Tour de France - Symbol of Freedom

Will there be a more enduring symbol of freedom than the Tour de France this summer? One hundred years ago between June 28^th and July 26^th 1914 the twelfth Tour was taking place. A week after it had finished Germany had invaded Belgium and declared war on France, making the 1914 Tour the last for five years.

 

Former Tour de France champions Francois Faber, Lucien Petit-Breton and Octave Lapize would all die in the conflict.

Happily the winner of the 1914 Tour Philippe Thys would survive and win again in 1920.

How marvellous it was this last week to see the Tour enjoying the freedom to wend its way through the battlefields.