Paris–Bordeaux railway
The railway from Paris to Bordeaux is an important French 584-kilometre long railway line, that connects Paris to the southwestern port city Bordeaux via Orléans and Tours. The railway was opened in several stages between 1840 and 1853, when the section from Poitiers to Angoulême was finished; the opening of the LGV Atlantique high speed line from Paris to Tours in 1989 has decreased the importance of this section of the line for passenger traffic. The Paris–Bordeaux railway leaves the Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris in southeastern direction, it follows the left Seine bank upstream until Juvisy-sur-Orge, where it starts following the small river Orge upstream. Beyond Melun it follows the left Seine bank upstream, along the Forest of Fontainebleau. Beyond Lardy, the railway follows the small river Juine upstream. Beyond Étampes it crosses the Beauce plains; the Gare d'Orléans is a terminus. At Orléans the railway turns southwest, following the river Loire downstream along its right bank, it passes through Blois and Amboise, crosses the Loire at Montlouis-sur-Loire, an eastern suburb of Tours.
The Gare de Tours is a terminus as well. The railway turns south again, crosses the rivers Cher and Indre, follows the right Vienne bank upstream beyond Maillé. At Châtellerault it crosses the Vienne and continues upstream along the river Clain, through the city Poitiers. At Voulon the railway leaves the Clain valley and it follows the Charente valley from Saint-Saviol downstream, it crosses it again at Luxé and passes through the city Angoulême. It follows the small rivers Tude and Dronne downstream until its mouth at Coutras, where the railway crosses the river Isle, it follows the left Isle bank downstream to Libourne, where it continues west and downstream along the left Dordogne bank. It reaches the right Garonne bank at Bassens, crosses the river at Cenon, entering its terminus Gare de Bordeaux-Saint-Jean after a total length of 584 km; the main stations on the Paris–Bordeaux railway are: Gare d'Austerlitz Gare des Aubrais Gare d'Orléans Gare de Saint-Pierre-des-Corps Gare de Tours Gare de Poitiers Gare de Bordeaux-Saint-Jean The sections Paris–Orléans and Orléans–Bordeaux were built and exploited by two different companies, that became part of Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans in 1852.
The first section, opened in 1840 led from Paris to Juvisy-sur-Orge, a southern suburb. The line was extended to Orléans in 1843. Tours was reached in 1846, Poitiers in 1851. In 1852 Bordeaux was connected with Angoulême. In 1853 the section from Poitiers to Angoulême was opened; the Gare d'Austerlitz is the original terminus of the Paris–Bordeaux line. At the occasion of the 1900 Exposition Universelle the Gare d'Orsay was opened as the new terminus, with a more central location; the richly decorated Gare d'Orsay was only used by electric trains. After 1939 it was only used for suburban trains. Since 1986, the station building is a museum of 19th-century art; the Paris–Bordeaux railway is used by the following passenger services: TGV on the section between Juvisy and Orléans Intercités from Paris to Montluçon and from Paris to Toulouse, from Bordeaux to Lyon and from Paris to Tours TER Centre-Val de Loire and TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional services on the whole line RER Paris rapid transit line C on the section between Paris and Étampes Transilien railway map
Herman Van Springel
Herman Van Springel is a Belgian former road racing cyclist, from Grobbendonk, in the Flemish Campine or Kempen region. He was an accomplished time-trial rider winning the Tour de France in 1968, when he was beaten in the last stage by Dutchman, Jan Janssen in a time-trial. In the autumn that year, he won the classic Giro di Lombardia, he won a record seven editions of the marathon Bordeaux–Paris. He won the green jersey in the 1973 Tour de France without winning a single stage. However, he did win five stages during his ten participations in the Tour, he kept on cycling through the seventies and ended his long career at the end of 1981. Flemish TV-maker and presenter, Marc Uytterhoeven, motivated by the 1968 Tour, founded a Herman Van Springel fan club. Herman Van Springel at Cycling Archives
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Tours
Tours is a city in the centre-west of France. It is the administrative centre of the Indre-et-Loire department and the largest city in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. In 2012, the city of Tours had 134,978 inhabitants, the population of the whole metropolitan area was 483,744. Tours stands between Orléans and the Atlantic coast; the surrounding district, the traditional province of Touraine, is known for its wines, for the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, for the Battle of Tours. The historical center of Tours is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the city is the end-point of the annual Paris–Tours cycle race. In Gallic times the city was important as a crossing point of the Loire. Becoming part of the Roman Empire during the 1st century AD, the city was named "Caesarodunum"; the name evolved in the 4th century when the original Gallic name, became first "Civitas Turonum" "Tours". It was at this time that the amphitheatre of Tours, one of the five largest amphitheatres of the Empire, was built.
