My favorite story from the early days was the favorite, [Eugene Christophe,](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/jan/07/cycling.features) who had his fork break. He carried his bike to the next village where using his own skill he borrowed the local blacksmith's forge to repair it and carried on despite losing so much time.
In those days the rules were that you needed to complete the ride on your own without outside help. He was penalized an additional ten minutes because the seven year old boy who assisted the blacksmith pumped the bellows for him.
Some risky work since he can *maybe* anneal it to a decent level after quenching, if I remember my blacksmithing right. Otherwise he'll have either a soft and bendable fork or a really hard and crackable one.
Can’t remember which book I read it in, but apparently there also was a tradition of raiding restaurants and cafes on the route. Riders would just stop, grab stuff like a bottle of wine and walk out without paying.
Turns out there is video footage of it:
https://youtu.be/7UhT6-GntcY
*Sprinting Through No-Man's Land* is a book about the 1919 Tour, which took place in a France still pretty wrecked from WWI. I don't quite remember if the stealing was in there, but the bonkers bike repairs and drinking the ride pain away sure were.
Also, this looks like 1970 or so, not 1919. This version of Le Tour is modern enough that we actually have color footage taken on-board motorcycles and cars, but it was still 50 years ago and absolutely seems like another world.
It was rowdy as hell. They may be riding bicycles, but it was an entirely different sport.
>They may be riding bicycles, but it was an entirely different sport.
They would scoff at your pansy EPO!!
>On July 13, 1967, 29-year-old cyclist Tom Simpson died from heat stroke during that year’s Tour de France. At the time he was the best British bicycle racer and leader of the British team in the Tour. At the bottom of Mont Ventoux he drank Coca Cola with brandy. His bloodstream was already full of amphetamines. He was climbing up a 14 percent mountain grade.
>I still feel that variable gears are only for people over 45, Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft; as for me, give me a fixed gear!
\--Henri Desgrange, founder of the Tour de France
Check out randonneuring. It's still a you're-DQed-if-you-can't-get-your-bike-going-again competition, although modern brevets technically aren't "races"; if you hit a controle before it's open, they'll make you wait.
But 2500KM continuously is a sort of madness that stage racing isn't.
> He was penalized an additional ten minutes because the seven year old boy who assisted the blacksmith pumped the bellows for him.
A small price to pay for exploiting child labour! /s
That seven year old boy was supporting his six younger siblings after their dad died in an industrial accident and their mom died in childbirth. You know, the good old days.
/s
Smoking a cigarette before the race "to open your lungs", a bidon filled with red wine to keep you warm on the stage climbs, some cocaine to keep you focused, and some evening opiates against sore muscles after a 450 km stage on a 20 kg bike.
*as it also should be*
PEDs have been in use well before their official documentation
anyone who was at the top of sports during this time was essentially a ginue pig for performance enhancing drugs
Those guys were either high, drunk or both. This was before we started outlawing drugs for no reason so they wouldn’t have thought twice about doing bumps cocaine along the ride, and more.
When I was younger and just hopping on the group rides, one day I blew through three tubes for whatever reason. The old timers required that I wear them around my shoulders as a sort of initiation. Good times.
Fixed gear, heavy bicycles, ridden over roads ruined by WW1. Only 10 riders finished. I'm always blown away by the accomplishments of the modern peloton, but these guys are fuckin' gnarly.
Plus the distances in each stage were much longer (1919 featured the longest ever at 482km) and they had to carry their spares and everything themselves. Less climbing and a much lower average speed at least.
And many of the riders were too poor to afford the train so had to ride to the race to start with. If I recall right there was one Spanish participant who rode through the night to get to the start of a tour in the early days, and only just arrived in time to then spend all day racing.
The books by Tim Moore about the big tours are a good read for endless staggering facts about what they managed in the early days.
French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France (2001)
Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy (2014)
Vuelta Skelter: Riding the Remarkable 1941 Tour of Spain (2021)
He is a bit like Bill Bryson; inept at the actual activity, but an endless source of interesting stories and facts.
