Cycling history in six items

‘Monte Bondone, 8th June [1956]. A drama, a real drama, a shocking spectacle. From Trento to Monte Bondone, the snow: a few flakes 6km from the top, then the storm. It had rained all day, the cold and

When Jasper Philipsen was a child, long before he was winning Tour de France stages on a regular basis, he dreamed of becoming a professional footballer. Despite hailing from the same town as Belgian

Australian photographer Zac Williams has been covering cycling’s Grand Tours for years, and he’s of the opinion that there’s something for us all to savour when the superhuman riders – the Pogačars an

This 2025 edition has more of everything. There’s one more stage – nine instead of last season’s eight. There’s more climbing – over 17,000m, and a mountain-fest from stage five onwards. More anticipa

In the early 1890s a young Victor Goddet was working at the Vélodrome de l’Est, Paris. Every day a twenty-something rider arrived and every day Goddet studiously checked his pass. One day the rider qu

It’s hard to imagine a better place to start a ride. At 1,326m Briançon is the highest city in France. And with 300 clear days a year on average, it’s also one of the sunniest. To describe the morning