18th July 1924 : TDF Stage

limerickman

Just on holiday at the moment and I am reading Albert Londres book "Tour Du Souffrance".
Albert Londres wrote an account of the 1924 TDF which was 5,425kms.
All of the cyclists would have used fixed wheel (ie no gears).

Here is Londres descitpion of Stage 14 Metz to Dunkurque 18/07/1924.

Metz – Dunkurque 432kms Stage 14 :

Dunkurque, 18th July 1924.
For the penultimate ordeal it is another story of hardship.
It (todays stage) lasted exactly 20hours and 45 minutes, it was undoubtedly one of the jolliest of the entire circuit.
This story began at precisely at midnight at Metz and finished at 8.45pm in Dunkurque.
Let’s start at the beginning.
It was pouring rain and there was a howling wind, you wouldn’t put a guinea pig out on the balcony is such weather.
The riders shuffled up , one by one, dragging their bikes, and they were given the “off” right in to the teeth of a wind. Just think what that would do to you : from midnight through to four in the morning.
The men pedalled through the night, chilled to the bone, in pouring rain. A sight to see.
As soon as the sky began to lighten, the blackness slipped on to the men.
I can tell you, these men who’d been white when they set off a midnight, were black by 4.00am. It’s true.
My Belgian colleague couldn’t help repeating “My God, what do they look like”

The riders did not respond. The riders were right. Think what they could say a few hours later. This time it wasn’t dust spewed up at them, it was jets of mud.
My friends had turned in to real draggletails.

It grew more and more overcast and gloomy.The roads in the north are paved with stone blocks, remarkable for their irregularity so the 60 surviving pilgrims of the TDF, a tour which they’re also calling the Tour of Souffrance (suffering), rode along the pavements, changing line constantly to escape the roughest sections.
We went through a region where the towns are not unknown – Sedan, Lille, Armentieres.
On signposts we read “Ypres 17kms”.
Then we crossed the river Yser.
In short, it took us back to the years of our youth (Londres referring to 1914-1918 World War One).
Yet this was no war that we were engaged in. It is a race.
Judging from their appearances however there was no very great difference in the faces of those taking part.

Dimos

Not only no gears. No freewheel at all. If the wheel turns your legs turn too and vice-versa (of course)

limerickman

That's true.

This account of the 1924 TDF is fascinating stuff to read.

Catabolic_Jones

LOL Puts the whinging of this years' Giro riders in perspective, eh?

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It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

tcklyde

Plus they had to carry all their own equipment and couldn't throw anything out or off the bike. No wheel changes or spare bikes. No soigneur. Made their own reservations.

Henri Desgrange sure made it hard!

Hey Lim, is the Londres book in english? I've read Fife's book on the TdF, and it was okay, but I'd like to find some other good histories.

__________________
Harry

EoinC

Man, it's got to be pretty crappy weather before I'll let my Guinea Pig in from the balcony!!! Classic stuff, Lim. Bad enough facing a single day like that on a quadrillion-speed modern wonder. Riding like that for weeks on a fixie, with weather that has the Guinea Pigs housebound is enough to bring a tear to a glass eye. Any more extracts?
Eoin

limerickman

As TCKLYDE says the Graham Fife book "Inside the peloton" has a full chapter on the Tour of Souffrance with english translation.
(Fife's book is worth having if only for this one chapter).

The book I am reading belongs to a mate who has an english translation of the tour of souffrance.
I'm reading it at the moment and will post some more of it (I have to type it -
so it may take a while).

limerickman

T,

This book I am reading (the english translation of Tour of Souffrance) belongs to a mate.
This book is so old that it doesn't have a ISBN number - so I am not sure where you'd even buy it.

EoinC

I've gathered in all the guinea pigs and we're rubbing our hands (and paws), eagerly awaiting your next installment (to be titled "When Men were Men and Guinea Pigs lived on the balcony").
The thing that struck me about the passage you regailed us with is that the riders were actually enjoying it! I guess, if you've not long been out of wintering in the trenches of the French battlefields, an extended jaunt across the countryside on a fixie may seem like fun.
Many of the feats of earlier times (and I'm not just talking about cycling), do make us look like Nancy Boys now.
C'mon, Lim - Put those speed-typing lessons to good use and lay another extract upon the cybertable.
Have a good time in Sicily.
Eoin

limerickman

Les Sables (Brest) - D'Olonne 28th June 1924 :

There are some freaks who eat bricks, others who can survive eating frogs.
I've seen fakirs eating moten lead. These are normal people compared to this lot of cyclists !
These nutters that I am with are lunatics who left Paris on 22nd June to eat
a staple diet of dust. I know these people well for I have travelled with them.
We ate 381km of dust between Paris and LeHarve, 354kms of dust between
Le and Cherbourg, 405kms of dust between Cherbourg and Brest.
When you get a taste for it, you just can't get enough of it.
Even the waiter at our hotel in Brest, after taking our orders, was sympathetic.
At 1.00am he knocked on our door.
"It's 1.00am - time to eat dust" he cried.
"How many kilomtres to cycle today" he asked.
"412 kms".
"Hurray" shouts everyone, tumbling out of bed, delirious with joy.

