News

Henri Pelissier 

 

Henri Pélissier (22 January 1889 – 1 May 1935) was a French racing cyclist from Paris and winner of the 1923 Tour de France. In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour. He was killed by his lover with the gun that his wife had used to commit suicide.

 

The Post Card from October 7, 1923 is personally signed on the back, following these words: 

I am happy to announce that I am 50km champion today at the Tours velodrome.

 

                                                                  (July 2024)

Luigi Ganna 

 

Luigi Ganna (1 December 1883 – 2 October 1957) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. He was the overall winner of the

first Giro d'Italia, held in 1909, as well as the first Italian winner of the classic Milan–San Remo earlier that year.

 

Further highlights in his career were his fifth place in the 1908 Tour de France and several podium places in Italian classic races. In 1908,

he set a new Italian hour record, which he held for six years.

 

This is en extremely rare beautifully signed photo of Ganna which I obtained from a good collector friend of Italy.

 

(April 2024)

Ernest (Ernst) Kaufmann 

 

Ernst Kaufmann (9 June 1895 – 20 December 1943) was a Swiss racing cyclist. He won the sprint event at the 1925 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and the Grand Prix de Paris in 1923 and 1927. He was the Swiss National Road Race champion in 1917 and 1918, and was an 18-time national sprint champion. 

 

In 1932 Kaufmann retired from his active career as a racing cyclist. He designed bikes, worked as a representative for bicycle companies and also served as director of the cycling track in Zurich-Oerlikon for two years.

 

Shortly before Christmas 1943, Kaufmann succumbed to kidney disease.

 

(April 2024)

 

VERY RARE SIGNED PHOTO!

 

 

Jonas Vingegaard

 

Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France for a second straight year as cycling’s most storied race finished Sunday, July 23, on the famed Champs-Elysées. With a huge lead built up over main rival Tadej Pogačar, the 2020 and 2021 winner, Vingegaard knew the victory was effectively his again before the largely ceremonial stage at the end of the 110th edition of the Tour.

(August 2023)

 

VERY RARE SIGNED PHOTO WITH THE YELLOW JERSEY!

 

 

Federico Bahamontes

 

Federico Bahamontes, the first Spaniard to win the Tour de France, has died at the age of 95 on Tuesday August 8, 2023.

 

Bahamontes, who earned the nickname “The Eagle of Toledo” after numerous victories in mountain stages, won the Tour de France in 1959 and was also the first cyclist to complete a “career triple” by winning the “King of the Mountains” classification in all three Grand Tours.

 

Known as a fiery, eccentric character who was not always popular with rivals, Bahamontes once famously stopped at the top of the Col de Romeyere with broken spokes and had ice cream while waiting for his team car and the main group of riders.

 

He retired at 37 after a win in Montjuic.

 

(August 2023)

 

 

 

Serse Coppi

 

Serse Coppi (19 March 1923 – 29 June 1951) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist born in Castellania. He was the younger brother of Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi.

 

 

His greatest victory was 1949 Paris–Roubaix, when he was placed equal winner with André Mahé after controversy.

 

He died in 1951 after crashing in the final sprint of the Giro del Piemonte, when his wheel was caught in the tracks of the Turin tramway. He was 28.  He died in Fausto's arms before an operation could be performed.

 

(August 2023)

 

This is a very rare piece of a Cycling Memorabilia!

Leo Amberg was considered one of the strongest Swiss road drivers before the Second World War. 

 

His greatest successes were third place overall in the Tour de France in 1937 and at the UCI Road World Championships in 1938.

 

After ending his career as a professional racing driver in 1947, Leo Amberg opened a cycling shop. He is considered the discoverer of Hugo Koblet.

  

After completing his apprenticeship in 1943, Hugo Koblet sought contact with the famous Leo Amberg, who ran a bicycle shop near his home. Koblet joins Amberg as a bicycle mechanic, who quickly plays the role of a paternally well-disposed sports adviser for the young Hugo.

 

As a result, the pupil was to achieve the very great successes that the teacher was denied. 

 

Hugo Koblet won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional. 

