The #TdF2026 is about to cross the Cols d'Aspin + Tourmalet, two of the climbs first crossed when Henri Desgrange discovered the Pyrénées in 1910. Much has been said about that discovery, much of it wrong. Here's a long read on what really happened, based on archival research. Please share.

Heartbreak again 😢

Invited by Desgrange to follow the 1939 #tdf - my great uncle Bill ended up timing a stage - and nearly botched it! I’d like to think he clocked the tour’s first mountain time trial up l’Iseran - his article doesn’t confirm which stage it was #TheBicycle

Augusta Fornasari, who won the second edition of the Corsa al Mare, was a member of the Italian resistance - a partigiano, a partisan - during the war. Take that, Gino Bartali. A long shot, @footymac.bsky.social but has she crossed your radar?

As the frenzy builds for the Grand Départ - a nod to my great uncle who made a British entry into the #tdf possible - and declared by Jean Leulliot to be the first English journalist to have followed the Tour in 1939: L’Auto 1/8/1939

Ferdinand Charron, 1893 🚲🚴🏼‍♀️ #bikesky #bike

Message from @raynerfoundation.bsky.social Please repost And any help “Hi all, looking for help! We are short of volunteers for the Etape du Dales charity event on Sunday 5th July. We are looking for drivers for the sweep vehicle and at the Moorcock feed station. 1/

The dangers of using AI for research but I love that I called Gemini out and it admitted it completely made up the existence of a so called article that Bill wrote 🤣

I’m just back from Paris crisscrossing Bill’s 1947 Paris-London route. I feel like I’ve done enough (for now at least) to revive the race’s legacy and was wondering where to take my research next. Then this popped up in my inbox from a @cyclingweekly.com reader. Linking Bill to Stallard’s BLRC.

A good read - I rode the 9 stages of TdFFaZ 2025 (obvs not in the pro race) - Stage 8 was aptly the Queen. I was a bit broken after Col de la Madeleine! The translation may lose some French historical meaning but to me, the endurance it demands mirrors the historic reigns of Elizabeth I and II.

The logistics of crossing the channel during the 1947 Paris-London stage race. Border control had never stamped so many bikes. It’s not any smoother 79 years on post-Brexit!! 1974 #tdf saw customs chaos when riders were detained in immigration- hope there’s a plan for #tdffaz & #tdf 2027!!

And 79 years ago today Paris-London reached its grand finale with Brit George Fleming crowned as the winner. Bill immediately started work on Paris -London 1948 but it was pulled at the last minute. A shameless plug to read the full story in my article in Cycling Weekly 🤪

On this day 79 years ago it was Stage 2 Paris-London 1947. The race was created by my great uncle Bill as pre-Olympic preparation for the 1948 London Games. Screenshot from the 1947 race programme. Full story in this week’s @cyclingweekly.com !

I may be biased but Paris-London was a triumph - it deserves a place in sporting history. Here’s Bill’s original report of the 1947 race which brings each stage to life. The neat and well-equipped French team rolling up to the start line and the chaos of day 1 is a classic underdog story

Really pleased to have my first article published in Cycling Weekly today. It covers a forgotten race in British cycling history and my family connection to it. Grab a copy if you can and let me know what you think! A big thanks to @cycologies.com and @cyclingweekly.com for your support 🙏🏼

Do not read the ALT text - means you have to read it - but it’s of it’s time and I’m a big believer of NOT sanitising history in order to understand today

In 1947 the promoters of the Tour de France appointed Bill Mills, of THE BICYCLE, to select the individuals for the 5 man British team. A British manufacturer was found to equip them. We know a team didn’t come to fruition until 1955. I wonder what happened?

