1928 in Road Cycling - 1928 Tour de France, 1928 Giro D'Italia, 1928 Uci Road World Championships (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The 1928 Tour de France was the 22nd Tour de France, taking place June 17 to July 15, 1928. It consisted of 22 stages over 5,476 km, ridden at an average speed of 28.4 km/h. Altogether, 162 cyclists started the race, at that time a new record. The second win by Nicolas Frantz, he held the yellow jersey from beginning to end despite an obstacle in three days before the end of the tour. Frantz had a mechanical failure between Metz and Charleville and had to finish 100 km of race on an undersized women's bicycle resulting in a loss of 28 minutes. Regardless, Frantz won the tour, showing the superiority of his team, Alcyon, which gained the team trophy, and also had second best man Andr Leducq. The 22nd tour featured the first appearance of an Australian team, indicating the beginning of a more international sporting field. Tour director Henri Desgrange allowed teams to replace exhausted or injured cyclist by new cyclists, to give the weaker teams a fairer chance. However, the effects were opposite, so the concept was quickly abandoned. In the 1927 Tour de France, the team time trial format had been introduced, where teams started 15 minutes separated. This was done to make the flat stages more competitive. Although in 1927 this had not been successful, the formula was repeated in 1928; this time the teams started 10 minutes from each other. The team time trial format had been an advantage to the strong teams; therefore the tour organisation invented a new rule, aimed to help the weak teams: the teams were allowed to replace cyclists in the beginning of stage 12, halfway the race. They were not eligible for the general classification. Another new rule thing were the regional teams. The riders were separated in three groups: the... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=6516747