 

(July 2023)

 

Raymond Poulidor’s best years collided with Jacques Anquetil’s best years, their duel reached its peak at the Tour de France in 1964. Poulidor was more agressive, attack-friendly rider, who was good in the mountains, while Anquetil dominated the time trials and was considered a more calculating, cold-headed racer. 

 

Their clash on the 20th stage, which finished on Puy de Dôme, of Tour de France 1964 became one of the most iconic moments in the history of road racing. They rode literally shoulder by shoulder together, as the famous image shows it. 

 

Newerteless, Poulidor attacked a few times, but he could not drop his rival until they reached the Flammes Rouge. Inside the final kilometre Poulidor was finaly able to ride away from Anquetil and finished third behind Jiménez and Bahamontes. After the stage he was only 14″ behind Anquetil, but could never turn the race.

 

It was definitely the closest moment Poulidor ever had the possibility of winning the Tour de France. 

(June 2023)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jean Gougoltz (1875 - 1917)

 

Jean Gougoltz was an allrounder who competed in numerous races on the road and on the track internationally.

 

In 1900 he became Swiss champion in the sprint, in 1905 the professional stayer. In 1903 he also won the Paris eight-day race ahead of Lucien Petit-Breton, a race that involved driving eight hours a day for eight days.

 

Jean Gougoltz drove eight six-day races, in 1900 he finished third in New York together with the Frenchman César Simar. This made both the first Europeans to stand on the podium at a US six-day race. In 1901 Jean Gougoltz started at Paris-Roubaix, but was only 18th due to a starvation.

 

Eugène Christophe

 

Eugène Christophe (born Malakoff, Paris, France, 22 January 1885, died in Paris, 1 February 1970) was a French road bicycle racer and pioneer of cyclo-cross. He was a professional from 1904 until 1926. In 1919 he became the first rider to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France . 

 

Eugène Christophe rode 11 Tours de France and finished eight. He never won but he became famous for having to weld together his bicycle on the Tourmalet while leading the Tour de France in 1913. It was one of a series of events that coloured his racing career.

 

 

 

 

Guerra - Ursus    

 

The following Swiss participants of the Giro 1954 signed this card:

• Remo Pianezzi
• Carlo Cerici (Winner Giro 1954)
• Emilio Crocitorti
• Hugo Koblet (Winner Giro 1950)
• Marcel Huber
• Martin Metzger
• Fritz Schär

         

                                                                                        Hugo Koblet and Carlo Clerici

 

Tadej Pogacar

 

Tadej Pogačar born 21 September 1998) is a Slovenian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates. In his debut Grand Tour, Pogačar won three stages of the 2019 Vuelta a España en route to a third place finish.

 

He rode in the 2020 Tour de France for the first time, becoming the overall winner and also securing the young rider and mountain classification.He is the first Slovenian winner and with the age of 21 he became the second youngest winner after Henri Cornet's win in 1904.

 

Constant ("Stan") Ockers

 

(3 February 1920 in Borgerhout – 1 October 1956 in Antwerp) was a Belgian professional racing cyclist.

 

He was runner-up in the Tour de France in 1950 and 1952, and the best sprinter in that race in 1955 and 1956. In 1955 he won the Classic "Ardennes double" by winning La Flèche Wallonne and the Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same year.. He also won the World Cycling Championship that year.

 

Stan Ockers died after crashing during a track race in Antwerp in 1956. A year later a monument was built in Les Forges, Sprimont, in the south of Belgium.

Henri Garnier

 

Henri Garnier (born September 19, 1908 in Feschaux, Belgium, † January 4, 2003 Falmagne, France) was a Belgian cyclist.

 

Henri Garnier was a professional racing driver from 1933 to 1937. In his first professional year he was second in the Tour of Belgium. In 1936 he was able to win a stage and the Tour de Suisse after having finished second in the previous year. In 1937 he again won a stage in the Swiss national tour. In the same year he ended his career at the age of 29. In 2003 Garnier died in his adopted home in France at the age of 94.

 

Mads Pedersen

 

(born 18 December 1995) is a Danish professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Trek–Segafredo. In September 2019, he won the men's road race at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, England, and became the first Danish cyclist to win the men's World Championship road race title.

