Caution: If you pick up this book, you should not have any important appointments or commitments for the next hour or two. Anyone with a penchant for historical photographs, and even more so for cycling and the Tour de France, will feel transported back to the early years of the Tour of France after turning the first page, to the era that is often referred to in retrospect as the "heroic" one. From page to page, a colourful kaleidoscope of the Tour de France unfolds, a detailed and revealing look at the time around a hundred years ago.
Historical pictures of the Tour de France
Entitled "The Pioneers of the Tour de France", this illustrated book brings together a fascinating selection of historical photos documenting the first 30 years or so of the "Grand Boucle" on around 160 large-format pages. Many of them are previously unpublished and come from private collections and the archives of the sports daily "LÉquipe", descendant of the newspaper "L'Auto-Vélo", whose former director Henri Desgrange launched the Tour de France in 1903.
An exciting look into history
Fascinating are not only the shots of the racers at the start, at refreshment stations, on the mountain passes of the Pyrenees and the Alps, which were gradually conquered from 1910 onwards; many scenes at the side of the route also come into focus, farmers, housewives who (against the rules) offer the exhausted, emaciated cyclists water for refreshment. The people's clothing, their attitude, the way they look into the cameras - all this brings the era to life in an exciting and interesting way. The pictures are entertainingly and skilfully commented on by the French journalist and author Jacques Chancel in German translation.
Reading sample
