Albert Bourlon managed the longest sucessful solo breakaway in the history of Tour de France in 1947. It happened on the 253 km long 14th stage between Carcassone and Luchon on 11th July 1947. Burlon rode alone during the entire stage. It was his only Tour de France stage win. There are other six over 200 km long breakaways in the history of Tour de France.
From its earliest days, the sport has reflected the world around it—capturing the struggles, hopes, and transformations of each generation. In the early 1900s, cycling was a gritty, working-class pursuit. Riders often came from humble backgrounds, battling not only competitors but rough roads, primitive equipment, and tough social conditions. The races were brutal tests of endurance, echoing the harsh realities many people faced in their daily lives. The bicycle wasn’t just a machine; it was a symbol of mobility and opportunity at a time when many had few options. After the world wars, road cycling took on new meaning. It became a stage for national pride and recovery. Countries devastated by conflict saw their cyclists… Read More »Road cycling has always been a mirror of its time
You like to scrol down your social media feed full with black&white images of rosd cycling races. You like to hear or read about the crazy stories happened with cyclists during the early days of this sport? Cool! But road cycling history is so much than just this. When you really start digging into the history of road cycling, you begin to realize it’s so much more than just a sport. Sure, there are races, winners, and legendary performances—but beneath all that, cycling tells a bigger story. It becomes a lens through which you can see how people test their limits, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally. It’s about persistence, struggle, and the kind… Read More »A broader history behind road cycling history
It never ceases amaze me how seasonal people’s interest can be. The program of Tour de France 2025 is avaible since the official route presentation in October 2024, but that’s just not the time when the vaste majority of the admirers of the race care about it. But as soon as the live TV/streaming coverages of the early races start, suddenly, everyone start searching for infos about this year Tour de France. It also shows, how Tour de France enjoys a significantly larger popularity than any other road cycling events. Therefore it’s no wonder that during the week we’re just leaving behind the program of the upcoming Tour de France was the most popular in… Read More »Popular topics – Week 11 (2025)
If you follow what happening in the world of PelotonTales blogfamily, you might be familiar with the news that as part of My last road cycling season project I created the Cycling Monuments 2025 sub-site. Monuments are the five most prestigious one-day races, and I like to write about them very much, but there are also other one-day events, popular, intriguing ones worth spending time with them as a content creator. Because the beforementioned “my last road cycling season” means I don’t intend to pay attention to the actual events in the future (only for some of my long time projects related to road cycling history put in a broader sociocultural context) I feel it… Read More »Omloop, Le Samyn and Strade Bianche on PelotonTales special project
I started blogging about road cycling in 2009, as a calculated distraction from the exhausting work of writing my dissertatiion for my literature master degree. From time to time I needed some relaxation time, when I’m not thinkig about the realation of history and fiction. Also, I needed to work on something with a more instant result than a dissertation. A blog that I could update any time I want, where I could follow the increasing numbers how more and more visitors arrived on my blog, Seeing and feeling the progress of something was crutial to me to avoid depression. I have been following road cycling races since the 1990s (more exacly from the day… Read More »My last road cycling season
Don’t forget to take a look at the La Vuelta 2025 special project of PelotonTales! The special subprojects for the other two grand tours: Tour de France 2025 Giro d’Italia 2025
Only a few days left until the Tour de France 2025 route presentation on 29 October 2024. While we’re waiting for the program of next year’s Tour de France being revealed, let’s take a last look at the latest Tour de France 2025 route rumours. After the official route presentation, an overview of all the 21 stages will be avaible on the website. Tour de France 2025 will take place between 5 and. 27 July. As it already known for a while, Lille will host the Grand Depart, and the pelotoj will spent de first few days in the north-western part of France, including host cities like Dunkerque, Boulogne-sur-Mer, or Amiens. Then the race will… Read More »Reminder: Tour de France 2025 on PelotonTales
Col de la Loze was introduced to Tour de France in the 17th stage in 2020. The day delivered a Pog&Rog Show, a Lopez solo and a suddenly disappearing Bahrain-McLaren “suicide squad”. The 2 minutes gap between the three breakaway riders (Julian Alaphilippe, Richard Carapaz, Gorka Izagirre) and the peloton at foot of the 21 km long Col de la Loze indicated that the winner of the stage would come from the main bunch. Although Primoz Roglic was the cyclist in yellow, and according to tradition, his team, Jumbo-Visma was ment to lead the peloton, Bahrain-McLaren was setting the pace since half way of the stage. They tried to make Mikel Landa the first… Read More »Miguel Angel Lopez conquers Col de la Loze (Tour de France retrospective -TDF 2020)
The Col d’Aubisque is a true veteran among the iconic ascents of the Pyrenees, steeped in cycling history and tradition. This legendary climb has been a fixture in the Tour de France since 1910, when the race ventured into the high mountains for the very first time.
Although Tour de France started outside Paris for the first time in 1926, race organizers used the good old concept to start the event in Paris even during the subsequent years. Only after World War II became a custom to start Tour de France elsewhere in France. And in 1954 the race witnessed its first start abroad in Amsterdam, Netherlands.