CQ27_FINAL_SPREADS (1)

FROM PARIS TO THE
BLUE WAVES OF THE
MEDITERRANEAN,
FROM MARSEILLE TO
BORDEAUX, PASSING
ALONG Each rider THE must complete ROSEATE
the Tour
de France on the same machine,
except in the case of serious
accidents. In such a case, he may
swap the machine with a cyclist
AND DREAMING ROADS
SLEEPING UNDER THE
SUN,
encountered
ACROSS
on his route, on the
THE
sole condition that the machine
CALM
borrowed
OF
is a different
THE
brand
FIELDS
to
his own.
OF THE VENDÉE, FOL-
LOWING THE LOIRE,
WHICH FLOWS ON STILL
AND SILENT, OUR MEN
ARE GOING TO RACE
MADLY, UNFLAGGINGLY.
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having ordered or requested
the ordering of anything, and
must not receive any help from
whomsoever, to the extent to
which he is obliged to collect
water from the springs or
fountains he may encounter
by himself. With regard to
the bicycle, each rider must
complete the Tour de France
on the same machine, except in
the case of serious accidents.
In such a case, he may swap
the machine with a cyclist
encountered on his route, on the
sole condition that the machine
borrowed is a different brand to
his own.”
Article 48 in that year’s rule
book stated that a rider must
start and finish a stage with
the same equipment – not only
his bicycle but any items of
clothing, inner tubes or repair
kit. Pelissier abandoned the
race in disgust at being made
to wear a previously discarded
jersey. Desgrange, obsessed
with creating the ultimate trial,
enforced his worldview through
the little book of reglements
– thou shalt respect other
people’s property, thou shalt not
rely on others, though shalt have
no other god but me. I wonder
what the autocrat would have
made of today’s race with its
flotilla of support vehicles and
rubbish-free zones, although
he’d have recognised and
applauded across the years the
various proscriptions on feeding
during the greatest part of the
effort.
And yet, and yet . . . in January
1904, Desgrange announces the
creation of the Audax France on
the lines of the Audax Italiano
and gives birth to the sport
of cyclotourism, long distance
cycling with a humanitarian face.
The idea of Audax was based
on the feat of a group of Italian
cyclists who covered the 230km
between Rome and Naples on
a single glorious day in 1897.
A ride so magnificent it was
dubbed ‘audacious’, which
morphed into the abbreviation
audax. But while its name belies
the nascent sport’s Latin roots,
it was Desgrange who first
codified the rules.
The Audax Club Parisien
became the first to issue the
brevets or cards that each
rider must have stamped at
control points along their route
– though, perhaps predictably,
they had that right rescinded
when they gave Victor Breyer
a helping hand to organise his
own event, the Polymultipliee.
Even in the genteel world of
cyclotourisme there was no love
lost between the two men – it
was Breyer who had witnessed
Lapize calling race organisers
criminals, who had first pushed
the race through the impassable
Pyrenees, who never missed an
opportunity to face off with his
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