The Tour De France Celebrates Its 100th Birthday
The 100th Tour de France is now in full flow, with British hopeful Chris Froome leading the way. The cyclists are currently heading south east through France, t
The fearsome Hippolyte Aucouturier had enough class and speed to win a Tour. However, he ended up getting food poisoning from lemonade, crashing over a dog, falling foul of the rules and coming up against Pottier, Petit-Breton and Trou-Trou.
Between 1976 and 1981, the king of the finish line was the Belgian Freddy Maertens, who claimed 15 stage wins. That earned him three green jerseys (1976, 1978, 1981) and a spell in the yellow jersey. He also tied the record for number of stage wins in one race, when he took eight in 1976. Here he is seen beating Fons DeWolf on the Champs-Elysees in 1981.
Cars can also cause crashes, even the one containing the Tour boss. But help is always quickly at hand, underlining that spectators on the road are by no means ordinary.
As furnace-like heat descends on the race, Italian champion Fiorenzo Magni is happy to be doused with water by a fan at the roadside.
There is no chance of missing the presence of Basque fans in the Pyrenees, their orange T-shirts marking out their support of their heroes on the Euskaltel team.
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The 100th Tour de France is now in full flow, with British hopeful Chris Froome leading the way. The cyclists are currently heading south east through France, towards Tours. The race finishes on 21 July in Paris, and for the first time in a decade, it will have taken place entirely in France.
As well as being commemorative, the Tour de France Official 100th Anniversary Edition takes us through each of the Tour's editions, beginning with the first back in 1903.
Tour de France: The Official 100th Race Anniversary Edition by Serge Laget et al. is published by Quercus, £30