Tours became the metropolis of the Roman province of Lugdunum towards 380–388, dominating the Loire Valley and Brittany. One of the outstanding figures of the history of the city was Saint Martin, second bishop who shared his coat with a naked beggar in Amiens; this incident and the importance of Martin in the medieval Christian West made Tours, its position on the route of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a major centre during the Middle Ages. In the 6th century Gregory of Tours, author of the Ten Books of History, made his mark on the town by restoring the cathedral destroyed by a fire in 561. Saint Martin's monastery benefited from its inception, at the start of the 6th century from patronage and support from the Frankish king, which increased the influence of the saint, the abbey and the city in Gaul. In the 9th century, Tours was at the heart of the Carolingian Rebirth, in particular because of Alcuin abbot of Marmoutier. In 732 AD, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi and a large army of Muslim horsemen from Al-Andalus advanced 500 kilometres deep into France, were stopped at Tours by Charles Martel and his infantry igniting the Battle of Tours.
The outcome was defeat for the Muslims, preventing France from Islamic conquest. In 845, Tours repulsed the first attack of the Viking chief Hasting. In 850, the Vikings settled at the mouths of the Loire. Still led by Hasting, they went up the Loire again in 852 and sacked Angers and the abbey of Marmoutier. During the Middle Ages, Tours consisted of competing centres; the "City" in the east, successor of the late Roman'castrum', was composed of the archiepiscopal establishment and of the castle of Tours, seat of the authority of the Counts of Tours and of the King of France. In the west, the "new city" structured around the Abbey of Saint Martin was freed from the control of the City during the 10th century and became "Châteauneuf"; this space, organized between Saint Martin and the Loire, became the economic centre of Tours. Between these two centres remained Varennes and fields, little occupied except for the Abbaye Saint-Julien established on the banks of the Loire; the two centres were linked during the 14th century.
Tours became the capital of the county of Tours or Touraine, territory bitterly disputed between the counts of Blois and Anjou – the latter were victorious in the 11th century. It was the capital of France at the time of Louis XI, who had settled in the castle of Montils and Touraine remained until the 16th century a permanent residence of the kings and court; the rebirth gave Tours and Touraine many private mansions and castles, joined together to some extent under the generic name of the Châteaux of the Loire. It is at the time of Louis XI that the silk industry was introduced – despite difficulties, the industry still survives to this day. Charles IX passed through the city at the time of his royal tour of France between 1564 and 1566, accompanied by the Court and various noblemen: his brother the Duke of Anjou, Henri de Navarre, the cardinals of Bourbon and Lorraine. At this time, the Catholics returned to power in Angers: the intendant assumed the right to nominate the aldermen; the Massacre of Saint-Barthelemy was not repeated at Tours.
