- Oct 1, 2010
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1982. I watched "Breaking Away" early that year and started reading every book I could find about cycling. New Zealand didn't get daily coverage of the Tour until the '90s and the only TV coverage available in 1982 was a 30 second segment of the final stage tacked on to the end of the sports news. They did note, though, that the winner that year, Hinault, had also won the Giro d'Italia. One of the cycling books I read that year was the Penguin Book of the Bicycle. In the racing section of that book was an account of the 1975 Tour de France. It was only half a dozen or so pages long, but it did make an impression on me; Moser's prologue win, Van Linden's crash before winning the points competition, Merckx in the rainbow jersey, then getting punched on Puy de Dome while wearing yellow, Thevenet biding his time before putting the Tour beyond doubt in two sweltering Alpine stages, the girl in the bikini with the "Bastille has fallen" sign on the col d'Izoard. Like I said, NZ cycling coverage sucked and even today, you have to pay for TV coverage. For several years in the early 90's I followed the tour through the newspapers (only a day or two behind). The internet and in particular Cyclingnews.com has been a godsend in that respect. Before that I got to read a lot of cycling books. Two I really recommend are Geoffrey Nicholson's The Great Bike Race (1976 tour) and Robin McGowan's Tour de France 1978. Really dated now (I read both 20 years ago) and probably falling apart.
Strictly speaking, I didn't actually follow a Tour de France from start to finish until 1992 (by newspaper). My first TV following of the Tour was 1995 when the flat I lived in had Sky. I've been fortunate enough to have been in France following the Tour in 2004 & 2006.
Strictly speaking, I didn't actually follow a Tour de France from start to finish until 1992 (by newspaper). My first TV following of the Tour was 1995 when the flat I lived in had Sky. I've been fortunate enough to have been in France following the Tour in 2004 & 2006.