 

 

Egan Bernal Gómez (born 13 January 1997)

 

is a Colombian cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Ineos.He won the 2019 Tour de Suisse and Tour de France, becoming the first Latin American winner of these races.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tour de France Winner 2019

 

 

 

Italian cycling legend Felice Gimondi has died on August 17, 2019, at the age of 76.

 

Gimondi suffered a heart attack while swimming in Sicily.

 

After a late call-up, he won the 1965 Tour de France in his first season as a professional at just 22 years old. By winning the Giro d'Italia in 1967 and the Vuelta a Espana in 1968, he became the second cyclist after Jacques Anquetil to win all three Grand Tours. Gimondi won five Grand Tours in total, claiming further Giro titles in 1969 and 1976 before retiring in 1978.

 

He was also a prodigious classics rider, winning four 'monument' titles - cycling's oldest and most prestigious one-day races - including both Paris-Roubaix and Giro di Lombardia in 1966, before a second Lombardia title in 1973 and victory in Milan-San Remo the following year. Gimondi also won the 1973 world road championships in Barcelona.

 

Fritz Pfenninger (15 October 1934 – 12 May 2001)

 

was a Swiss cyclist. He was a specialist in six-day racing, winning a total of 33 events between 1956 and 1970, including 19 with Peter Post.

 

 

 

Klaus Bugdahl (born 24 November 1934)

 

is a retired German cyclist who was active between 1954 and 1978 both on the road and track. On track, he competed in 228 six-day races and won 37 of them.

 

René Vietto

 

French cyclist born February 17, 1914 in Rocheville (Alpes-Maritimes). Magnificent climber, René Vietto moves the whole of France by sacrificing his chances during the 1934 Tour de France to help his leader, Antonin Magne . Winner of three stages in the Alps, he first repairs Antonin Magne, who had punctured in the Puymorens pass, by offering him his wheel. The next day, Antonin Magne falls in the descent of Portet-d'Aspet; Rene Vietto, left at the front, turns around, climbs the pass in the other direction and gives his machine to his leader. In 1939 are created the regional teams on the Tour. René Vietto is retained in the formation of South-East. Seeming to have found his superb, he seized the yellow jersey at the end of the fourth stage. He will keep his tunic of gold until the fifteenth stage. Finally, after experiencing a failure in the Izoard, he finished second in the Grand Loop, more than 30 minutes from Belgian Sylvère Maès.

 

René Vietto is the favorite of the first Tour de France after the war, in 1947. He seized the yellow jersey in the second leg, but, victim of a failure during the time trial against Vannes-Saint -Brieuc, he's mortgaging his chances. He will only take fifth place in this edition won by Jean Robic ahead of Pierre Brambilla. He ended his career in 1949.

 

 

Tom Simpson

 

Thomas Simpson (30 November 1937 – 13 July 1967) was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists.

 

In 1965 he became Britain's first world road race champion and won the Giro di Lombardia; this made him the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first cyclist to win the award. Injuries hampered much of Simpson's 1966 season. He won two stages of the 1967 Vuelta a España before he won the general classification of Paris–Nice that year.

 

In the thirteenth stage of the 1967 Tour de France, Simpson collapsed and died during the ascent of Mont Ventoux. He was 29 years old. The post-mortem examination found that he had mixed amphetamines and alcohol; this diuretic combination proved fatal when combined with the heat, the hard climb of the Ventoux and a stomach complaint. He is held in high esteem by many cyclists for his character and will to win.

 

LEO AMBERG

 

(born March 23, 1912 in Ballwil, † September 18, 1999 in Oberriet) was a Swiss cyclist.

 

Amberg was considered one of the strongest Swiss road drivers before the Second World War. He was twice Swiss road champion (1937, 1938), won in 1935 at Nice-St. Tropez and 1937 at the championship of Zurich. His greatest successes were the third place in the overall standings of the Tour de France in 1937 and at the UCI Road World Cup 1938.

 

After ending his career as a professional racing driver in 1947 Leo Amberg opened a cycling business. He is considered the discoverer of Hugo Koblet.

 

JEAN ROBIC

 

Jean Robic (10 June 1921 – 6 October 1980) was a French road racing cyclist, who won the 1947 Tour de France. Robic was a professional cyclist from 1943 to 1961. His diminutive stature (1.61m, 60 kg) and appearance was encapsulated in his nickname Biquet (Kid goat).