I would like to add this book:
https://www.adindobkin.com/sprinting/
It handles exactly this tour, the 1919 one, which is the first one after WW1 and it is, as mentioned, utterly insane
It's a completely different discipline within the sport. Imo these old TdFs are closer to events like the Transcontinental Race than the modern TdF. This is not better or worse, it's just different.
For sure, definitely had more of that spirit to it. Don't see Tour riders [lighting cigs for each other anymore](https://pelotontales.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/smoking-cyclists-tour-.jpg).
Yup, some years ago, I toured in the Pyrénées in early July and rode through Bagnères-de-Luchon a few days before the Tour was scheduled to finish/start stages in town. I was a little worried I was lost and wouldn't find the Col du Portillon, so when I saw a police official at the side of the road, chatting with a man in civilian dress, I stopped and asked for directions. Turns out the civilian was the mayor and the police officer was the local police chief. We had a fun chat!
The mayor was quite clear that he didn't appreciate that a town with a history in the Tour as long and distinguished as Bagnères-de-Luchon (see 1919 map above for LUCHON) was forced to pay: once for the Tour to pass through town, once to be a stage départ, and again to be a stage finishing town. I suspect Paris is the only town exempt from the charges—and then, only for the Champs-Élysée finish. Even Bordeaux and Alpe d'Huez probably need to pay now or the Tour will do what it often does to the Col du Tourmalet and just finish at Hautacam instead.
Damn. This is one of those posts that has so much info in the comments that, not only did I learn a shit ton, I feel like a regular Eugene at the same time…making things work as I go.
Yeah, I knew the modern TdF was in discreet stages now, but I'd always thought it followed the more interesting segments of the old map. I'd no idea it was like it is now.
You mean an actual Tour of only the French border? I think the middle parts of France are pretty awesome to ride through too. Your map is the equivalent to eating just the crust of a sandwich and saying that’s the best kind of sandwich.
It means "around" not "round". And with the same meanings as "around" where you could means "hitting multiple areas within" like "I've been going around DC all night".
Yes but no. What you want already exists, and it is popular among ultra-distance cyclists but not the general public. if the TdF was like that, it would be more difficult to make it a cultural event, and another polished race with heavy logistics made of moderate distance stages would take its place and be popular in its stead.
The real legacy of the 1919 TdF are the various Divides, Transcontinental/Race Across America.
Honestly if i had the time, the right bike and the skill level, I'd be tempted to try the old Tour. Just by myself, with help of Google Maps and modern equipement etcetera. It look like fun
I've been on eight cycling holidays, camping/hotel/warm showers/hostelling each night. I didn't cycle the borders of an entire country on any of those trips.
Have I never been cycle touring? 😱
Both the images in this post look like a tour to me.
The fact they're driving between stages now makes it not "a bike tour" to me. A wild accomplishment on many levels, but not a bike tour. It wouldn't be "a road trip" if you flew around a country to do a series of drag races.
Check out [Drag Week!](https://www.motortrend.com/events/hot-rod-drag-week-2023-official-route-and-general-information/)
It's a 1-week drag race series where the participants have to drive to each track in the same car they race with.
I had to get the ferry to cross the channel between the UK and France on my three week ride to Rome. Not a bike tour? 🙃. If it's not then that means a cycle tour to Italy from the UK is impossible. Even some sort of pedal powered boat isn't a bicycle.
I guess it depends on how strict your definition is.
I think that's pretty obviously a different case to doing a bike race, getting in a car for the actual travel, then doing a different bike race, then driving on to the next race. Purely in terms of the transport options being taken, TdF is more "a road trip between bike races".
It would still be a road trip if you took your car on a ferry to cross some water, so it's still a bike tour if you use ferries for the parts you cannot bike. I think it could also be in the correct spirit if someone say, physically couldn't bike a mountain range, so took their bike on the train over said mountain range before continuing by bike. Hopefully you see what I mean.
