Its strange how putting a pair of Lyotard Berthet pedals onto ebay has sparked off another of my pet subjects. For a number of years I have been trying to research the life of Eugene Christophe for a writing project, with absolutely no luck except for the same couple of paragraphs relating to the five mile trek down the Tourmalet with his bike to fix it at the local blacksmiths. The result being a time penalty because a young boy held the bellows while he fixed the fork himself. This is the common myth and is well recorded.
That is as far as I get. I've trawled all known cycle books, the Net etc etc. Even sent letters to anyone still existing with the Christophe surname in France. The fact the Christophe's cycling career spanned a decade from 11 years and these included the First World War - In 1919 he was the first yellow jersey wearer, and again had to do a roadside fix - there must be something out there that I've missed. I reckon that there's a lot more to this character. If anyone on the list has come across any more information than that I would love to hear from them. Has anyone stumbled across mention of a home town or a museum? A T de F history source I've missed? Any book references? I would be most grateful. By all means contact me off topic. Alternatively share it!
From David Blight in Devon, England (eighty miles down the road from Hilary) where this year there have been hardly any American tourists around to witness this year's wonderful golden autumn mists on Dartmoor. Come on over! Foot and mouth is now a distant memory and there's plenty of room around the log fires in moorland pubs! (Apologies to the webmaster for this unashamadely and apparently unusually welcoming plug for the UK tourist industry).