Tour de France, 1962

1962 was my first Tour de France.

The first one I was technically in existence for, anyway, if in utero.

That year, the great French film-maker Louis Malle made a terrific short film about it called "Vive Le Tour". It's an amazing 50-year time capsule of the event, and shows both how much has changed, and also how little.

The crowds, the cars, the spectacle, the smoking, the nuns, the beautiful jerseys: it's awesome.
Worth a viewing just for the scenes in which domestiques stop and do "supply raids" on bars and cafes en route, and then pass around beers in the péloton. (Apparently the bars sent bills to the race directors afterwards.)

Anyway, a great warm-up for the 100th Tour:

UPDATE: embedded Youtube links don't work anymore, but this link at Vimeo does.
And if you want to know who's who (Anquetil won), here's a full team & rider listing with numbers.


Part one
 


Part two

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