The route of the 2023 Tour de France includes several brushes with the fate of champions who defined the history of the race. Racing the Tour on home turf was often an intense sporting experience for these riders, who were born or settled down in some of the towns and cities that dot the map of this edition. In the run-up to the start of the event on 1 July, letour.fr is pulling out the photo album to revisit the ties of six extraordinary riders to the Grande Boucle.
Cycling mania was in full swing in France in the years around World War I, but it was their Belgian and Luxembourgish rivals who usually took the spoils. Henri Pélissier was the first to buck this trend, joining forces with his younger brother Francis to restore the Tricolore to its former glory. They were no strangers to success in the Tour, but they often clashed with Henri Desgrange, culminating in their withdrawal from the race in 1924, a shocking move that inspired the journalist Albert Londres to write one of his best-known works. However, "Ficelle" —a nickname referencing the thinnest loaf of bread sold in France—, who stood on top of the podium a hundred years ago, turned out to be the only French winner of the competition between 1911 and 1930.
ALL THE EPISODES