The Protestants were imprisoned by the aldermen -- a measure. The permanent return of the Court to Paris and Versailles marked the beginning of a slow but permanent decline. Guillaume the Metayer, known as Rochambeau, the well known counter-revolutionary chief of Mayenne, was shot there on Thermidor 8, year VI. However, it was the arrival of the railway in the 19th century which saved the city by making it an important nodal point; the main railway station is known as Tours-Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. At that time, Tours was expanding towards the south into a district known as the Prébendes; the importance of the city as a centre of communications contributed to its revival and, as the 20th century progressed, Tours became a dynamic conurbation, economically oriented towards the service sector. The city was affected by the First World War. A force of 25,000 American soldiers arrived in 1917, setting up textile factories for the manufacture of uniforms, repair shops for military equipment, munitions dumps, an army post office and an Americ
Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964. He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through the tour, a tall order with two previous winners in the field—Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes—but he did it, his victories in stage races such as the Tour were built on an exceptional ability to ride alone against the clock in individual time trial stages, which lent him the name "Monsieur Chrono". Anquetil was the son of a builder in Mont-Saint-Aignan, in the hills above Rouen in Normandy, north-west France, he lived there with his parents and Marie, his brother Philippe and at Boisguillaume in a two-storey house, "one of those houses with exposed beams that tourists think are pretty but those who live there find uncomfortable."In 1941, his father refused contracts to work on military installations for the German occupiers and his work dried up.
Other members of the family worked in strawberry farming and Anquetil's father followed them, moving to the hamlet of Bourguet, near Quincampoix. Anquetil had his first bicycle – an Alcyon – at the age of four and twice a day rode the kilometre and a half to the village and back. There he was taught by a teacher wearing clogs in a classroom heated by a smoking stove. Anquetil learned metal-turning at the technical college at Sotteville-lès-Rouen, a suburb of the city, where he played billiards with a friend named Maurice Dieulois, his friend began racing. Anquetil said: He was 17 and he took out his first racing licence on 2 December 1950, he stayed a member the rest of his life and his grave in the churchyard at Quincampoix has a permanent tribute from his clubmates. Anquetil passed his qualifications in light engineering and went to work for 50 old francs a day at a factory in Sotteville, he left after 26 days following a disagreement with his boss over time off for training. The AC Sottevillais, founded in 1898, was run by a cycle-dealer, André Boucher, who had a shop in the Place du Trianon in Sotteville.
The club had not just Anquetil but Claude LeBer, who became professional pursuit champion in 1955, Jean Jourden, world amateur champion in 1961, Francis Bazire, who came second in the world amateur championship in 1963. Boucher trained his group first from a bicycle and by Derny. Anquetil won 16 times as an amateur, his first victory was the Prix Maurice Latour at Rouen on 3 May 1951. He took the Prix de France in 1952 and the Tour de la Manche and the national road championship the same year. Anquetil rode in the French team in the 100 km time trial at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and won a bronze medal. Impressed by his protégé's progress, André Boucher sent an envelope of Anquetil's press cuttings to the local representative of the Perle bicycle company and asked him to send them to the firm's cycling team manager, the former Tour de France rider, Francis Pélissier. Pélissier called Anquetil, surprised and flattered to hear from him, offered him 30,000 old francs a month to ride for La Perle as an independent, or semi-professional.
Anquetil accepted and ordered a new car, a Renault Fregate, which he crashed twice in the first 12 months. Pélissier wanted Anquetil for the 1953 Grand Prix des Nations, a race started by the newspaper Paris-Soir which since 1932 had risen to the status of an unofficial world time-trial championship, it was held on a 142 km loop of rolling roads through Versailles, Maulette, St-Rémy-les-Chevreuse and back to Versailles before finishing on the Buffalo track in Paris. Anquetil was aware that one of his rivals was an Englishman named Ken Joy, who had broken records in Britain but was unknown in France, he would ride with Bob Maitland. The historian Richard Yates says: Many of the'against-the-clock' fraternity in the United Kingdom sincerely believed that the British time triallists were as good as, if not better than, their Continental counterparts and here was the chance to prove it; when the final result was known the British fans were disappointed and saw the race as a total failure for Britain as both Englishman had finished nearly 20 minutes down.