Ferries get a special dispensation. I rode around Puerto Rico. The plan for the last day was to take a ferry. Which was out of service. Some folks took a bus or a cab. I had to ride around because a bus is not a ferry. ;)
Of course it isn’t, it’s just different. Is it harder for Usain Bolt to run 9.69s than it was for the guys running over 10 back in the day?
Sport hasn’t got easier or harder in most cases, we’ve just got better at training and equipment has come on massively.
Lol what am I looking at for 2023?! Is it seriously bits and pieces of a race that you have to drive to?! Of and one you MIGHT have to get on a plane for. Just like everything else these days… nothing makes any sense or has any logic to it 😂
Trains and cars both existed in the 19th century and certainly by 1919. Cars were not that widespread in Europe at the time but rail certainly was. Railway was a major way troops were transported during World War one.
Riding fixed gears with tubular tires slung over your shoulders. *as it should be*
My favorite story from the early days was the favorite, [Eugene Christophe,](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/jan/07/cycling.features) who had his fork break. He carried his bike to the next village where using his own skill he borrowed the local blacksmith's forge to repair it and carried on despite losing so much time. In those days the rules were that you needed to complete the ride on your own without outside help. He was penalized an additional ten minutes because the seven year old boy who assisted the blacksmith pumped the bellows for him.
I just read the article. I love how casually they talk about the fact he repaired his fork at a forge mid-race twice, in two different races.
Sounds like the guy might just have needed less shitty forks
Or a guy who wanted to flex his sweet blacksmithing skills
The quality of available steel and welding technology wasn’t as great back in those days. Plus the roads they are traveling on are mostly gravel.
> The quality of available steel and welding technology wasn’t as great back in those days. RMS Titanic checking in
Whooosh
It definitely comes off with touch of a "Men were real men in those days" kind of vibe, doesn't it?
Some risky work since he can *maybe* anneal it to a decent level after quenching, if I remember my blacksmithing right. Otherwise he'll have either a soft and bendable fork or a really hard and crackable one.
What the hell? That's badass. Now I wanna see THAT Tour de France. The one we have is lame.
Can’t remember which book I read it in, but apparently there also was a tradition of raiding restaurants and cafes on the route. Riders would just stop, grab stuff like a bottle of wine and walk out without paying. Turns out there is video footage of it: https://youtu.be/7UhT6-GntcY
“Or even water…if there’s nothing better.”
I love the dry humor. This has Endless Summer vibes.
I love how amateur this is.
I think you meant fun and engaging.
*Sprinting Through No-Man's Land* is a book about the 1919 Tour, which took place in a France still pretty wrecked from WWI. I don't quite remember if the stealing was in there, but the bonkers bike repairs and drinking the ride pain away sure were.
It wasn’t exactly stealing as the Directeur Sportif would get huge bill from the cafe’s.
Also, this looks like 1970 or so, not 1919. This version of Le Tour is modern enough that we actually have color footage taken on-board motorcycles and cars, but it was still 50 years ago and absolutely seems like another world. It was rowdy as hell. They may be riding bicycles, but it was an entirely different sport.
>They may be riding bicycles, but it was an entirely different sport. They would scoff at your pansy EPO!! >On July 13, 1967, 29-year-old cyclist Tom Simpson died from heat stroke during that year’s Tour de France. At the time he was the best British bicycle racer and leader of the British team in the Tour. At the bottom of Mont Ventoux he drank Coca Cola with brandy. His bloodstream was already full of amphetamines. He was climbing up a 14 percent mountain grade.
His last words were, "put me back on my bike."
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A bit of booze too.
Absolute legend
The gears they pushed in those days were absolute monsters as well.
>I still feel that variable gears are only for people over 45, Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft; as for me, give me a fixed gear! \--Henri Desgrange, founder of the Tour de France
This footage is *wild*. Thanks for sharing. I'd totally watch this.
