A theme across cycling history
Races and defining moments
Races, decisions and episodes in which the result sheet tells only part of the story.
See all seven themes →Hand slings, cabins and 144 hours in Forum
Forum’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.
Open →Story · 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.
Open →Story · 1985When Oosterbosch found the time trial again
On 6.6 wet kilometres through Winschoten, Bert Oosterbosch beat team-mate Eric Vanderaerden by eleven seconds and briefly recovered his speciality.
Open →Story · 1984The blood bags at the 1984 Olympics
The US cycling team’s transfusion programme sat between medical experiment, sporting ambition and rules that had not caught up.
Open →Story · 1940–1952Coppi, Bartali and a divided Italy
Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali began as team-mates and became rivals through whom post-war Italy told stories about itself.
Open →Story · 2017–2026Tour of Guangxi: Six days and one steep finish
The final stage race of the WorldTour season crosses the rolling landscape of Guangxi and is decided on the short, steep road to NongLa.
Open →Story · 1971When Gimondi opened the sprint against Merckx
At the 1971 World Championships in Mendrisio, Eddy Merckx and Felice Gimondi reached the finish alone. Gimondi opened, but Merckx took his second rainbow jersey.
Open →Story · 1868The race that was called the first
James Moore won a short race in Parc de Saint-Cloud in 1868. The day was later cast as the beginning of cycle racing—but the history is more complicated than that.
Open →Story · 1893–1896The world champion who changed from skates to bicycle
Jaap Eden became world champion in speed skating and track cycling in the 1890s—and one of the Netherlands’ first sporting celebrities.
Open →Story · 1983Kund Rindbøl’s time trial on the old main road
A reader remembers 30 kilometres against the clock, a 54 × 14 gear and his mother at the roadside between Holbæk and Roskilde.
Open →Story · 2017The comfort break that nearly cost Dumoulin the Giro
Tom Dumoulin had to stop with stomach trouble on stage 16 of the 2017 Giro and defend the pink jersey alone.
Open →Story · 1984When Hinault rode into a workers’ protest
Paris–Nice met a road blockade by La Ciotat shipyard workers. Bernard Hinault was knocked down, got up and struck a demonstrator.
Open →Story · 2011French champion at 52
Jeannie Longo won the 2011 French time trial championship at the age of 52, finishing 42 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Open →Story · 1956When Magni bit an inner tube to stay in the Giro
With a badly injured shoulder, Fiorenzo Magni continued the Giro with an inner tube tied between his handlebars and teeth.
Open →Story · 1953–2019Why the whole Forum cheered for Pair Number 7
From Kay Werner Nielsen and Evan Klamer to Michael Mørkøv and Alex Rasmussen: one race number became the Danish crowd’s own pair.
Open →Story · 1934The spectator's bicycle that cost Lapébie Paris–Roubaix
Roger Lapébie punctured near the finish, borrowed a spectator's bicycle and crossed the line first. The rules awarded victory to Gaston Rebry.
Open →Story · 1978The condom that cost Pollentier the yellow jersey
Michel Pollentier won on Alpe d’Huez and took the yellow jersey. That evening, the doping control revealed a container of someone else’s urine beneath his jersey.
Open →Story · 1968Ole Ritter's hour in Mexico City
On 10 October 1968, Ole Ritter rode farther in one hour than anyone before him. The thin air of Mexico City helped the speed, but it did not make the effort easier.
Open →Story · 1972–1977When the neutral service car became everyone’s mechanic
A car broke down during the Dauphiné Libéré. The following year, Mavic sent out a yellow service car to help the entire field — including riders far from their own mechanic.
Open →Story · 1995When Olano finished on a flat rear tyre
Abraham Olano punctured shortly before the finish at the World Championships in Duitama. Behind him, Miguel Induráin kept the chase under control.
Open →Story · 1926When the Tour had to pay the taxi fare
Three riders stepped out of a car in Luchon and disappeared, according to a story passed down from the 1926 Tour. The driver instead took his bill to the race officials.
Open →Story · 1980The day snow emptied Liège–Bastogne–Liège
A field of 174 began in the cold and only 21 finished, while Bernard Hinault rode roughly 80 kilometres alone and suffered lasting damage to his hands.
