization introduced the yellow jersey, and the year of the pelissier brothers' "les forcats de la route" doping allegations [yes, they were doping then], there was one stage of almost 500 km [from Les Sables d'Olonne to Bayonne].

this was a tough race, maybe even tougher in the early days than it is now.

There are some great stories from the early years. The most famous being the rider who stopped at a farm house to repair his front fork. He was later disqualified because he had a young boy operate the bellows for him. The farm house is now marked with a plaque commemorating the event.

that was eugene christophe. it happened on the tourmalet in the 1913 tour. the story is even more amazing. evidently, christophe hiked 15 km with his bike in the middle of the night to a blacksmith's shop. roused the smith and re-welded [forged?] his fork. the blacksmith's son pumped the bellows. that broke the rules about outside assistance [riders had to be fully self-sufficient on the road]. christophe had been in the lead on the stage before the accident. he lost four hours working on his fork, and the tour organizers gave him a time penalty of ten minutes for accepting outside help. he finished 14th overall, 18 hours behind winner phillippe thys.

Great story, and great book, I have it too!!!!

Smoking was thought to "open up the lungs" in those days. The Tour riders also stopped for drinks under a tree, occasionally - I have TdF calendar somewhere with photos of both the smoking and the drinking.

OTOH, as others have related, NO outside help was allowed, so the rider had to do all his own mechanicals in the very early days, and the "roads" were almost gravel cowpaths in spots, judging from some of the old photos.

G'day,

I think it was in 1904 or 05, a few guys got disqualified for cheating....they took a train!....can you imagine that today?.....some of the early stages would take like 18 hours to complete!....but speaking of the bikes (which someone was earlier!)....if you can source a copy of "Ride cycling review", (the worlds best cycling mag!) in the states, (i know its on sale there). they have a regular article on 'bikes of the tour'. They have tracked down the original bikes, (from collectors, museums etc etc) & do a review on them. Some absolutely fantastic insights & photos of the bikes of bygone tours that you neve see anywhere else. This months is Bartali's 1949 bike. He claims he won the tour, 'inspite of the gearing system'! LOL...can you imagine saying that today....great mag & articles if you can get it. (I think you can subscribe online, they post to the states),

cheers,

Hitchy

one of my favorite stories re. the early tour is about the guy on a breakaway who stopped in the pyrenee's and waited for the bunch to catch up to him b/c he was scared of getting eaten by a bear.

Either of Geoffrey Nicholson's books is a good read, especially "The Great Bike Race", about the '76 race.

Always makes me laugh to read posts about how today's riders are better in every way than their predecessors. Written by people who have done no research, of course. How do they think the Tour and it's heroes achieved the legendary status they have in our sport? (this myopia is true of other subjects, sadly).

When you read about some of the stupendous feats of courage, endurance, skill and sometimes stupidity, it makes you wonder at the organiser's sanity. That and the kind of reasoning powers that would dismiss this all as ancient, therefore automatically irrelevant.............