Monthly Archives: July 2008

Show us what you can do…

“Simplement montrer ce que je sais faire dans la montagne…,” said French climber Rémy Di Grégorio when asked in his interview in the official Tour de France programme what his goals were for the race. Injury blunted his ambitions for showing us what he could do in last year’s edition but an absence of Grand …

July 7, 2008 – 8:41 pm | By Guy WR | Posted in Climbers | Comments (3)

The real René Vietto – part 1: The myth

Like many sports, cycling has its founding myths: the great heroic struggles of the riders, their giant shoulders broad enough for the current peloton to stand on. Henri Desgrange’s express intention when starting the Tour de France was a race more difficult than all the others, longer and more arduous. His ideal was a route …

July 1, 2008 – 6:45 pm | By Guy WR | Posted in Classic Stages, Climbers | Tagged , , , | Comments (7)

The Tour of Good Health: 1968

The year 1968 was a turbulent one for France, as it was for other countries around the world. Sport was caught up in the political events, with the Olympics that year in Mexico City featuring protests from some athletes that would later become iconic. In May in France, student riots spread to the workers and …

July 1, 2008 – 7:59 am | By Guy WR | Posted in Classic Stages | Comments (0)