To rub salt in the wounds, the event had been won by an unknown, curly-haired teenager from Normandy. Anquetil caught Joy — the moment he realised he was going to win the race — though Joy had started 16 minutes earlier. At 19, Anquetil had become unofficial time-trial champion of the world; the win did not convince him. Next year he drove his team car not behind Anquetil but Hugo Koblet. Anquetil was not amused; when he beat Koblet, he sent his winner's bouquet to Pélissier's wife "in deepest sympathy". Anquetil rode the Grand Prix des Nations nine times without being beaten. On 22 September 1954, Anquetil started two years' compulsory service in the army, joining the Richepanse de Rouen barracks as a gunner of the 406th artillery regiment; the army accorded him few great favours but there was an exception: Should he break the record, he and the army agreed, he would give half the rewards to the army and the rest to the mother of a soldier, André Dufour, killed while fighting at Palestro, in Algeria.
The chances of breaking it were far from guaranteed, not only because Coppi's record had defied Gerrit Schulte and Louison Bobet but Anquetil himself, on 23 November 1955, when he had started too fast and finished 696 m short of Coppi. His second attempt flopped, he again started too fast. After 54:36 his helpers called him to a stop after 41.326 km. His legs failed him when he go
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia is an annual multiple-stage bicycle race held in Italy, while occasionally passing through nearby countries. The first race was organized in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport; the race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909, except when it was stopped for the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, the peloton expanded from Italian participation to riders from all over the world; the Giro is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are UCI ProTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers can invite. Along with the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, the Giro makes up cycling's prestigious three-week-long Grand Tours; the Giro is held during late May and early June. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same, with the appearance of at least two time trials, a passage through the mountains of the Alps, including the Dolomites.
Like the other Grand Tours, the modern editions of the Giro d'Italia consist of 21 day-long segments over a 23-day period that includes 2 rest days. Stages are timed to the finish. After finishing, the riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times; the rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race and gets to don the coveted pink jersey. While the general classification gathers the most attention there are other contests held within the Giro: the points classification for the sprinters, the mountains classification for the climbers, young rider classification for the riders under the age of 25, the team classification for the competing teams; the idea of the holding a bicycle race that navigated around Italy was first suggested when La Gazzetta dello Sport editor Tullo Morgagni sent a telegram to both the paper's owner, Emilio Costamagna, cycling editor, Armando Cougnet, stating the need for an Italian tour. At the time La Gazzetta's rival, Corriere della Sera was planning on holding a bicycle race of its own, after the success they had gained from holding an automobile race.
Morgagni decided to try and hold their race before Corriere della Sera could hold theirs, but La Gazzetta lacked the money. However, after the success La Gazzetta had with creating the Giro di Lombardia and Milan–San Remo, the owner Costamagna decided to go through with the idea, their bike race was announced on August 7, 1908 in the first page of that day's edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport. The race was to be held in May of 1909; the idea of the race was inspired by the Tour de France and the success that L'Auto had gained from it. Since the organizers lacked the funds, 25,000 lire, needed to hold the race, they consulted Primo Bongrani, an accountant at the bank Cassa di Risparmio and friend of the three organizers. Bongrani proceeded to go around Italy asking for donations to help hold the race. Bongrani's efforts were successful, he had procured enough money to cover the operating costs; the money, to be given out as prizes came from a casino in San Remo after Francesco Sghirla, a former Gazzetta employee, encouraged it to contribute to the race.
Corriere, La Gazzetta's rival, gave 3,000 lire to the race's fund. On 13 May 1909 at 02:53 am 127 riders started the first Giro d'Italia at Loreto Place in Milan; the race was split into eight stages covering 2,448 km. A total of 49 riders finished, with Italian Luigi Ganna winning. Ganna won the General Classification. Ganna received 5325 lira as a winner's prize, with the last rider in the general classification receiving 300 lira; the Giro's director received only 150 lira a month, 150 lira fewer than the last-placed rider. The first Giro was won by Luigi Ganna. In 1912, there was no individual classification, instead there was only a team classification, won by Team Atala; the 1912 Giro is the only time. From 1914 onwards the scoring format was changed from a points-based system to a time-based system, in which the cyclist who had the lowest aggregate time at the end of the race would win; the Giro was suspended for four years from 1915 to 1918, due to the First World War. Costante Girardengo was the winner of the first Giro after the war in 1919.