 

Robic found it hard to fit into an ordinary life when his career ended. He ran the family café but it failed, as did his marriage.

GERAINT THOMAS

 

Geraint Howell Thomas (born 25 May 1986) is a Welsh professional racing cyclist, who rides for the UCI WorldTeam Team Sky, Wales and Great Britain. Competing on track, he has won three World Championships and two Olympic gold medals.

 

Leaving track cycling to focus solely on the road, he subsequently found success in both one-day/classic races such as the 2014 Commonwealth Games road race and the 2015 E3 Harelbeke, and in one week stage races, most notably at the 2016 Paris–Nice, the 2017 Tour of the Alps and the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné.

 

 

 

In the Tour de France 2018, he gained the yellow jersey by winning stage 11, extended his lead by winning stage 12, and retained the lead for the remainder of the event. He became the first Welshman, and the third British cyclist after Wiggins and Froome, to win the Tour.

 

  

JEAN-PIERRE MONSERÉ

 

Jean-Pierre "Jempi" Monseré (8 September 1948 – 15 March 1971) was a Belgian road racing cyclist who died while champion of the world.  Monseré was a talented amateur who turned professional for Flandria in 1969. He won the Giro di Lombardia that year. A year later he became the Belgian track omnium champion and on 16 August 1970 he won the world championship in Leicester, England. He was the second-youngest world champion.

 

On 15 March 1971, Monseré was riding the Grote Jaarmarktprijs in Retie. On the road from Lille to Gierle he collided with a car driven on the course and died on the spot. A monument now stands at the spot. In a cruel twist of fate, in 1976 Monseré's seven-year-old son, Giovanni, died after a collision with a car, while riding his racing bike, given to him on his first communion by another world champion, Freddy Maertens.

 

Monseré’s autographs as a world champion are extremely rare as he just died about half a year after winning the title.

 

CONSTANTE GIRARDENGO

 

Costante Girardengo; 18 March 1893 - 9 February 1978) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, considered by many to be one of the finest riders in the history of the sport. He was the first rider to be declared a "Campionissimo" or "champion of champions" by the Italian media and fans.

 

His career achievements include two wins in the Giro d'Italia, six wins in Milan–San Remo, three wins in the Giro di Lombardia; he was Italian road race champion on nine occasions. His professional career was extensive, lasting from 1912 to 1936 and was interrupted by World War I which robbed Girardengo of some of his best years. He was ranked number one in the World in 1919, 1922, 1923, 1925 and 1926.

 

At the height of his popularity in the 1920s he was said to be more popular than Mussolini and it was decreed that all express trains should stop in his home town Novi Ligure, an honour only normally awarded to heads of state.

 

                      

RAPHAEL GEMINIANI

 

Raphaël Géminiani (born Clermont-Ferrand, France, 12 June 1925) is a French former road bicycle racer. He had six podium finishes in the Grand Tours. His professional career ran from 1946 to 1960. He won the mountains competition in the Tour de France in 1951. His best overall place was second in 1951 behind Hugo Koblet. In 1955, Géminiani finished in the top 10 of the three big tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España), equalled by Gastone Nencini only in 1957.

 

 

 

 

This carefully autographed card together with the hand-written envelope shows the very professional way some of the former champions treated their fans!

 

OSCAR EGG

 

Oscar Egg (2 March 1890 – 9 February 1961) was one of the first Swiss track and road bicycle champion. He captured the world hour record three times before the First World War and won major road races and stages of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. He was also a noted developer of racing bicycles and bicycle components including lugs and derailleurs.

 

This photo was taken at the Tour de France 1910! Egg was 20 years old and participated in the Independent Category finishing at position 26.

 

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING!!!

 

OTTAVIO BOTTECCHIA

 

Ottavio Bottecchia (August 1, 1894–June 14, 1927) was the first Italian to win the Tour de France.

 

After World War I  went to France in search of work. There he took up cycle racing and began to have good results. He returned to Italy and in 1923 rode the Giro as an independent rider. His fifth place (46 minutes behind winner Costante Girardengo) made him the highest placed independent.

