Great pictures, Brett! These men aren't even wearing arm-warmers! By contrast, all the riders this year seemed to be wearing both arm-warmers and leg-warmers for the first three stages. In the old days, a few racers might wear leg-warmers for the first miles of Bordeaux-Paris (which started at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.), but in what other race? Here's a photo of Bernard Hinault on his way to winning L-B-L in 1980:
http://www.patclearyart.co.uk/
The breed of cyclists has been steadily degenerating!
Mordecai Silver NYC
"Strong from the cradle, of a sturdy brood, We bear our newborn infants to the flood; There bath'd amid the stream, our boys we hold, With winter harden'd, and inur'd to cold." (Virgil's Aeneid, Book 9, Dryden's translation)