The two iinks below show couple of photos taken from French cycling magazines showing the winner of the first Cyclo-cross World Championship race in 1950. Jean Robic, a tiny man from rugged western France had also won the TDF 3 years earlier. These images were generously scanned and shared by enthusiat Aldo Ross from his own original magazines dating from that time. Very cool photos and interesting to scrutinize in the large more detailed scans.

Front of bike (larger photo of image below) and Rear of bike

I find it fascinating to compare the early bikes to how they evolved as modern cross bikes. Actually, they were far less changed than modern road racing bikes. So, perhaps this style might be viewed as more "pure" forms of the bicycles as evolved from their origins.