 

He was recruited by French bike maker Automoto, which had ambitions of selling bikes in Italy. He rode the 1923 Tour de France as a domestique for winner Henry Pélissier. The next year he took the lead after winning the first stage and held the lead to the end. In he1925 he again won the Tour, though this time he rode more tactically and economically. After that, the winning magic seemed to have left him. He abandoned the 1926 Tour during a terrible, stormy stage.

 

He was found murdered on June 3, 1927. His skull was broken, but his bike was a short distance away, undamaged. There are many theories about his death, but no strong evidence points reliably to any explanation.

 

ALBERT BÜCHI / ALBERT BUCHI

 

Albert Büchi (born June 27, 1907, † August 1988) was a Swiss cyclist.

Albert Büchi belonged to the first guard of the Swiss professional racing drivers in the early 1930s.

 

In 1931 he was Swiss street champion and third in the championship of Zurich. In the same year he was third at the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen and ninth in the overall standings of the Tour de France. Büchi started the tour three more times. In 1932 he was 11th, 1933 13th and 1934 17th.

 

In 1933 he finished second in the overall standings of the first ever Tour de Suisse, with a gap of 9:01 minutes to the Austrian Max Bulla.

FRITZ SCHÄR

 

Fritz Schär (13 March 1926 in Kaltenbach – 29 September 1997 in Frauenfeld) was a Swiss cyclist who in 1953 won the first points classification ever in the Tour de France. He also finished third in the general classification in the 1954 Tour de France. He was the Swiss National Road Race champion in 1953.

 

History

 

In 1953, the Tour directors decided to mark the leader in the Points Classification with a Green Jersey. According to the Tour organisation, green is the color of hope. However, in 1968 the jersey was red, in order to please that year’s sponsor of the Points Classification.

 

The first keeper of the Green Jersey was Swiss all-rounder Fritz Schär, who also brought the jersey home at the end of that year’s Tour. As Schär wore the Yellow Jersey after the first stage in 1953, the first rider to wear the Green Jersey was the number two of the Points Classification, Dutchman Wout Wagtmans.

 

HEINZ MÜLLER

 

Heinz Müller (16 September 1924 – 25 September 1975) was a German road bicycle racer who the UCI Road Cycling World Championship in 1952. He also won the German National Road Race in 1953.

 

                                

 

 

 

ROMAIN MAES

 

Romain Maes (10 August 1912 – 22 February 1983) was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1935 Tour de France after wearing the yellow jersey of leadership from beginning to end.

 

 

 

 

GASTONE NENCINI

 

Gastone Nencini (1 March 1930 – 1 February 1980) was an Italian road racing cyclist who won the 1960 Tour de France and the 1957 Giro d'Italia.Nicknamed Il Leone del Mugello, "The Lion of Mugello", Nencini was a powerful all-rounder, particularly strong in the mountains.

 

He was an amateur painter and a chain smoker. He was a gifted descender. "The only reason to follow Nencini downhill would be if you had a death wish", said the French rider Raphaël Géminiani. It was in trying to follow Nencini down a mountain that Roger Rivière missed a bend, crashed over a wall and broke his spine.

 

This is a photo with a very creative autograph of Nencini!

 

 HEIRI SUTER

(Photo 1926)

 

     Heinrich 'Heiri' Suter (10.07.1899  – 06.11.1978) was a professional road racing cyclist from Switzerland. Suter had 58 professional wins, including:·       

Grand Prix Wolber (unofficial world championship) (1922, 1925)

Road champion of Switzerland: (1920, 1921, 1922, 1926, 1929)

Motor-paced champion of Switzerland: (1932, 1933)

Züri-Metzgete: (1919, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929)

Paris–Tours: (1926, 1927)

Paris–Roubaix (1923)

Tour of Flanders (1923)

Bordeaux–Paris (1925)

 

This photo is one of the jewels of my personal collection!

 

 

MAX BULLA

 

Max Bulla (September 26, 1905–March 1, 1990) was an Austrian professional road bicycle racer.

 

In the 1931 Tour de France, Bulla won three stages and wore the yellow jersey for one day. In 1933 he was the overall winner of the first Tour de Suisse.