A theme across cycling history
Society and the times
Politics, media, work and the conditions that shaped cycling beyond road and track.
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 · 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.
Open →Story · 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.
Open →Story · 1959–1960Coppi’s last journey and the missed malaria
Fausto Coppi returned ill from Upper Volta. Fellow traveller Raphaël Géminiani had the same disease, but malaria was recognised too late in Coppi’s case.
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 · 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 · 1959–1966When the coal had been delivered, training began
Yvonne Reynders delivered coal on a three-wheeled cargo bicycle before winning seven world titles on road and track.
Open →Story · 1982–1989When heart rate joined the rider on the road
A chest strap and a small wrist receiver made it possible to follow the heart without laboratory cables. Training acquired a new number to discuss.
Open →Story · 1980–1983When even the pedal thread had to be aerodynamic
Shimano built a wind tunnel and gave Dura-Ace AX smooth forms. The idea reached all the way to the pedal and showed how far a complete system could be pushed.
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 · 1930’erneWhen the Tour had to provide dinner
National teams made the Tour organiser responsible for the riders’ food and lodging. Menus were heavy, advice plentiful and nutritional science still far from the measuring cup.
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 · 1894–1895Annie Londonderry turned a bicycle journey into a performance
Annie Cohen Kopchovsky travelled around the world by bicycle, ship and train, making names, clothes, advertising and storytelling part of the feat.
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 · 1985–1986When 7-Eleven came to Europe
The American team learned Europe’s unwritten rules at the Giro and became the first US-based team in the Tour de France a year later.
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 · 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 · 2001–2009When Bjarne Riis built Team CSC
A struggling Danish team became an international organisation built around clear roles, training data and a team spirit tested far from the road.
Open →Story · 2000–2009When the carbon bicycle reached the weight limit
Carbon gave designers new shapes while the UCI’s 6.8-kilogram minimum made ballast and gram counting part of the mechanics’ work.
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 · 1943–1944Bartali's training rides had another purpose
During the German occupation of Italy, Gino Bartali used the familiar sight of a professional rider in training as cover while carrying material for a rescue network.
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 · 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 · 1952When “necessary” meant almost always
In a RAI interview, Fausto Coppi spoke unusually openly about the peloton’s use of “la bomba” in an age without effective doping controls.
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 · 2015When the peloton finished, Christine Lueber's working day began again
A day of musettes, Alpine driving, laundry and massage reveals the part of the Tour de France that the results do not measure.
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 · 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 · 1930s–todayWhen the Tour de France moved into the children’s room
Small cast cyclists turned pavements, sandpits and carpets into stage races — and later became collectibles with their own moulds, poses and peculiarities.
Open →Story · 1967The day Tom Simpson died on Mont Ventoux
Heat, dehydration, exhaustion and stimulants came together on the bare mountain during the 1967 Tour de France.
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 · 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 · 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 · 1997When old bicycles found new roads
L’Eroica began with 92 riders on Tuscany’s white gravel roads.
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 · 1948When the Michelin name nearly became a problem
The story of Stella Veneta, Ferdinando Michelin and the name MICHE.
Open →Story · 1964–1990The patent headache that lasted twenty years
SunTour found the slant movement. Shimano answered with indexing, cables and a complete system whose parts had to work together.
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 · 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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