Butcher, blacksmith, acrobat, sweep : the tale of the first Tour de France
Cossins, Peter2017
Books
Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, the first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair. Its riders included characters like Maurice 'The White Bulldog' Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents were said to have swapped him for a round of cheese in order to smuggle him into France as a 14 year old, Hippolyte Aucouturier, who with his jersey of horizontal stripes and handlebar moustache looked like the villain from a Buster Keaton movie and amateurs like Jean Dargassies, a blacksmith who had no idea what he was letting himself in for. Dreamed up to revive a struggling newspaper, cyclists of the time weren't enthusiastic about this 'heroic' race through roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to twenty kilos, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks.
Main title:
Author:
Cossins, Peter, author
Imprint:
London : Yellow Jersey Press, 2017.
Collation:
x, 358 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780224100656 (hbk. :)
Dewey class:
796.620944
Language:
English
BRN:
2225989