Tour of Flanders 2013 route (100th anniversary of the cobbled classic) route has been presented. The race will be 324 km long, as the first race in 1913.
Category: Races
Pédaleur de charme, meaning “Pedaler of Charm“, was Hugo Koblet‘s nickname (He won Tour de France in 1951 and Giro d’Italia in 1950). He also won the Mountain Classification of Giro d’Italia in 1950.
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.
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Tour of Turkey 2013 Stages
The Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey 2013 edition will start in Alanya on April 21, Sunday. The race will be concluded in İstanbul on April 28, Sunday.
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Road Cycling in Istanbul
More than a year ago, I wrote another article also titled “Road cycling in Istanbul” for the site for-cycling.com. Some good people reached me using the contact info in the article. Some others asked me some questions about cycling in Istanbul and I tried to guide them.
So I decided to write another article, and include it some frequently asked questions, and some photos of me and my friends.
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.
The Last Kilometer (L’Ultimo Chilometro) is a documentary film featuring Davide Rebellin and Ignazio Moser (son of legendary Italian cyclist Francesco Moser).
Gianni Mura (a famous Italian journalist) and Didi Senft (Tour de France devil) are the other main characters in the movie.
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.
The 1989 edition of Tour de France was 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.