We crossed Finistere and proceeded on through departments of the Morbihan, lower Loire abd the Vendee.
The dust in the Morbihan is poor quality compared to Finistere and the Lower Loire dust is a bit more juicy. As for the Vendee dust, it is a real delicacy.
I only have to think about the Loire dust and my mouth waters.
I just hope that the dust in the Landes is as good (next stage).

The pilgrims of the TDF have reached their four station. They carry on through the Landerneau at a very fast pace during the middle of the night.
It is the only town where there is no welcome whatsoever. It's 2.30am and Lnderneau is fast asleep and still. It's vert cold. Chateaulin is asleep too (next town). The wheel of 100 bikes crunch over the ground. At Quimper, the whole of Cornwall is hanging out of their windows. One Breton excited to see the site of the cyclists said "It's sad. We put 250,000 franc on a horse for a two minute race and men who work a lot harder than any horse get nothing".
The sun begins to appear on the horizon as dawn breaks.

"No way can we ride with Gods gold medal (the Sun) galring in our eyes"
says Alavoine. The peloton ride on in to the Lorient.
We pass a wild beast at the side of the road, who is pulling feverishly at rubber.
It is the yellow jersey Bottecchia. He's punctured a tyre. To get the tyre off quickly, he is tearing at it with his teeth (Limerickman - unbelievable!).
Bellenger remounts quickly after puncturing. He shouts as he passes "They're blowing it apart at the head of the peloton".It's Thys (Limerickman - one of my heros) shaking things up. He escapes with two fellow convicts Frantz and
Archelais, riding side by side.
Some drama, Frantz is told to keep the speed high. I don't know why Archelais is up there. He's a shadow man, a rider with no team, he rides by himself with no manager, no thighs, no calves, no nothing.
At the stage finish each day, he finishes in a terrible state, crying like a child.
But he always finishes each stage, trying to win and competing with riders from trade teams (trade team is a team that has support and riders).
You feel like pushing Archelais. Franyz is very strong. If Frantz claimed that he was tired, the telegragh wires by the side of the road would laugh.
We would be able to send our reports from Brest to nantes.
One rider in distress. "My bum is killing me. I have been toughening it for 6 months" He gets angry "I am riding against my bum".
At Riche-Bernard, aanother shadow man goes by. He's very far behind the peloton, he;s punctured many times. He shouts out happily "I'm not getting off any more to go looking for bracken" He's riding on punctured, flat tyres.
The leaders keep up the speed.
In the heat the peloton gives off a smell of hot rubber. The irders grab their drink bidons and tip them over their heads.
Faces streaked with dust and water. Very handsome they look too !

After 16hrs and 28 minutes cycling and 421kms covered, Felix Goethal wins the stage.
Our fiend Archelais finished 32nd.
The minutes tick by as the crowd of people in D'Olonne watch and applaud as
all the riders finish.
What a terrible sight it is to see grown men finish in such a terrible state.
But the public cheer them all, as fervently as the winner Goethal.
One hour passes and still they come by. Two hours pass and the frequenct diminshes but everyone knows that there 97 brave souls competing.
And still the crowds wait to cheer and encourage.
Three hours pass and still the crowd wait.
After 4hrs 17minutes the final three riders finish this stage.
Cassini, Burgat and Guidi pass the finish line to tumultuous applause.
Their eyes sunk in to their heads, the riders can barely raise a smile such is their exhaustion.

EoinC

Bloody good, Lim. Thankyou for your efforts (and on your holiday as well!). It's coming up to 6am here and you've started my day on a good note. Hope you have a fine ride today.
Eoin

limerickman

No problem Eoin.

Apart from riding on fixed wheels, no gears etc - the TDF boys were not allowed to alter their clothing during a stage.

Henri Desgrange would check each rider at the start to ensure how they were dressed.
So if a rider started with two jerseys on and was seen to cycle at any point during the stage with only one jersey or more than two jerseys, he was instantly dismissed from the race.
So they could be starting in the middle of the night when it's freezing and be expected to cycle all day long in boiling temperatures in the same gear that they had on for the cold !

I think cycling these days is far too easy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love that old stuff about how they raced - they were the giants of the road.

EoinC

It has been noted by several NGO conservation associations, that there is a direct correlation between the advent of the pampered rider and the return of roadside bracken since the pampered rider started to be allowed to change wheels in road races.
I hate to spoil your holiday, Lim, but another excerpt any time you're ready...!?!
Thanks, and how is the riding going? I have a Sicilian neighbour who extols the virtues of the place. Sounds good to me.
Eoin

limerickman

You can tell your Sicilian neighbour that if I wanted my nuts roasted off me, I could get stick them in the microwave at home.

It is buckin' raosting here : middle of the night, it's 21 degrees !

It's a fine place - will be sorry to leave here in Sunday.
they're nice people - very very hospitable and nice.

I'll work on some passages but it will be Monday/tuesday before I can publish.