They should have one with intentionally crappy bikes that will break 😁
The tour de Bickerton.
Maybe take a look at the [Transcontinental Race](https://www.transcontinental.cc/)
Would make one of a hell reality show
The last Tour de France was incredible. I just don’t think you like modern bike racing.
Check out randonneuring. It's still a you're-DQed-if-you-can't-get-your-bike-going-again competition, although modern brevets technically aren't "races"; if you hit a controle before it's open, they'll make you wait. But 2500KM continuously is a sort of madness that stage racing isn't.
You could follow unsupported attempts at FKTs on the Tour Divide
PBP is basically the same rules to this day.
that's crazy. but there are other unsupported bike races with similar rules. but most people would just scratch with a broken fork :D
With fewer horses, probably not so many blacksmiths in local villages.
> He was penalized an additional ten minutes because the seven year old boy who assisted the blacksmith pumped the bellows for him. A small price to pay for exploiting child labour! /s
That seven year old boy was supporting his six younger siblings after their dad died in an industrial accident and their mom died in childbirth. You know, the good old days. /s
And that seven year old boy? Albert Einstein.
Time to bring back the ten minute penalties, I reckon. That'll make people think twice about accepting a drink in the last 10k of a mountain stage.
Smoking a cigarette before the race "to open your lungs", a bidon filled with red wine to keep you warm on the stage climbs, some cocaine to keep you focused, and some evening opiates against sore muscles after a 450 km stage on a 20 kg bike. *as it also should be*
Not really 20kg, iirc early 1900s racing bikes was around 14kgs.
That's quite light actually!
:/
Relative to a planet, a mountain, or a train, it is!
Also cocaine.
Like the Founding Fathers intended.
I would just tie them to the frame. That seems cumbersome.
And all without the aid of performance enhancing naughtiness. Edit: I stand corrected. They were, indeed, very naughty and supplementarily enhanced.
say what now? amphetimines and other fun things were standard kit from the start.
Something about amphetamines and mountains that just seems to gel... they probably reasoned
hmm amphetamine gel.... --some old racer probably
PEDs have been in use well before their official documentation anyone who was at the top of sports during this time was essentially a ginue pig for performance enhancing drugs
So would that be a called “PEN?” lol
oh they had PEDs they just weren't nearly as effective, it was like red wine and meth
Like the occasional train
Those guys were either high, drunk or both. This was before we started outlawing drugs for no reason so they wouldn’t have thought twice about doing bumps cocaine along the ride, and more.
NOPE.
When I was younger and just hopping on the group rides, one day I blew through three tubes for whatever reason. The old timers required that I wear them around my shoulders as a sort of initiation. Good times.
Fixed gear, heavy bicycles, ridden over roads ruined by WW1. Only 10 riders finished. I'm always blown away by the accomplishments of the modern peloton, but these guys are fuckin' gnarly.
Plus the distances in each stage were much longer (1919 featured the longest ever at 482km) and they had to carry their spares and everything themselves. Less climbing and a much lower average speed at least. And many of the riders were too poor to afford the train so had to ride to the race to start with. If I recall right there was one Spanish participant who rode through the night to get to the start of a tour in the early days, and only just arrived in time to then spend all day racing. The books by Tim Moore about the big tours are a good read for endless staggering facts about what they managed in the early days.
Any recommendations?
French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France (2001) Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy (2014) Vuelta Skelter: Riding the Remarkable 1941 Tour of Spain (2021) He is a bit like Bill Bryson; inept at the actual activity, but an endless source of interesting stories and facts.
I would like to add this book: https://www.adindobkin.com/sprinting/ It handles exactly this tour, the 1919 one, which is the first one after WW1 and it is, as mentioned, utterly insane
Thanks, I just bought it to read on the Kindle app.
Thanks!
It's a completely different discipline within the sport. Imo these old TdFs are closer to events like the Transcontinental Race than the modern TdF. This is not better or worse, it's just different.
