[CR]c. 1929/30 FONTAN BICYCLE OF PAU (TOUR DU FRANCE).

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
To: "CR" <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]c. 1929/30 FONTAN BICYCLE OF PAU (TOUR DU FRANCE).
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 15:02:06 -0500


Jan Heine appears to be misleading when he states:

"Fontan suffered from saddle sores and abandoned on stage 9. " and "Especially since Fontan never even wore the yellow jersey. See the VBQ article or a short history of the Tour at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/veloarchive/races/tour/1930.htm" and "In most cases, the pros rented out their names, and weren't involved with the bike production, especially in France."

I wouldn't want to question the veracity of such a well-researched factual publication such as VBQ (now called VQ if I am not mistaken), but it would seem that Fontan did actually win the yellow jersey upon his arrival at the conclusion of the 9th stage of the 1929 Tour in Luchon. He then started the 10th stage to Perpignan and crashed and broke his fork (the story that began this whole story line) on the Cote de Cazeau while wearing the yellow jersey. These facts will be verified by Aldo's check of his stash of magazines, as well as any number of online web-sites. Here is just one that I casually selected: http://bearncyclespoir.free.fr/PAU%20et%20le%20TDF.pdf

In 1930, hence a completely different story, that is in no way related to the story of the broken fork, Fontan did indeed retire during the 9th stage.

As far as the Fontan bike brand goes, a check through the archives will show that I have previously posted that Elvish bicycles were indeed marketed under the Fontan brand. The maker was however generally identified as Elvish on the bikes. In the article that can be found at the link given above, one can also read that Elvish bikes were created by Fontan, so not a "rented" name as stated by Jan. Elvish was still producing bikes in Pau well into the 80's and may still exist today for all I know. In the same article it also states that the Hendaye-Luchon stage that is evocated on Tim's bike's model name, was neither from the 1929 Tour where Fontan took his Yellow Jersey, nor in the 1930 Tour. It was indeed in the 1928 Tour and a monster of a stage at that: 387 km!

Tim's bike is therefore post-1928 and was likely built as an identical replica of Fontan's own bike. It was also built by Fontan's bike company Elvish.

I find that Tim's bike is truly a bike "dans son jus" as the French say (in its own gravy), meaning that it is well used and original.

Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA