Tour de France Archives

#Cycling History #Essays

The Last Supper: How a Farmer’s Son Fed the Cannibal His Final Meal

15 August 202530 November 2025 By Steven Sheffield

In 1975, Bernard Thévenet—a farmer’s son from a village literally named “The Handlebar”—ended Eddy Merckx’s reign as cycling’s most dominant champion. On the melting Alpine asphalt to Pra-Loup, Thévenet watched the seemingly invincible “Cannibal” collapse into mortality, trapped tire-deep in liquified tar. This is the story of how a patient dreamer fed cycling’s greatest predator his final meal, proving that even the most ravenous appetites must eventually be satisfied.

Milestones: Eddy Merckx & the Tour de France that Almost Wasn’t

01 August 201906 January 2020 By Steven Sheffield

On June 28, 1969, a young Belgian cyclist, dressed in the white and red colors of the Faema squad and wearing dossard #51, took his place on the start-line of the 56th Tour de France; his first appearance. He almost didn’t start, however, and who knows what his career would have looked like had he not.

#Bike Racing #Poetry

Word Art: Le Tour de France

28 July 201923 October 2019 By Steven Sheffield

Prologue.
The clock ticks.

Visions of heroes.

Le favori porte le dossard numéro cinquante-et-un, comme Merckx a fait en 1969.

#Bike Racing #Cycling History #Essays

Milestones: 100 Years of the Maillot Jaune

19 July 201915 November 2019 By Steven Sheffield

2019 marked a number of milestones for the Tour de France. It is the 30th anniversary of Greg LeMond’s 58-second defeat of Laurent Fignon. t is also the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first of five Tour de France victories in 1969. 2019 also marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the maillot jaune, the yellow jersey worn to signify the leader of the race, and that is a story in itself.