This is absolutely epic: The road to Mont Blanc – the British cyclist Mike Cotty rode 1,012 kilometers, including a total of 21,250-meters climb with 21 mountain passes, sleepless!
During this epic journey, Cotty spent 50 hours 29 minutes in the saddle, with a total elapsed time of 53 hours 29 minutes.
Today’s historic photo of the day: Charly Gaul on Mont Ventoux; Tour de France 1958, stage 18, July 13, Sunday, 21.5 km Individual Time Trial.
A 21.5-kilometer individual time trial from Bédouin – up Mount Ventoux. Charly Gaul, as usual, let himself lose some time on the flat stages, always confident that he could make the time up in the mountains.
Today’s historic photo of the day: well, it’s actually not a photo of a cyclist, just a photo of a magazine – 11 August 1960 edition of “The Adventures of Tintin”. “Il Campionissimo” Fausto Coppi was on the cover of the magazine.
Fausto Coppi was not alive when the magazine was published.
On September 2, 1994, Miguel Indurain broke the Hour Record at the Velodrome du Lac, Bordeaux, France. “Big Mig” covered 53.040 km in an hour.
Today’s historic photo of the day: Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali smoking cigars in “Totò al Giro d’Italia” (Totò in Giro d’Italia), a 1948 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Totò.
We lost Alfredo Martini, a pro cyclist from Fausto Coppi‘s era, yesterday (August 25, 2014).
Martini was born on 18 February 1921 in Florence, Tuscany. He was a professional between 1941 and 1957. He won the Tour of the Apennines in 1947, the Giro del Piemonte in 1950, and a stage in the 1950 Giro d’Italia (stage 2, a 245 km -152 mi- running from Salsomaggiore Terme to Martini’s home town, Florence). He finished 1950 Giro in third place, after the winner Hugo Koblet and the second finisher Gino Bartali. He also wore the race leader’s pink jersey “maglia rosa” during stage 8.
Today’s historic photo of the day: the first-ever stage ascent of Col du Tourmalet in Tour de France (1910), Octave Lapize of the Alcyon team walks over the summit and goes on to win the Tour. When he passed the organizer’s car atop the Tourmalet, he screamed “Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!” (French for “You are murderers! Yes, murderers!”)
The courses of the Tour de France in 1907, 1908, and 1909 had been nearly identical. But in 1910, the Pyrenees were included, an initiative from Adolphe Steinès, who had drawn the course for the Tour de France since the first Tour in 1903.
Today’s historic photo of the day – the legendary Ottavio Bottecchia climbing Col du Tourmalet, stage 6 of the Tour de France 1924.
The previous Tour de France was won by Henri Pélissier. But the Frenchman was clear as to who the rising star was: He had said that the runner-up Ottavio Bottecchia would go on to win the race – “Bottecchia will succeed me.”
Today’s historic photo of the day is about one of the most iconic figures of cycling history – Jens Voigt. When he was riding for Saxo Bank team, he participated in the Tour de France 2010 edition as a domestique to his leaders, the Schleck brothers.
After completing his domestique duties on the mountainous stage 16, he crashed heavily on the descent of the Col de Peyresourde, and his bike became destroyed. After getting back up, he realized that all the team cars had passed and that he would not be handed a new bike. Desperate, he borrowed a bike much too small for him, from a children group’s car which was following the race. He rode on it for about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) before reaching a policeman who had another bicycle which had been left for him by his team.
Today’s “historic photo of the day” is: Franco Chioccioli climbing Passo di Gavia, during stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia 1988.
Before the 14th stage of 1988 Giro d’Italia, Del Tongo team’s Italian rider Franco Chioccioli was wearing the maglia rosa. He was leading the race 33 seconds ahead of Urs Zimmermann. The top ten of the general classification was: