Come for the bicycles. Stay for the stories.
Cycling history
follows many tracks.
Here a personal collection of historic racing bicycles meets the stories of the riders, races and workshops that shaped them. We follow the tracks from the first dusty roads to carbon, electronics and modern training.
Move through history decade by decade, follow seven themes across time – or look closely at a bicycle and the small mechanical choices that changed it along the way.
Explore all stories →
Today's main story · 1934–1939Hand slings, cabins and 144 hours in ForumForum’s small cabins, the division of labour between partners and six days on the track reveal how Copenhagen’s six-day race worked in the 1930s.
Read the story →New from the archive
Three new stories
New stories are published regularly. Here are three more paths into the archive.
1990–2012Michele Ferrari, training science and the doping era
Michele Ferrari helped make training measurable and was later banned for life by USADA. His story separates measurement, explanation and documented doping violations.
Read the story →02
1933–1945Jan van Hout and the 44,588 metres
Jan van Hout rode 44.588 kilometres in an hour in 1933. A dispute followed his ride; he later closed his café and joined the resistance.
Read the story →03
1903–1973When the rider was his own mechanic
Early Tour riders repaired their own bicycles. From Christophe at the forge to neutral service, the tools gradually moved into the following cars.
Read the story →New here?
Begin with three stories
Three different sides of cycling history: the race, the person and the mechanical detail.
1904Cheating, nails and chaos at the 1904 Tour de France
The scandal that nearly killed the Tour, and the road from travelling circus to organised sport.
Read the story →
1946–1970’erneBianchi on the down tube, Drali at the file bench
Peppino Drali built made-to-measure Bianchi frames in Milan. The large factory supplied the name and materials; the small workshop supplied the fit and handwork.
Read in Danish →
1970’erneSteak at five and coffee with cognac
Before gels and precise carbohydrate plans, the soigneur packed sandwiches, fruit and tarts, filled the bottles and tried to keep riders eating through a long working day.
Read the story →The long view
Travel through time
The periods bring together the races, bicycles and culture from which the stories grew.
Follow a thread
Seven themes through cycling history
See the same question change from decade to decade – from food in the peloton to the technology beneath the rider.
Races and defining moments
Drama on the road, the track and at the finish line.
Follow the theme →02Riders of the period
Champions, domestiques and people the results almost forgot.
Follow the theme →03Bicycles and technical change
Gears, frames and solutions that changed the way people rode.
Follow the theme →04Food, training and science
From steak and cognac to laboratories, sports drink and heart-rate monitors.
Follow the theme →05Cycling culture
Clubs, crowds, fashion and the bicycle in everyday life.
Follow the theme →06Society and its time
War, media, sponsors and the changes cycling carried with it.
Follow the theme →07People behind the racing
Mechanics, soigneurs, organisers and others beyond the podium.
Follow the theme →
From the collection
Faggin
An Italian Columbus Aelle racer in its original net-pattern paint, built with Shimano 600 and Cinelli — a precise meeting of two bicycle industries.
View the bicycle and its story →Browse the collectionThere is always another track
One story leads to the next.
Return to the archive, choose a period – or begin with a bicycle from the collection.