The dominant figure in the 1920s was Alfredo Binda, who won his first Giro in 1925 and followed this up with another victory in 1927, in which he won 12 of the 15 stages. Victory in 1929 came courtesy of eight successive stage wins. At the height of his dominance Binda was called to the head office of La Gazzetta dello Sport in 1930. Binda won five Giros. Nicknamed the "Iron Man of Tuscany" for his endurance, Bartali won two Giros during the 1930s, in 1936 and 1937. Bartali's dominance was challenged in 1940, the last Giro before the Second World War, when he was defeated by his 20-year-old teammate Fausto Coppi; the rivalry between Bartali and Coppi intensified after the war. Bartali won his last Giro with Coppi winning his second the following year. Coppi won a further three Giros and in 1952 he became the first cyclist to win the Tour de France and Giro in the same year. Swiss Hugo Koblet became the first non-Italian to win the race in 1950. No one dominated the tour during the 1950s, Charly Gaul and Fiorenzo Magni each won two Giros during the decade.
The 1960s were similar, five-time Tour de France winner Ja
Montague Holbein
Montague Alfred Holbein was a British champion cyclist and swimmer. He is most known for his second place in the inaugural 1891 Bordeaux-Paris, won by his countryman George Pilkington Mills and for several attempts in the early 1900s to cross the English Channel swimming. In the early days of competitive cycling Holbein was one of the absolute stars of the dominant British cycling scene. A good example of the dominance of British cycling in those days was the 1891 Bordeaux-Paris, that saw the Brits take the first four places, Holbein ranking second, his specialty was in long endurances races, shown by his victories in 24 hour races on the Great North Road and in the Cuca Cocoa Cup on the Herne Hill Velodrome. In total Holbein established 32 British cycling records. Nowadays more known is his second place in the inaugural Bordeaux-Paris, where a group of 4 British cyclists dominated the race. 1886 1st Great North Road 24 hours1888 1st Catford Cycle Club 12 hours 1st Great North Road 24 hours 1st North Road 100 miles1889 1st Great North Road 24 hours1890 1st Great North Road 24 hours 1st North Road 100 miles1891 1st Great North Road 24 hours 1st Herne Hill 24 hours record 2nd Bordeaux - Paris1892 1st Cuca Cocoa Cup at Herne Hill 1895 1st Great North Road 24 hours1898 1st Great North Road 24 hours Montague Holbein broke several swimming records on the Thames.
In 1899 he set a record of 43 miles and in 1908 he covered an incredible uninterrupted 50 miles. Holbein made several attempts all unsuccessful, to swim across the English Channel. In 1901, he was pulled out four miles from Dover. After his English Channel attempt, his eyes were so badly damaged from the salt water that he was unable to see for four days. In 1 August 1902, he failed again due to a tidal flow, heavy seas and a strong head wind, again four miles from Ramsgate. According to the accounts at the time, he swam for 4 hours 45 minutes and covered a distance of 18 miles, "the exact distance between the nearest points on the French and English shores". Holbein wore a mask; the mask was composed of American sticker's plaster with glass let in to enable him to see, effectually preserve his eyes from injury. He started his 1902 Channel crossing doing breaststroke at 25 strokes per minute, but switched to backstroke at a 20 stroke-per-minute pace. Due to the turbulence in the Channel, his support crew got some returned to shore.
During his attempt, he ate beef essence in liquid form and sandwiches, but was pulled out when he could not make any headway against the tides. On 27 August 1902, Holbein started his third attempt of the English Channel from France to Dover in 63 degree F water. However, he was taken out of the water within a mile of Dover after an attempt of 22 hours 21 minutes, his crew used two powerful acetylene lamps to follow him through the night. He did not repeat any attempts thereafter, he once swam 43 miles in the Solent. Montague A. Holbein's profile on Cycling Ranking Montague A. Holbein's profile on Cycling Archives
George Pilkington Mills
Herman Van Springel
Jean-François Rault
