The Tour de France started in 1903 and has been held every year since apart from years that were interrupted by World War I (1915 – 1918 editions) and World War II (1940 – 1946 editions). Come the covid pandemic in 2020 it looked like this would be the first event since a World War to stop the tour.

The organisers were able to hold the tour in August of that year instead of the traditional July with strict restrictions in place but the significance of potentially a Tour being cancelled got me thinking back to those other times in history when the tour was not held and I had never truly thought about what would the race have been like the immediately after the war until now. I mean you see the dates in the history when the Tour wasn’t held and I think it’s just easy to assume it was business as usual. But even as the 2020 Tour showed us post any major world event it certainly isn’t as straight forward as business as usual.

I came across this book during an Amazon browse and it caught my eye as it told the story of the first Tour in 1919, the first one to be held post a pause.

I always believe that books come to you at the right time and this book certainly did as the world started to emerge post pandemic.

At the time the race was deemed a ‘true tour’ of France as in it went along or as close as possible to the borders of France – almost like a hexagon. Two things struck me about this race from the book – the route and the riders.

One of the biggest indicators of how hard things where, how horrific war had been and how much the world really had changed is shown in the reconnaissance of the Tour route especially in northern France. Whole towns and roads that the tour previously had used or intended to use no longer existed. Dobkin sheds light on the origin of Roubaix (a town the Tour wanted to include due to it’s famous cobbles) being referred to (in cycling terms at least) as ‘the Hell of the North’

In terms of the riders all of those who took part had been impacted by the war in some way. Some of the riders had served and some even had to get permission to leave their regiments ie. take leave in order to participate. Little to no pre-training had been accomplished.<br><br> Like all Grand Tours there of course was a narrative – a pre-race favourite, an underdog, a mechanical issue for one of the riders at a pivotal moment in the race. The winner ended up being Firmin Lambot but really the 1919 Tour de France is testament to Henri Desgrange the editor-in-Chef of l’Auto along with all the riders that participated. 

This is an untold story till now and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in cycling history.