I was interested to read Nick's account of the Peugeot bike that he bought recently from Eugene Letendre of Asnieres, in the Paris suburbs, and look f orward to receiving some jpegs of it.
It is presumably the one that I was interested in, and that had been up for auction several times on French Ebay. I had been in touch with the seller, Eugene's son, and he had said that a letter from his father testifying t o the bike's provenance would be provided with the frame...and the close co nnection between Eugene and Jean Robic is well documented in the French cyc ling Press. Letendre Junior also described the Peugeot to me as the one t hat his father had ridden in the Tour de France, Classics etc. etc.
The Ebay bike was, as I remember, one of the Peugeot Pro models sprayed in white enamel with the black chequers on it, like the ones that Tom Simpson used to ride, and it was equipped with a Stronglight 49 (i think) chainset, Simplex gears, Mafac brakes. Haviong just been rereading up about Robic an d Letendre I noticed that Letendre aws last a member of the Peugeot team in 1960, at a time when the jerseys were still blue and yellow...the white wi th black chequers on not being introduced until 1963, the year that Simpson joined the team.
It would seem to me that Letendre's last team bike would have been painted dark blue enamel with its Nervex lugs picked out in yellow..and not one of those white ones. Somewhere I have a photo of Robic lining up for that last Grand Prix des Gentilhommes...on Letendre's bike. I have no doubt that Nick's bike was Eugene Letendre's but whether it was his Team Peugeot-BP on e, I have some doubts. However it is more than likely the bike that poor and unfortunate Robic too k his last bike race on...
Noris Lockley..Settle UK.