Open →Story · 1899Major Taylor also had to win the right to race
Marshall “Major” Taylor became world sprint champion in 1899. His route there passed through records, packed velodromes and a cycling establishment that repeatedly tried to exclude him.
Open →Story · 1948–1959When television found the Tour
First came a live finish. In 1958 moving pictures arrived from the mountains, and a year later the helicopter joined the travelling television production.
Open →Story · 1947When the Tour returned to a hungry France
The Tour returned after the war and had to feed a race over 4,640 kilometres while France cut the daily bread ration to 200 grams.
Open →Story · 1992The bicycle without the usual triangle
Mike Burrows’s monocoque idea, Lotus engineers and Chris Boardman met in a black track bicycle that won Olympic gold in Barcelona.
Open →Story · 1896Teddy Hale and 142 hours in New York
In December 1896, Teddy Hale won the individual six-day race at Madison Square Garden after 142 hours and roughly 3,074 kilometres.
Open →Story · 1899–1927From Paris–Roubaix to spark plugs
Albert Champion won Paris–Roubaix at twenty. His work and a dispute over his name later produced two American spark-plug brands: Champion and AC.
Open →Story · 2018When Froome attacked with 80 kilometres remaining
On the Colle delle Finestre, Chris Froome rode away alone and overturned a Giro he began that day 3 minutes 22 seconds from the lead.
Open →Story · 2019When a Tour stage ended without a finish line
Egan Bernal attacked on the Col de l’Iseran as hail and a landslide made the road to Tignes impassable and stopped the stage.
Open →Story · 2017When Philippe Gilbert rode away on the Oude Kwaremont
An attack more than 50 kilometres from the finish became a solo ride over cobbles and climbs and Gilbert’s first Tour of Flanders victory.
Open →Story · 2009When the Roubaix favourites disappeared one by one
Flecha crashed at Carrefour de l’Arbre, Hushovd hit the barriers and Tom Boonen rode alone into the velodrome for his third victory.
Open →Story · 2006The blood bags that reached the Tour before the start
Operación Puerto led from a Madrid clinic to the Tour start in Strasbourg, where Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich never took the line.
Open →Story · 1984When Moser rode 51.151 kilometres in an hour
In Mexico City, Francesco Moser made aerodynamics, disc wheels and a new riding position visible on the stopwatch.
Open →Story · 1988When the summer peloton rode into snow
Rain turned to snow on the Passo di Gavia. Johan van der Velde reached the summit first, Erik Breukink won the stage and Andy Hampsten took pink.
Open →Story · 1989Eight seconds on the Champs-Élysées
Greg LeMond began the final time trial 50 seconds behind Laurent Fignon and finished the Tour eight seconds ahead.
Open →Story · 1942The Tour the occupation wanted
The six-stage Circuit de France was meant to resemble a national revival. Instead, it showed how difficult a major bicycle race was under occupation.
Open →Story · 1943–1949From prisoner of war to Giro–Tour winner
Fausto Coppi had already won the Giro when he was captured in North Africa. Six years later, he became the first rider to win the Giro and Tour in the same season.
Open →Story · 1947Robic took yellow on the final day
Jean Robic began the last stage of the 1947 Tour in third place. On the road to Paris, he attacked and overturned the entire classification.
Open →Story · 1956The Tour winner nobody expected
Roger Walkowiak won no stage in the 1956 Tour. He won the race because the favourites first underestimated his breakaway and later could not drop him.
Open →Story · 1956When the snow broke the Giro peloton
On the 242-kilometre stage to Monte Bondone, Charly Gaul rode through snow and cold from eleventh place into the pink jersey.
Open →Story · 1954When the Tour left France
The Grand Départ in Amsterdam was the first Tour de France start outside France and showed a race becoming a European spectacle.
Open →Story · 1946–1951The hide-and-seek contest for the Giro's black jersey
Luigi Malabrocca tried to finish last in the 1949 Giro. The problem was that bricklayer Sante Carollo was already almost two hours further behind.
Open →Story · 1995–2004The man behind the Pirate
Marco Pantani returned from a shattered left leg to win both the Giro and the Tour. The rider’s story also contains the vulnerable man.
Open →Story · 1974–1983When Herning acquired its own wooden track
A wooden track from London, a new six-day race in Herning and Ole Ritter as the rider the crowd came to see.
