[CR]Gitane Tour de France Model year?

(Example: Events:Eroica)

From: "Andrew Gorski" <afgorski@msn.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 18:24:00 -0700
Subject: [CR]Gitane Tour de France Model year?

I am restoring my old Gitane Tour de France which I bought new as a teenager sometime shortly before 1973. The bike is currently having the paint and decals recreated. I am trying to accurately identify the year of manufacture, as and I want to put the bike's model name & year in a new small decal on the toptube. I think the year of manufacture was 1972, but it could have been a year or two earlier. There is a very distinctive large foil decal on the seattube. In this decal there are 4 distinctive graphics: (1) a classy light blue map of France, (2) a circular solid light blue 'globe' with white-grid lines, two white & black checkered flags and gold "S" & "C" letters (for Service Course), (3) the name "Gitane", and (4) some black printed French words including "Champion de France", "Champion du Monde", etc.). Can anyone help me identify the Year of this bike based on this distinctive decal? If you email me your e-mail address, I can e-mail you some nice color photos of the seattube with decal (not of the whole frame) so you can closely inspect the graphics for dating. Thanks.

Andy Gorski in Seattle
afgorski@msn.com