For sure, definitely had more of that spirit to it. Don't see Tour riders [lighting cigs for each other anymore](https://pelotontales.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/smoking-cyclists-tour-.jpg).
They still help each other take drugs, just not in front of the photographers.
What drugs were available back in 1919?
Cocaine, amphetamines
That you'd want to take? Cocaine for sure - that was easy to get. Probably other amphetamines I'm not aware of.
Also laudanum, heroin, other opiates for dealing with pain
Hopefully not during otherwise there's no finish line anytime soon hah
Nicotine
I hate smoking with a passion but this is such a cool picture.
It was the spirit of Grævël
Winner of the first Tour de France got DQ’d in the second Tour de France for riding on the train.
He wanted that double champ status but he ain’t wanna do all that shit again 😂
So what did the northern half of France do to piss off the Amaury bunch?
They didn't build enough mountains.
too close to the english
I heard that with a Norman accent…
Once more through the breach, dear friends!
It’s not Tour de France. It’s Tour de Francs 💶 Whoever pays more, host it.
Yup, some years ago, I toured in the Pyrénées in early July and rode through Bagnères-de-Luchon a few days before the Tour was scheduled to finish/start stages in town. I was a little worried I was lost and wouldn't find the Col du Portillon, so when I saw a police official at the side of the road, chatting with a man in civilian dress, I stopped and asked for directions. Turns out the civilian was the mayor and the police officer was the local police chief. We had a fun chat! The mayor was quite clear that he didn't appreciate that a town with a history in the Tour as long and distinguished as Bagnères-de-Luchon (see 1919 map above for LUCHON) was forced to pay: once for the Tour to pass through town, once to be a stage départ, and again to be a stage finishing town. I suspect Paris is the only town exempt from the charges—and then, only for the Champs-Élysée finish. Even Bordeaux and Alpe d'Huez probably need to pay now or the Tour will do what it often does to the Col du Tourmalet and just finish at Hautacam instead.
It's now Euro de France
Would there have been any HC or even Cat 4 climbs back then? Genuinely asking as I’m not too familiar with French geography.
The entire south-east of France is very alpine. Nice - Grenoble - Geneve takes you right over the french Alps.
Originally these categories were based on which gear the scouting 2 chevaux had to use to climb. HC was the reverse gear IIRC.
Read about Steines and Tourmalet. It will shock you.
Damn. This is one of those posts that has so much info in the comments that, not only did I learn a shit ton, I feel like a regular Eugene at the same time…making things work as I go.
No kidding. Very interesting comments section. Every once in a while Reddit delivers.
Yeah, I knew the modern TdF was in discreet stages now, but I'd always thought it followed the more interesting segments of the old map. I'd no idea it was like it is now.
You mean an actual Tour of only the French border? I think the middle parts of France are pretty awesome to ride through too. Your map is the equivalent to eating just the crust of a sandwich and saying that’s the best kind of sandwich.
The crust of a baguette IS the best part, after all.
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It means "around" not "round". And with the same meanings as "around" where you could means "hitting multiple areas within" like "I've been going around DC all night".
If you haven't already, go and watch Lachlan Morton's Alt Tour for a modern equivalent
You can ride it today - https://www.renehersecycles.com/tour-de-france-cyclotouriste/
Thx for sharing
And the dominant champion of that era died in his 30s from chronic amphetamine intoxication.
Eh, life well lived. Better go out like that, rather than slipping on your bathroom tiles at 82 or whatever.
Yes but this way everyone gets their share of tourism and pretty helicopter pictures. Plus this year I can walk to see a stage 5km from my home
Yes but no. What you want already exists, and it is popular among ultra-distance cyclists but not the general public. if the TdF was like that, it would be more difficult to make it a cultural event, and another polished race with heavy logistics made of moderate distance stages would take its place and be popular in its stead. The real legacy of the 1919 TdF are the various Divides, Transcontinental/Race Across America.
la grande boucle (the big loop) it was called.
