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In line with accustomed practice, I’ve included abridged examples of the
kind of thing you might read in the book, below.

The Manchester Guardian 28 July 1930 edition ran an article reporting
the final result of that year’s Tour de France. I have reproduced it ,in it’s
entirety, below so that you can marvel at the in-depth tactical analysis
etc.

    - Masterful, no pandering to the reader by converting the distance
         to miles and no ancillary details like the winner’s first name! (Andre.)

By 22 July 1933, a little more detail was creeping in, with a report that
28 people were injured, one not expected to recover, when a crowd of 10,000
got fed up waiting and stormed the gates of the velodrome hosting the
TdeF stage finish.

A 1950 report, records Bartali crossing the line first on the stage into
Perpignan, shouting “I have been assaulted and I am going home” following
an incident on the Col d’Aspin where he came off his bike and was attacked
by crowd-members, needing to thump someone to get his bike back. (It also
refers to an incident in a previous year when an Italian rider was beaten
up and tied to a tree.)

1955 – an American TV producer decided to go to France to generate some
new ideas in his own field. After 10 days he was asked how the project
was going and gloomily answered that every time he watched the TV there
seemed to be some sort of bike race going on… Bad timing, buddy… J

1975 – Geoffrey Nicholson wrote about the final stage on the Champs-

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