Giants of the road start Le Tour
Cycling 12 July, 1911
“Allez mes enfants!” comes the call from Pere Abran to start the Tour de France (a George Abran is also referred to as the starter). Having distributed numbers to the riders at the Place de la Concorde, Abran is charged with getting the show on the road. Cycling’s Paris correspondent spent the first half of his one-page Tour de France preview painting a dreamy and quite drunken picture of Paris by night before getting on to Abran “...who alone has the right to bully everybody, and give instructions to the ‘giants of the road’ as he forms the procession up the Champselysées.” He reports huge crowds waiting in the suburbs to cheer on the ninth Tour.
Royal Enfield’s all-weather roadster was billed to the be the bicycle choice of the ‘busy man’.
“Before half a mile has been covered, the cream of the professionals have formed themselves into a compact group, moving ahead at a pace which causes even the experienced cyclist to marvel. The wet, greasy pavé of Paris appears to have no terrors for them.”
Back in the UK ‘a leading track-racing authority’ - it seemed quite common not to name a writer questioned why more members of the public weren’t watching the racing on the track at Crystal Palace. “We have a group of the finest amateur sprinters in the world… some of the closest and cleverest racing taking place while thousands were walking around the palace grounds wondering what to do next.”
Getting spectators to track racing, which does indeed produce some of the best racing you’ll ever see, is still a problem for the UCI and event organisers.
Meanwhile, the Catford hill-climb, which claims to be the oldest continuing race in the world having started in 1886, was a summer affair in 1911. It was also run on Westerham Hill back then, rather than Yorks Hill where it now takes place.
J. E. Hollands won for the second year running. “He came round Agony Corner beautifully, there was hardly an oscillation in his body.”
Interestingly, riders had to declare the weight of their bike. One rider was penalised 10 seconds for not doing so. “Had he complied with this regulation, the purpose of which is not apparent, he would have gained second place.”