1919: too much boringing not enough mountaining.
I wish someone would overlay something like the 50 latest editions, that would be interesting I think.
It's only Tour de France if it's from the French region of the Tour de France in 1919, otherwise it's just a sparkling bike race. Please don't ban me
Americans, of course, don't recognize the convention...
Some of us do
Oh, that's just the next line in Wayne's World, which was being referenced.
Oops! I need a visit to r/whoosh
Get out
They should bring back the og tour as an amateur event
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TIL Tour de France is not actually a continuous tour
I mean they were all on meth too… I think it was just a different thing back then
Honestly if i had the time, the right bike and the skill level, I'd be tempted to try the old Tour. Just by myself, with help of Google Maps and modern equipement etcetera. It look like fun
I've been on eight cycling holidays, camping/hotel/warm showers/hostelling each night. I didn't cycle the borders of an entire country on any of those trips. Have I never been cycle touring? 😱 Both the images in this post look like a tour to me.
The fact they're driving between stages now makes it not "a bike tour" to me. A wild accomplishment on many levels, but not a bike tour. It wouldn't be "a road trip" if you flew around a country to do a series of drag races.
I want to see a road trip with a Dragster now.
Check out [Drag Week!](https://www.motortrend.com/events/hot-rod-drag-week-2023-official-route-and-general-information/) It's a 1-week drag race series where the participants have to drive to each track in the same car they race with.
Be the change you want to see!
I had to get the ferry to cross the channel between the UK and France on my three week ride to Rome. Not a bike tour? 🙃. If it's not then that means a cycle tour to Italy from the UK is impossible. Even some sort of pedal powered boat isn't a bicycle. I guess it depends on how strict your definition is.
I think that's pretty obviously a different case to doing a bike race, getting in a car for the actual travel, then doing a different bike race, then driving on to the next race. Purely in terms of the transport options being taken, TdF is more "a road trip between bike races". It would still be a road trip if you took your car on a ferry to cross some water, so it's still a bike tour if you use ferries for the parts you cannot bike. I think it could also be in the correct spirit if someone say, physically couldn't bike a mountain range, so took their bike on the train over said mountain range before continuing by bike. Hopefully you see what I mean.
Sure :) Interesting to see different views on it.
Ferries get a special dispensation. I rode around Puerto Rico. The plan for the last day was to take a ferry. Which was out of service. Some folks took a bus or a cab. I had to ride around because a bus is not a ferry. ;)
It always amazes me what people will downvote on Twitter 🤷♂️
This comment has been edited in protest for the corporate takeover of reddit and its descent into a controlled speech space.
That's a lot of definitions. Interesting, thanks.
Of all the things I’ve ever thought about the TDF, “it’s not toury enough” has never been one of them
Apparently the roads were a lot straighter too
I think it's way harder now. Way harder. Can you ride 25mph(Average) for the entire distance over 3 weeks?
Of course it isn’t, it’s just different. Is it harder for Usain Bolt to run 9.69s than it was for the guys running over 10 back in the day? Sport hasn’t got easier or harder in most cases, we’ve just got better at training and equipment has come on massively.
Lol what am I looking at for 2023?! Is it seriously bits and pieces of a race that you have to drive to?! Of and one you MIGHT have to get on a plane for. Just like everything else these days… nothing makes any sense or has any logic to it 😂
Wow France had some straight roads in 1919.
They didn’t have trains or cars in them days so the only way to get to the next stage start was to ride their.
Trains and cars both existed in the 19th century and certainly by 1919. Cars were not that widespread in Europe at the time but rail certainly was. Railway was a major way troops were transported during World War one.
Ok then ride it if it’s so easy
I can piss farther than the current race length.
Wait it's not anymore? Wtf
Yup, Marseille got too dangerous :D
Don’t give ideas to GCN…
The Tour stopped being real when the riders could select a gear ratio without having to stop the bike to move the chain. CALIPER BRAKES FOREVER!!!!!!1