HOW THE Tour de France BEGAN: Drugs, Killer Trails and Agressive Fans

ok! Great thanks. I, myself, is really interested of history of bicycle history, not specially by competition. i am a frenchman, living in Montgeron, a city, first departure of the first "Tour de France".. So, in a way, this can explain my interest. i knew some of the facts that you report, not all the facts. So, i thank you.
The story of cycling race is absolumently amazing, begining at the XIX century, with pins, scews, on the road, trickeries tricky stages using trains or other véhicules, and on another point of view, the technological evolution, good evolutions, toward sport honnesty.
sincères congratulations

d'accord! Grand merci. Moi-même, je m'intéresse beaucoup à l'histoire du vélo, pas spécialement à la compétition. je suis un français, vivant à Montgeron, ville premier départ du premier "Tour de France".. Donc, d'une certaine manière, cela peut expliquer mon intérêt. je connaissais certains des faits que vous rapportez, mais pas tous les faits. Alors, je vous remercie.
L'histoire de la course cycliste est absolument étonnante, commençant au XIXème siècle, avec des épingles, des vis, sur la route, des trucages d'étapes délicates utilisant des trains ou d'autres véhicules, et d'un autre point de vue, l'évolution technologique, de bonnes évolutions, vers l'honnêteté sportive. .
sincères félicitations

I raced on an élite junior team from the Southwest from 87 thru 89. I know for a fact at that time, you couldnt break thru to the next level without peds. All of us were juniors but could race at cat 2 level without a problem. But we were All to close in skill level. If you wanted to stand out, you had to use.....

The time related values of money are clearly nonsense. far too low If you had €22,000 in your hands you could not buy a car repair garage and a petrol station! You'd be quite limited in your choice if you just wanted to buy a bloody car!

Great helmet. I like the adjustment in the back. And it is well vented.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Don't forget that these guys were riding for up to 7 hours a day, for three weeks, back in the day, the stages were an all day affair. they're not kicking a ball around a field for 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

Doping/Cheating IS the human experience. The idea of a completely clean sport with clean athletes competing fairly is nothing but an ideal, and has never existed. This is by no means an excuse for it, its more of an observation of reality.

"Do you think professional sports are possible without doping?"
I don't think professional sports are possible, with or without doping.
As soon as it's your job, it stops being your sport.

Forging your own forks stage. Seems legit.

Let them dope as much as they want but every entrant in the Tour de France has to ride a penny farthing.

If you legalize doping for proa, it will increase the used of PEDs throughout the sport, even into the amateur and junior ranks. Unsupervised or with poor guidance, racers will die.

The anti doping organization are a fraudulent front, posing as an enforcement of fair play. When in reality, they know every cyclist on these teams, are doping. Former cyclists have testified how if they weren’t getting on the podium, they weren’t targeted. So, they were free to use EPO. It was only the big boys that were in the crosshairs.

Are the women cyclists doping?? It seems like I haven’t heard about any of the women doping!!

Drugs, cheating, attempting to make a race "fair", is ridiculous. There will never be a fair race because we are all born with different genetics, those with the greatest genetics for long stage races will win the tour. There aren't any secrets to training, other than you need the discipline to train and race at times near maximum heart rates. Other than that, it is just a genetics race, who got the best gift from God at birth. Racing is actually disgusting thinking a winner deserves the win; competition is not much more than having a contest to see who is the tallest.

"pain"? There isn't any pain unless you crash. A mild discomfort from pushing your body to a fraction of failure is not pain, it is the joy of fitness.

Pro cycling has, and continues to be the dirtiest sport there is. If anyone thinks pros are riding clean in 2023, you have your head in the sand. It's physically impossible, even for gifted, trained athletes to ride something like the TdF without Pharma assistance. And no positive tests for any rider is a weak defence against this claim. LA never tested positive either. Everyone is dirty, now enjoy the show.

Absolutely nothing wrong with any doping... do what you think you ought to do...

How many climbs, declined are in tour de france?. Total climbs and declined?

A rider is fixing his fork at a blacksmiths.
yeah - just normal.

Mechanical doping wasn't even touched here but it happens.

Not a bad video, but could have done without all the random movie clips. The Tour De France is interesting enough in its own right.

During the early TdF cyclists used fixed gear bikes. No coasting and brakes. They just kept pedaling. I wonder how they tackled descends

Legalise it. Regulate the max quantity of usage of each drug. Everybody is using it.. EVERYBODY

Let them dope. If all of them are using, and still only one gets in first place
..then that's that.

