Orson Welles, the famous American director was the official starter of the Tour de France in 1950. The best-known film directed by him is Citizen Kane.
The film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories; it won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles. Citizen Kane was voted the greatest film of all time in five consecutive Sight & Sound’s polls of critics until it was displaced by Vertigo in the 2012 poll.
1971 Tour de France was a scene of an epic Luis Ocaña vs Eddy Merckx battle. Eventually, the tour was a great tragedy for Luis Ocaña, who won the Tour de France in 1973 and the Vuelta a España in 1970.
Eddy Merckx won Tour de France in 1969 and 1970, and it looked like he was well on the way to his hat trick. Pre-race predictions were certain that if he would not become ill or crash, Merckx would be the winner, and was speculating whether he would be able to lead the race from start to end. But Luis Ocaña of Spain had something to say about this matter.
Graeme Obree (see notes 1), “The Flying Scotsman” is working on a plan to attempt the human-powered land speed record in a machine of his own design for a while. Last week, he tested the vehicle, “Beastie”, in preparation to break the human-powered land speed record.
On the development of a shell for “the Beastie” (see notes 2), Obree has been working with a team of Product Design Engineering students at the Glasgow School of Art. He did his first test run in the Beastie last week, on Thursday 15th November at Machrihanish airport in Scotland. A photographer from the website Humans Invent, Camille McMillan was there to take photos. There’s an article on the Humans Invent website about the test.
Two bicycles used by Marco Pantani in the Tour de France sold for 13,000 and 8,000 Euro at an auction in Italy. 1998 bike sold for 13,000 Euro (Pantani won Tour de France in 1998).
The auction was in Ravenna on November 17th and according to reports in the Italian press, one hundred Pantani fans attended an auction.
Pedro Delgado, the defending champion, missed his start time with 2:40 at the prologue at the start of the 1989 Tour de France. Delgado covered the distance only 14 seconds slower than Erik Breukink, the stage winner. But adding the 2 minutes and 40 seconds at his time, he became the only defending champion to begin the race in last place, 2:54 behind Breukink.
Greg LeMond surprised by placing fourth in the opening prologue. Laurent Fignon was second, Sean Kelly third with all three finishing six seconds behind the winner on the day, Erik Breukink. Delgado ended the first day of the race placed last of the 198 riders.
1989 edition of Tour de France won by Greg LeMond with the narrowest margin in its history: eight seconds. It was LeMond’s second Tour victory.
Before the final stage of the 1989 Tour de France, Frenchman Laurent Fignon (Système U) was 50 seconds ahead of American Greg LeMond (ADR). Fignon took the yellow jersey from LeMond after the Alpe d’Huez stage, thanks to a withering attack by Gert-Jan Theunisse, Fignon was able to rid himself of LeMond on the ascent.
Look at these two great photos about cycling, with no bikes. The photos were taken by Robert Capa in Pleyben, Brittany, France, during the 1939 Tour de France. The owner of the small bicycle shop in Brittany, Pierre Cloarec was competing in the 1939 tour for the French team A. Leducq-Hutchinson. The excited crowd in the photos watching the tour come by in front of the bicycle shop owned by Cloarec. He won two stages in this Tour, stages 3 and 14.
In 1919, Frenchman Eugène Christophe became the first rider to wear the race leader’s yellow jersey (maillot jaune) of the Tour de France.
In the first few years after the 1st world war, there was a shortage of material and dye for jerseys. So many of the teams wore the same grey colored tops: the cycle industry was not yet in action again, and La Sportive was the only marque supplying material was, and there was little difference between any of the jerseys they supplied.
Two great cycling rivals, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali were protagonists of an exceptional derby (a football match between local rivals. i.e. teams that are from the same city or the same part of the country) which took place on 14 January 1950 at the Milan Arena. Football (calcio) was the second popular sport after cycling, in post-war Italy.
Italian cycling legend, “Lion of Flanders” Fiorenzo Magni dies aged 91 today. Also known as the “third man” in Italy during the era of rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali, reportedly passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Monza, to the north of Milan.
Born near Prato in 1920, Magni won the Giro d’Italia three times: in 1948, 1951 and 1955. The third of those victories was taken at the age of 34, making him the oldest winner of the race to this day.