Hardknott hairpin - I finished my first #FredWhitton! Lost count how many times I looked up on the route and thought wtf?! How on earth am I going to get up that? Insane climbs but what an event to be a part of! The organisers, supporters and volunteers are incredible❤️ and scenery 🤩

Legendary cyclist Beryl Burton training on the Yorkshire Moors, June 1961. Amongst a host of accolades, she rode 277.25 miles (446 km) in 12 hours in 1967, creating a record that wasn't topped by a woman for 50 years - nor by a man for two years. Happy #BicycleBirthday, Beryl! May 12 (1937-1996)

Riding furiously on a bike and the 1947 British League of Racing Cyclists’ test case in defence of mass-start racing substack.com/@thebicycle/...

Someone kindly shared this with me - it’s the gear system that Bill used in Paris-Roubaix 1932 youtu.be/KrU9ZMkQuLo

How I ended up cycling in Bill’s tracks open.substack.com/pub/thebicyc...

I now have in my possession an original 1932 Le Miroir des Sports featuring my great uncle in Paris-Roubaix - love an eBay find ❤️

There are some characters in Bill’s story that keep cropping up - one of them is this chap, Belgian cyclist Jean Aerts. Amateur and World cycling champion, won Bill’s Crystal Palace race, also rescued a girl when fleeing the Nazi invasion. I like his story - will be doing a bit more digging!

My feed was so filled up with the men’s race I actually had to search for a women’s post. So I’m glad to find this one. There’s inequity with the TV coverage but something also wrong with algorithms.

Bill’s Paris-Roubaix memories racing against the Belgian’s in 1932 and my favourite pro-rider winning yesterday got me looking into how many times Belgians have taken the title www.procyclingstats.com/nationrace/b....

I’m having a Wout meltdown 🤣

Wout 🫶🏻 #ParisRoubaix (📸 by me)

Also excited to share that I’ve had my very own Davina McCall ‘Long Lost Family’ moment. Social media has connected me to Bill’s step son - so I have a new family member and some more of Bill’s memories, including this one - a photo of his good friend Sidney Saltmarsh, cycling journalist

Just discovered another race where Bill was part of Oscar Egg’s team. The 240 km Circuit de Paris 5/5/1932. Out of 133 starters, only 24 officially finished, meaning 109 riders retired - Bill grabbed a lift back to Paris in a lorry after puncturing and a long chase after the leading pack

And this is Bill’s article about his bone-shaking experience of Paris-Roubaix 1932

It’s Paris-Roubaix weekend. Heres something I cobbled together (ha ha) about my great-uncle’s 1932 Hell of the North - hope you enjoy it! substack.com/@thebicycle/...

Egg *did* have the French rights for Vittoria, which had been around a few years by 1932. When he got those rights I don't know. But..there is a 1931 French patent application. www.disraeligears.co.uk/site/french_...

This is what the Vittoria gear looked like. You reached down to just above the chain to fiddle with something to change gear.

Crucially, we have a pic of Bill in Paris-Roubaix and if you zoom in on the bottom of his bike you can kinda sorta maybe make out the mechanism, the bottom bit that tensions the chain, and something above that could look like the Vittoria change lever.

When Bill raced Paris-Roubaix in 1932 Oscar Egg gave the team a new piece of kit. Bill described it as “a new change speed gear in which the modus operandi was to back pedal, and shift the change from cog to cog with the bare hands”. I’ve come across 2 possibles (pics)- anyone else got any ideas?

Easter touring editions of The Bicycle. In the days when bikes outnumbered cars 6 to 1, touring was a big part of 1930s cycling life

If the internet goes down, we may have to resort back to pigeons. A little tale from Bill reporting the World Cycling Champs in Belgium, August 1935.

I’ve started a Substack! open.substack.com/pub/thebicyc...

Bill’s 1937 article in The Bicycle reveal riders at Brooklands were given musettes as a participant prize with an explanation of what they are - suggests a 1930s introduction of this item to Britain linked to the Brooklands racing scene?

This has got to be a rare photo - Marguerite Wilson, Billie Dovey and Lilian Dredge - the top female trailblazers of the 1930s in the same frame taken from an article in The Bicycle. #InternationalWomensDay