Speaking as a mountain-biker, i think the team aid/general concept should be eliminated along with 90% of the support part of the team. The rider should fix their own mechanicals, be subjected to doping testing post Each stage, only allowed One bike/wheelset, lengthen the stages, No car support vehicles, race at night, add gravel roads/smoother single-track sections, and kick out All the current corrupt UCI officials/coaches/doctors and start with a Clean sheet of paper.
This also applies to the other big races(Giro de Italia, Vuelta de España, etc.) too. Doping does a Huge disservice to the athletes who train naturally and honestly; a dope-fiend class would just legitimize Dirty racing. And not to put too fine of a point on the subject, road-cycling was Almost not allowed in the Olympics due to it's Quite tarnished reputation as a doping-riddled and generally corrupt sport...
Very lastly and in conclusion, UCI needs to be abolished and be replaced with an organization that has Zero Tolerance for ANY form of cheating and that also values riders' safety. Doing a time-trial on a rainy day (with a bike with racing slicks...), the fat men in UCI management allowing that, speaks volumes on how Dispensable the racers are seen/treated.

FYI: In 1906, the highest court in France proved that Dreyfus was innocent (as opposed to simply "not guilty").

If other pro sports policed themselves like pro cycling, those other sports would have even more scandals. Look at tennis. Nadal admitted after winning the 2022 Australian open that he won because his doctor froze his foot so he could compete with a severe foot injury. Cycling does not allow such practices.

ONE COUNTRY WHOSE WOMAN HAVE DRUG TAKING OFF TO PERFECTION HAVE BEEN GETTING AWAY WITH IT FOR YEARS NOW BECAUSE THE UCI WONT INVESTIGATE BECAUSE IT COSTS TO MUCH MONEY AND ON TOP OF THAT PEOPLE FORGET THE DRUG TAKERS IN A YEAR OR TWO THIS WAS STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH TWO YEARS AGO.

First 10seconds should be...

'This is what the legs of a tdf rider can look like after 3 weeks' & it's very rare.

As a former rider of some years ago I was extremely dedicated, training hard, healthy foods, plenty of sleep to aid recovery. I was supremely fit & yet didn't always get the results I expected.
Now many years on I hear about certain riders I raced with back then, being associated as drug takers.

It leaves a bitter taste to think I was cheated by other riders, riders that at the time I actually thought weren't as dedicated or as fit as me, yet still performed amazingly well in races of importance.

Dobre

How about separating riders who rely on doping into a separate class? It would be similar to auto races where there is a "stock" and "modified" class.

Doping should not be allowed. It’s crazy to think it doesn’t exist, though. The stakes are too high. The money too big.

Turned this crap off as soon as anti semitism mentioned. It's all about the you know who's isn't it.

Cycling Fanatics !!

It's silly to think legalizing and monitoring doping would be the solution. People would still break the rules and go beyond what's allowed. It's no solution.

Surely cycling at its best is about health and wellbeing? Yet its true that watching supremely fit athletes tackle mountain climbs is enthralling. I can't help thinking about those unique individuals that can compete WITHOUT using drugs - surely they are the better athlete and should not be forced into taking drugs in order to keep pace with lesser mortals.

"The level of anti-semitism in France - and across Europe - was off the charts back in the day"
And all innocents now?
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

The Tour de France is 3'500 to 3'600 kilometers long and 4 times Mount Everest in altitude. The average speed is 40 km/h and more. This no human body can do without drugs/doping. It's a lie! Doing the Tour de France in 35 plus stages, with an average of 15 to 20 kilometers would be closer to believable and possible. But a slow Tour de France sport fans would rather not watch. It would be too close to the hobby riders. Sport fans want to see fast speed sports, it must be inhuman. For people who want to earn money by doing sport, they are forced to take drugs/doping, otherwise they don't get good paid contracts.

Lance wasn't so evil after all

Cycling is all about power to weight ratio, blood and oxygen. If you get all of this at the top (especially using PEDs), you'll be at the top.

I say dope away! I want to see the limits of human performance. But it's kind of sad to find out the whole Tour was created by anti-Semites looking for money to increase anti-Semitism.

Unfortunately almost all sports float on PEDs to varying degrees. The more money is involved, the more people will cheat. For the sake of transparency it might be best if all sports were conducted under a controlled PED protocol, although you'd still get athletes to go outside of that to gain an advantage. It is the battle of who has the best chemist really.

Christophe was further penalised 10 minutes as a young boy operated the bellows of the blacksmith forge and that was considered outside help....

but sir ! you must be mistaken , when i watch my computer about the tour or any other cycling. they say only lance armstrong did this and was the only person to ever do it . surely you must be wrong !

💯💯👍🏽

... as a German Biologist- this is about TRUST. I was a Coach for Swimming - and experienced the heavy burden of honesty and responsibility. When it is GREED - it fast gets criminal. Cycling is the worst Sport of all. You become a Slave to technology and abusers. Later I found running is still the least hazardous. I met my best comrades in Running Endurance training....