We speak 1919 just after the ending of WWI and Henri "Ritte" Vanlerberghe arrived directly from the Yser frontline to the starting point of The Tour of Flanders.
Ritte had no bicycle so he had to lend one from the cousin of a co-competitor ,actually the cousin of Jules Messelis who was a very good racer in those days.
Just instants before the start of the race "Ritte" shouted out to all who could hear it : "I will ride you all to hell !!!"
Concurrent Jules Vanhevel had to laugh very hard on hearing this.... and "Ritte" replied to him : " You shouldn't laugh because I'll ride you out of my wheels in front of your own door !!!"
And "Ritte" kept his promise , he attacked on a hill at Ichtegem (Hometown of Vanhevel !!! ) the other racers let him go for a while but when they started chasing him it was allready too late and "Ritte" was too far .....
He went further in solo towards the town of Gentbrugge to the cycling-track of Aarsenaar where the finish line was.... but instead of going into the cycling-track in order to accomplish his round of honor and cross the finish line he stopped at a pub and simply ordered himself a "Demie" ( demie = Belgian blond beer ) , and he ordered himself another one and another....untill the Director of the race Oscar Van Braeckel noticed that "Ritte" was sitting in that pub....so he ordered the "coach" of "Ritte" to go fetch him in that pub....
"Ritte's" coach suceeded with a bit of force to drag him out of the pub and while Ritte was doing his round of honor ( walking because he wasn't able any longer to ride his bicycle ) he cried out these words to the public : " You can all go home , I've got half a day advance on the others !!!!! "
He had actually 14 minutes left of his initial advance because of his little passage in the Pub
That's how Henri Vanlerberghe nicknamed "Ritte" won the Tour of Flanders in 1919
Originally told by:
Achiel Van Den Broeck http://www.wielersportboeken.be/B/broeck_v_d_achiel/broeck.htm
interpretation of:
Kurt Weygantt
Andrija said:I think that this story is an appropriate description of what have happened today.
Source:
Henri Van Lerberghe
Have you noticed that he, actually, changed his bike?Maxiton said:Fantastic story, Andrija, both the one from 1919 and today. Thanks for that. The Wattage Cottage rode them all into hell and will be enjoying his "demie" through next week, when he might very well do it again.
I'm pretty sure, though, that Canellara would be glad he didn't have to do it on a borrowed bike, direct from a war front. Can you imagine? Though what he did today definitely induced some post traumatic stress disorder - for everyone else, especially Boonen.
Andrija said:Have you noticed that he, actually, changed his bike?
Breschel too.
Maybe it wasn't even his spare bike.Maxiton said:Yeah, I didn't see it live cause I couldn't get up at 3 AM, but I saw that in a replay video. Wasn't that off the Saxo team car? Seemed like a really slow, messed up bike change. At one point he seemed to be in a tug-of-war for the bike. What was up with all that?
Andrija said:Maybe it wasn't even his spare bike.
Similarity is just fantastic.
This is fantastic!Maxiton said:Yeah, looks like he was given the wrong bike. Guy realizes his mistake, hangs onto bike, says, "No, you can't take that. Wrong bike," and Cance says, "**** that, too late now, lemme have it." Good thing it wasn't completely out of his size.
Here is a video of Mat Breschel explaining how he too was given wrong bike. I expect somebody is going to be fired or something.
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Except now for some reason I can't remember how to embed video. Maybe mods can fix it?
Maxiton said:Except now for some reason I can't remember how to embed video. Maybe mods can fix it?
Andrija said:Here it is.
Breschel Fuming After Mechanical Mix-up At Flanders | Cyclingnews.com
So, the only logical conclusion is - back then, in 1919., Ritte won 'cause he got better bike from Jules Messelis's cousin than Messelis had himself.
I wonder if Jules Messelis regretted he didn't tell to Ritte: "Here... Take my bike, I'll take my cousin's."
Or, maybe, cousin should have ridden...
steve said:Hi there
You just need to past in the url and the forum software will embed it for you, i've fixed your other post btw.
cheers
What were the measures of Cancellara's and Breschel's bike on which they've finished the race?Maxiton said:Yeah, Messelis' bike weighed 13 kg and Ritte's borrowed bike only weighed 11
Andrija said:What were the measures of Cancellara's and Breschel's bike on which they've finished the race?
And what are the measures of bikes on which they've started the race?
I'll try to find sizes.
Edit:
It's just five centimeters difference between Breschel and O'grady in height.
The same difference between Cancellara and Breschel.
I don't think it could effect racing that much. Cancellara rides smaller TT bike than road bike, so if he too got smaller bike in change, he wouldn't be disadvantaged, since he time trialed to victory...
Maybe it was Breschel's bike on which Cancellara ended. Maybe that's what Breshel wants to say.
Everything happened in 10 minutes. Mechanics could have been confused.
Since we explained them.Maxiton said:No doubt. Bet they're not confused any more . . . .
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