Tour De France

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 393, 29 June 1928, Page 10

Tour De France

FAMOUS CYCLE ROAD i I CLASSIC WILL BE TEST OF | ' TEAM WORK. ! _j CHANCES OF AUSTRALASIANS The world’s greatest cycle road classic, the Tour de France, of 3,360 miles, is now in full swing, and 169 picked road riders are racing round France in a desperate struggle for the classic honours attached to this great road event. Starting last Sunday week at 9 a.m. from Levesinet (Paris), on the first stage of their long journey, competitors will have 22 stages to complete, averaging 157 miles daily, before finally reaching Paris, about July 15. New Zealand’s representative in this big event is H. Q. Watson, Christchurch, and together with H. Opperman, E. Bainbridge and P. Osborne, make up the Australasian team. It is just as well to know, however, that unless the Australian team has joined up with some other team, they have iittle chance of winning, as the five big teams mentioned, Alcyon, J. B. Lovet, Alleluia, Ravet and Fontau, have their full teams composed of ten riders riding for them. Thus it can easily be seen that no four riders starting ten minutes behind a team of ten good riders has any chance of picking them up. That is the reason why the cable man sent us the following: *‘lt is almost impossible for our team to compete adequately without a larger team.” There is always a chance that most of the teams will be broken up before' reaching the 9.000 ft. passes over which the riders have to go, and it is here that this race is won or lost. If our riders can beat the Frenchmen at their own game, “mountaineering on bicycles,” here we have a chance; if they can’t, we will be among the “also starteds.” —“Velos.” At the start of the seventh section, the Vannis-Tes Sablis run of 177 miles (the longest stage so far) there were 116 starters, which means that already 43 riders have dropped out, and as there are 14 more stages to complete, it can be seen what a strenuous time all competitors are having. The extreme heat in this section caused many riders to suffer from fatigue.