A look back in time

Quote from Wikipedia on the first ever Tour:

"The men waved their hats, the ladies their umbrellas. One felt they would have liked to touch the steel muscles of the most courageous champions since antiquity."

Ah, how little changes.

If you've never bothered to look back at the history of the Tour, I can recommend having a quick read through the Wikipedia entry. Fascinating history!

I love the idea that they used to have to scrounge their own food and drink en route...

Here you can see an early Jean Vois, centre, wearing his German national sash, accepting his trusty steed from the team's top mechanic. Or possibly the butcher.

A member of the Junior league warms up, ready to pace Jean Vois back to the peloton.

Meanwhile, just as a bit of light relief, I found this amazing video on Yootoob, showing the lengths to which the Mavic neutral service guys will go in order to get cyclists back on their it-fits-me-I-don't-want-your-horrid-yellow-one bikes:



Great, huh?

Stepping back in time yet again, I found this lovely little article whilst trawling through news archives - don't ask, it was one of those days when you look up one thing, then you see something interesting and go and look at that, and then you see something else.... anyway, Little Fab, back in his early days

Gerolsteiner's Fabian Wegmann rode the Clasica San Sebastian Sunday for the fourth time, returning after a two-year break. He never had much luck with the race in the past, and things didn't go much better this year.

It started out well and went fine until the peloton came up against the protest by the ETA, which blocked the road on the Jaizkibel. "Disguised types with a chain jumped into the road to hold us up." Familiar with such actions from the Tour de France this year, for example, Wegmann and the other riders don't let themselves be beaten. "At times like this we riders aren't particularly squeamish and are willing to fight our way through," he noted on his website, www.fabianwegmann.de. "Singly and at intervals of about 30 seconds we went by the blockade, rider by rider, which meant, of course, that the field was totally strung out."

So Wegmann had to catch up with the field in front of him, and "I went all out." He made it to the group but "I overdid it in the chase. The natural result: I totally exploded on the next hill."

But Wegmann's bad luck day wasn't over yet. Not willing to give up entirely, he says, "I sprinted for 50th place and 100 meters before the finish line fell flat on my face. Suddenly a rider pulled over and rode directly into my handlebars. How embarrassing, I lay there with one tire off and had to carry my bike in my arms over the finish line.

"Conclusion: This race doesn't like me, and I don't like it either. But I will still come back again."

Yay for Little Fab! Who has turned out to be 4 years older than OGL, oops, sorry Little Fab, not so little, but you know what I  mean...

Moving smartly into the present: today's stage of the Tour was pretty dull by the sound of the ticker - thank heavens for that! - and just in case you think I've forgiven and forgotten, here's a pic of what Johnny Hoogerland looks likes after that barbed wire fence:

Poor man, not only 33 stitches (we can see about 11 of them here, ouch) but he spent the rest day lying on a bed with his legs encased in "cold compression" tubes, I can't imagine that was a bundle of fun for him.

Still growling about the hit and run driver.....

And, to end on a good note, with thanks to Figgy for the link, here's a photo of OGL in the sun on the rest day: