Pic of the Day 16 August 2009
Bobet's Bobet Bike, 1955 Tour de France
Hi Jerry et al,
Re: Mercier bikes and the TdF...
I'll start with 1955, since it is the easiest. The cover of "Vous Fait Revivre: Le Tour (1955) has a nice image of Bobet and Gaul. It is probably "colorized", but they were pretty good at getting the correct colors in the right places (fans were probably just as picky then as they are today). Bobet's bike is yellow with blue seattube panel, and World Champion stripes in several places.
Another image (b&w) shows a three-quarter shot from the drive side. Note his mechanic is still mounting the rear qr lever on the drive side. Not a perfect print, but I'll leave it large for details - you can even make-out the lacing pattern on his shoe!. Note the head lugs and fork crown details. Someone will have to remind me who built Bobet's personal bikes.
Click pics for larger images.
I'll cover 1937 next time, and then 1930 & 1932 - right now we're off to see the ATP Women's Tennis Finals.
http://aldoblog2008.blogspot.com/
Aldo Ross
Middletown, Ohio, USA
"Requests? We love requests!"
<avitzur@013.net> Cc: "Nick March" <nicbordeaux@yahoo.fr> Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 7:17 PM Subject: [CR] Mercier TdF Winners?
After further research, I'm not so certain about my answer that Mercier never won the TdF. Wikipedia says that riders from the Mercier team won the 1937 and 1955 TdF. That would be Roger Lapebie and Louison Bobet. But in those years the TdF was contested by national teams, so technically the Mercier team did not win. I don't know if either Lapebie or Bobet was riding a pink Mercier while competing on the French national team. Anyone know if the TdF riders used the bikes provided by their trade teams when riding for national teams? In Bobet's case it is possible he rode a Louison Bobet frame as I believe he did much of his career - don't know who made those. It was also mentioned that Mercier founder Emile Mercier long sponsored Andre Leducq who won the Tour in 1930 and 1932, in the national team era. But it was also said the Mercier team started in 1935. Don't know if Mercier might have sponsored Lequcq individually in his winning years or whether he rode a Mercier. Evidently there was a long, bitter and public feud between Emile Mercier and Henri Desgrange over Desgrange once leaving LeDucq off the French team for the TdF.
This seems the perfect reseach project for Aldo. Aldo can you delve into those archives of yours and dredge up some photos of Leducq and Lapebie in their winning TdF's and of Bobet in the 1955 Tour? We may not be able to tell if the bikes were pink, though, in those black & white photos.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA