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butcher, blacksmith, acrobat, sweep - the tale of the first tour de france. peter cossins. yellow jersey press 358pp illus. £16.99

butcher, blacksmith, acrobat, sweep - peter cossins

the west german town of dusseldorf originated around the 7th and 8th centuries at the point where the small river dussel flows into the rhine. it was in august 1288 that one of the most important points in dusseldorf's history came to pass when the sovereign of the berg region granted the village, township privileges. the modern-day dusseldorf is home to marginally less than 600,000 residents, a sixth of which are foreigners, living in ten adminsitrative districts, all of which came into being in 1975.

but several stone's throws from the excellently named monchengladbach, it is renowned primarily for the importance of the newspapers based there along with a burgeoning film and fashion industries, while the population is much favoured with a wide array of galleries, museums and theatres.

but imagine you'd opted to visit dusseldorf on saturday 1 july of this year and that's all there was: dusseldorf. unless you are beset with philistine tendencies, you'd hardly want for things to do, but a visit on the above specified date would surely mean only one reason; the tour de france. the 2017 edition commences the first of its three-weeks in july from the german town. it's arguably the high-point of the cycling season, when eurosport and itv4 offer wall-to-wall live coverage and more than just a smattering of highlights at all times of the day and night. but suppose it had never existed in the first place?

the fact that the race was devised by henri desgrange as a means of boosting sale of his newspaper l'auto-velo is one of those known facts even to folks with no particular interest in bike racing in the first place. there are bookshelves of publications paying lip service not only to le tour's origination, but offering a compact and bijou prècis of that first race. so far as i know, however, no-one has attempted to offer a eurosport's worth of commentary on the six lengthy stages that comprised the inaugural tour de france in 1903. that is, until now.

the title of peter cossins' impressive edifice butcher, blacksmith, acrobat, sweep alludes to a few of the professions practised by those who opted to make their bid for sporting glory in the early part of the 20th century. sadly, many were to end up financially disillusioned. winner maurice garin earned a reputed 6,125 francs, while his brother had to make do with scarcely a tenth of that. however, even those earning less than 250 francs qualified for a daily stipend of 95 francs. perhaps not the glory many of them had hoped for.

cycling had already proven itself as a potential saviour of newspaper sales. prior to the running of the 1902 edition of marseille-paris, l'auto-velo's sales were at 115,200 rising dramatically to over 300,000 with the edition reporting on the race's conclusion.

"In all, L'Auto-Vélo sold 1,462,279 copies over the week, plus another 700,000 of its six special issues, giving a total sale of 2,117,700 for a paper that would usually sell around 150,000 over the same period."

peter cossins has written a superb account of this single, albeit important inaugural race, described with almost forensic detail. it's the sort of undertaking that we have now come to expect across all forms of media regarding those three weeks in july. but that is in an age of motorbike cameramen, flocks of helicopters and the internet, one of which existed to serve bike racing in 1903.

aside from offering a blow by blow account of the racing, cossins offers an acute analysis of both pre and post rituals, machinations and propaganda, the likes of which has probably not seen the light of day since written in 1903. not unsurprisingly, considering the aims of the sponsoring newspaper, though wordage was hardly in short supply, photography may have been less prevalent. nonetheless, yellow jersey press has sourced a modest array of black and whites to illustrate this historical moment in cycling history.

it seems somewhat trite to mention that the majority of us are already well aware of the winner's identity, but nonetheless, even with the knowledge that it was the butler wot done it, cossins has written a compulsive book that hooks the reader as early as the introduction.

"The race organisers had been praying for a good crowd, certainly more than the few hundred who are milling about [...] That's more than enough to keep the proprietor...and his staff far busier than they would normally be [...] but it hardly bodes well for the inaugural Tour de France."

despite taking place more than a century past, on bicycles that weighed considerably more than even a modern-day mountain bike, the participants in the first tour de france averaged close to 25kph over roads that engendered clouds of dust when dry and rutted mud when wet. pre-determined checkpoints had to be negotiated apparently by each rider shouting out his name as he passed, bearing little comparison with contemporary finish line technology. oddly enough, it was accepted practice to change bikes at these control points when deemed necessary, or to borrow an oft ill-fitting machine from a generous and willing bystander.

this places the original tour at odds with the tale of eugene christophe (coincidentally the first rider to wear the yellow jersey) some ten years later when he was penalised ten minutes for receiving assistance while repairing a pair of broken forks. however, there is little doubt that this inaugural edition was a work in progress as can be gleaned from desgrange's decision not to allow pace-makers over the race's final stage, contrary to the rules in place at the start.

"Desgrange made a big announcement. 'No more pace-makers' the title of his column (in L'Auto) proclaimed [...] the Tour de France is now homogenous and there's no reason that the sixth stage won't be as worthy as the first five."

it should be noted, however, that this turn of events was less about meddling with the race's format than it was a less than satisfactory means of dealing with blatant cheating by the race leader (and subsequent winner). Garin had deliberately nobbled fernand augereau to prevent a late challenge to his lead during stage five. rather than castigate the goose that was in the process of laying l'auto's golden egg in terms of vastly increased sales, desgrange opted to divert the public's gaze in the opposite direction. common assumption at the time believed that garin subsequently paid a suitable sum of money to augereau to ensure no more was said about the matter. the latter had at least the satsfaction of winning the track sprint on the parc des princes.

there cannot surely be amongst the cognoscenti even one who is not familar with the tour de france, particularly in the light of the publishing frenzy that accompanied the 100th edition in 2013. but at the risk of upsetting an apple cart or two, those historical celebrations were superficial by comparison. we constantly impress upon entry level riders that they can hardly expect to be complete cyclists, particularly in the competitive realm, without making themselves aware of the sport's history. for those inclined to listen to such advice, butcher, blacksmith, acrobat, sweep is the new starting point.

a victorious triumph.

thanks to the generosity of yellow jersey press, i have one copy of 'butcher, blacksmith, acrobat, sweep' to give away to the sender of the first correct answer to the following question drawn from the pocket of a yellow jersey.
'in which year did maurice garin win the inaugural tour de france?'
please send your answer, along with full postal address to brian@twmp.net. closing date is on thursday 15 june.

thursday 8 june 2017

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................