Hare raising tails : number two

The Tour de France has seen stages take in almost all of France's famous landmarks but during 1914-1918 the tour included a number of trench stages. On one such stage during the Battle of the Somme the entire peloton was decimated and it was left to Foinavon, a passing racehorse, to weave his way through the carnage and go on to win the stage. Photos from the early tours often show riders carrying spare tyres but during the first few Tours competitors had to actually carry spare bikes with them. Bernard Bidet, a domestique for the Deutsche Gramafone team often carried up to five bikes for other riders in the team. Bernard's brother Henri was in fact the first person to wear the now famous yellow jersey in 1911. Prior to that the race leader always wore the traditional Breton shirt and beret... until in 1910 race leader Jean-Claude Ordures was mistaken for an escaped mime artist and shot.