Open →Story · 1970When Mogens Frey won after a hand on the handlebars
Joaquim Agostinho crossed first in Mulhouse, but the jury awarded victory to team-mate Mogens Frey after visible interference in the sprint.
Open →Story · 1968When Fredborg equalled the world record and won silver
Niels Fredborg equalled the world record in the Olympic kilometre in Mexico City. Eleven starters later, Pierre Trentin went faster.
Open →Story · 1955When a bent crank gave Colnago access to the Giro
Ernesto Colnago was 23 when a mechanical observation on Fiorenzo Magni's bicycle took him into the Giro service crew.
Open →Story · 1948Did Bartali really bring peace back to Italy?
After the attempt on Palmiro Togliatti, Gino Bartali won three consecutive Tour stages. His victories gave a political crisis its most enduring hero.
Open →Story · 1948The Peace Race – two pelotons going opposite ways
In May 1948, two fields raced simultaneously between Warsaw and Prague. The future Peace Race began with two routes and two Yugoslav winners.
Open →Story · 1891Paris–Brest–Paris 1891 – Charles Terront's three days
Charles Terront covered 1,200 kilometres in 71 hours 37 minutes. The newspaper race tested both the rider and the young safety bicycle.
Open →Story · 1949Paris–Roubaix 1949 – one race, two winners
André Mahé crossed first after being misdirected at the track. Serse Coppi protested. Months later, the race had two winners.
Open →Story · 1912Three men held at the start on the Buffalo track
A press photograph from Paris shows Thorvald Ellegaard, André Perchicot and Gabriel Poulain in the still moment before a sprint match.
Open →Story · 2018When the alarm clock cost twenty minutes on the Paris–Roubaix route
Jonas B. Hansen woke up 45 minutes late in Roubaix. By the time he reached the start, the others had left and the rest of his day became one long chase.
Open →Story · 1913Christian Christensen – out of the Tour, but on to Paris
Christian Christensen missed the time limit in the 1913 Tour. Later accounts describe how the Danish dairy worker continued to Paris outside the classification.
Open →Story · 1967Beryl Burton, twelve hours and a liquorice allsort
Beryl Burton rode 277.25 miles in twelve hours, broke the British men’s record and handed Mike McNamara a liquorice allsort as she passed.
Open →Story · 1965Bordeaux–Paris — with a motor pacer ahead
Jacques Anquetil won the Dauphiné and, a few hours later, began the 557-kilometre Bordeaux–Paris with motor pacing over the final part of the race.
Open →Story · 1966When the Tour peloton protested against doping controls
Shortly after leaving Bordeaux, the riders stopped. New doping controls had entered an old working culture.
Open →Story · 1964When Anquetil and Poulidor rode shoulder to shoulder
Poulidor won the duel on the Puy de Dôme, but Anquetil kept the yellow jersey by fourteen seconds.
Open →Story · 1953When Coppi found a loophole in the Stelvio agreement
Koblet led the Giro by almost two minutes. Then Coppi sent a young team-mate up the road on the Stelvio.
Open →Story · 1890–1903When cycle racing was the Wild West
The heroes, machines, six-day races and physical limits before modern cycle racing.
Open →Story · 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.
Open →Story · 1935–1937When gears arrived — and beer fooled the peloton
The Tour’s resistance to gears and Julien Moineau’s unusual breakaway towards Bordeaux.
Open →Story · 1948The star who fell from the top
Aldo Bini completed the Giro d’Italia with a broken hand and found distinction in the black jersey.
Open →Story · 1987When the race car drove over Skibby’s bicycle
Jesper Skibby led alone on the Koppenberg in the 1987 Tour of Flanders when an official car drove over his bicycle.
Open →Story · 1998When the Festina affair brought the Tour de France apart
A car full of doping products was stopped before the Tour. Three weeks later a team was expelled, riders were protesting and the peloton was nearly halved.
Open →Story · 1924The woman the Giro could not get rid of
Alfonsina Strada arrived outside the time limit in Perugia. Even so, she continued all the way to Milan.
Open →Story · 1951The yellow jersey disappeared down the mountainside
Wim van Est crashed over the Aubisque and was hauled back up with an improvised rope made from inner tubes.
Open →Story · 1925–1930When the Giro paid Binda to stay at home
Alfredo Binda had made the Giro so predictable that the organisers paid him 22,500 lire not to start.
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