Pic of the Day 15th May, 2006
Seventy-Nine Years Ago - Bordeaux-Paris, 1927
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Click pic for larger image.
Today's image shows all eleven participants in the 1927 Bordeaux-Paris, but of particular interest is the map showing the course, key cities, distances, ravitaillements (feeding stations). Also shown are the section covered without motorcycle pacers (dashed line), section covered with motos (heavy solid line), and period of the race covered in darkness (parallel horizontal lines from Barbezieux to Couhé-Vérac). Note how the parallel lines are spaced closer together during the darkest part of the night, but are spaced farther apart after sunset and approaching dawn.
Riders shown are: 1.Adelin Benoit (2nd); 2.Ottavio Bottecchia (dropped
on the côte de Sainte-Maure);
3.Gustave Van Slembrouck (3rd - dropped by the leaders in Chevilly after
stopping to change gears, was unable to rejoin); 4.Ferdinand Le Drogo
(7th); 5.Julien Delbecque (4th); 6.René Gérard (abandoned after
Montlouis); 7.Georges Ronsse (winner); 8.Achille Souchard (6th);
9.Léopold Matton (8th); 10.Odile Tailleu (crashed with his pacer,
abandoned at Châtellerault, ended up in hospital); 11.Lucien Buysse
(5th). 11 starters, 8 finishers.
>From "Le Miroir des Sports" No.370/706, 17 May 1927, pg 306.
Aldo Ross
Middletown, Ohio