le grimpeur

Check your Tour knowledge1
Guy WR posted in Classic Stages on September 20th, 2008

Last month, le grimpeur presented the Tour de France quiz from the 1978 paperback edition of The Great Bike Race by Geoffrey Nicholson. The prizes from Magnum Publishers were three Raleigh bikes of various models, the top prize “based on the model used by the TI-Raleigh Team” for the Tour in 1976.

The team, which had its origins in the track racing success of Raleigh riders, made its debut in 1973 with all British riders. The parent company, Tube Investments (hence the ‘TI’), was a large steel products manufacturer, which most notably in the cycling world made Reynolds tubing (”Reynolds 531,” ran an advertisement at the time, “gives you lightness where you need it most.”). The company also owned a number of bicycle brands, including Raleigh. (more…)

The yellow jersey1
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Stages on September 15th, 2008

That the Tour de France was even held in 1919 seems like a small miracle, attributable to the incorrigible belligerence of Henri Desgrange to return the race to the roads of France.

La der des ders, World War I, had concluded less than 12 months prior to the start of the 1919 Tour and the race got underway on June 29, the day after the armistice was finally signed with Germany. The main protagonists at the Tour, France and Belgium, had suffered grievously on the Western Front. Belgium and northern France were the battlefields and Belgium suffered close to 500,000 military casualties and well as its economy devastated.

The numbers for France in World War I were worse: 1.4 million dead and around 3 million wounded (one-third permanently disabled), according to sources. Two-thirds of soldiers were from rural occupations and lists of the dead can still be seen on monuments in even the smallest villages all over France. In northern France, estimates put the devastation of farmland at 2.5 million hectares, with 62,000 kilometres of roads and 5,000 kilometres of railway lines needing rebuilding.

Remarkably, cycle racing had not stopped entirely during the war and Paris-Tours was run in 1917 and 1918. Paris-Roubaix returned in 1919 over roads so terrible and in weather so desperate that a journalist from L’Auto christened the race with its famous name. (more…)

Thanks for your patience0
Guy WR posted in Posts on September 11th, 2008

Yahoo has resolved the technical troubles I was having with Le Grimpeur and the site is now, as you - dear reader - can see, back online.

Thanks for your patience and I will have new posts shortly, including the answers to last month’s quiz. In the interim, don’t forget to check out some of these older posts:

Charly Gaul part 1 and part 2

Climb like a badger

The original grimpeurs

The good old days

Richard Virenque part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4

Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux - full report0
Guy WR posted in Classic Climbs on August 13th, 2008

The Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux is not just a club for grimpeurs, but anyone who is crazy enough to want to climb Mont Ventoux three times in one day.

The Club has been previewed already here, but my full report is now on Pez Cycling News.

Test your Tour knowledge!3
Guy WR posted in Climbers on August 6th, 2008

In 1977, Geoffrey Nicholson’s book The Great Bike Race was published, a report on the 1976 Tour de France and one of the early works in a developing tradition of British writing on cycling that continues today. Nicholson is perhaps the doyen of this tradition, having opened up the reporting and literary possibilities of European cycling for English readers.

Many have followed in his footsteps, and pen strokes, to uphold the tradition and discerning readers still look to the UK for serious cycling writing. A few honourable mentions aside, such as Owen Mulholland and Samuel Abt, American writers on the European cycling have yet to establish a body of literature comparable to what Nicholson helped get underway. (more…)

Show us what you can do…3
Guy WR posted in Climbers on July 7th, 2008

“Simplement montrer ce que je sais faire dans la montagne…,” said French climber Rémy Di Grégorio when asked in his interview in the official Tour de France programme what his goals were for the race.

Injury blunted his ambitions for showing us what he could do in last year’s edition but an absence of Grand Tour stage wins and results has not kept the young, up-and-coming rider from capturing the limelight. In recent times we’ve had a feature article in Cycle Sport and now the two page spread in the official programme. His profile has rivaled that of more accomplished riders such as Sylvain Chavanel, David Moncoutie, or Christophe Moreau. (more…)

The real René Vietto - part 1: The Myth0
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Stages on July 1st, 2008

Like many sports, cycling has its founding myths: the great heroic struggles of the riders, their giant shoulders broad enough for the current peloton to stand on. Henri Desgrange’s express intention when starting the Tour de France was a race more difficult than all the others, longer and more arduous. His ideal was a route so tough that only one rider would finish.

Desgrange enforced his conception of what the Tour and bike racing should be with a will and rod of iron. While his rules were constantly evolving, they were always punitive. Restrictions on equipment, support and food and water, rules against drafting, against mass sprints, even bad language. In 1913, with riders banned from receiving any mechanical help, Eugene Christophe - in one of the most storied events of the Tour - was forced to repair his own forks at a local blacksmiths, even incurring an additional time penalty. We remember Christophe’s dedication rather than Desgrange’s ridiculous regulations. (more…)

The Tour of Good Health: 19680
Guy WR posted in Classic Stages on July 1st, 2008

The year 1968 was a turbulent one for France, as it was for other countries around the world. Sport was caught up in the political events, with the Olympics that year in Mexico City featuring protests from some athletes that would later become iconic.

In May in France, student riots spread to the workers and it seemed like the Republic itself could be under the threat of revolution. But it was not to be. The students, it seems, were more willing to challenge the status quo of President De Gaulle’s political philosophy, particularly his ideas of ‘participation’ in society, rather than to bring down his government.

Historian Rod Kenward writes in La Vie En Bleu that in the view of many student leaders, “We had stormed the word, but not the Bastille.”

Still, the chaos caused by the riots and the strikes threatened the running of that year’s Tour, which was already under scrutiny and review following the death of Tom Simpson in 1967. The French government, with De Gaulle’s party returned to power following elections in June, wanted the Tour to go ahead, however, as part of a return to normalcy.

The BBC this week reviewed the anniversary of the student riots, and the self-reflection that has gone into their meaning. Writes Henri Astier: “The anniversary has in fact seen a strange replay of 1968 - complete with metaphorical barricades, a two-month talkfest, culminating in everyone switching off and heading for the sun.”

He might have added “…to watch the Tour de France”.

As this year’s Tour gets underway, as a fresh start, it is a good opportunity to look back on the 1968 event, some forty years ago. Click here to see my full article at Pez Cycling News.

Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux1
Guy WR posted in Classic Climbs on June 23rd, 2008

Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux. Three ascents of Mont Ventoux, one each via Bedoin, Malaucene, and Sault. Average gradients of 7.5%, 7.5%, and 4.7% respectively. Twice past the Tom Simpson memorial, 4,443 metres of climbing over 68 kilometres (compared to 2,612 metres over 39 kilometres on this year’s Etape du Tour). A very long day in the saddle. And lots of pain.

Full report coming soon. A selection of pictures on the Mont Ventoux page (see link right).

Un cycliste est mort: Mont Ventoux and the death of cycling1
Guy WR posted in Classic Climbs, Classic Stages, Doping on May 28th, 2008

“…le Ventoux, lui, a la plénitude du mont, c’est un dieu du Mal, auquel il faut sacrifier.” — Roland Barthes

It is an iconic image in cycling’s lore. Jacques Goddet is ascending the rocky slope of Mont Ventoux, clutching a wreath for the memorial to Tom Simpson. In the background, surely not by coincidence in the timing, is Eddy Merckx, on his way to the stage finish at the summit and overall victory in the 1970 Tour de France, and he has turned to watch Goddet. (more…)