May 2010

Long-time friend and customer of Condor Cycles Jeff Banks recently ordered this year's Leggero in white.

Opting for the newer, more compliant rear end, the bike is also adorned with the new Shimano electronic  groupset.

Frame: Condor Leggero 2010 White 49cm.
Fork: Deda Nero Supremacy, full carbon.
Groupset: Shimano Dura Ace Di2 Electronic.
Wheels: Dura Ace 1350 Carbon-Laminates shod with Continental GP4000's in Ltd. Edition White.
Bars: Pro Vibe White
Stem: Pro Vibe White
Seatpost: Pro Vibe White
Saddle: Fi'zi;k Arione White

To see the rest of the set, visit our flickr here

Condor and Science in Sport, the leaders in Sports Nutrition, have joined forces and produced a special edition Rapha Condor Sharp team issue bottle and for every bottle sold Condor Cycles will donate 50p to Sharp4Prostate.

The men in black’s relationship with the Prostate Cancer Charity began at the 2009 Tour of Britain where the Sharp4Prostate logo appeared on the team jersey. In connection with the charity, Sharp4Prostate aims to raise awareness throughout the cycling community of the most common cancer in men.

The new fundraising bottle is part of a wider initiative of Sharp UK’s Managing Director, Paul Molyneux who is raising £100,000 for The Prostate Cancer Charity. Paul and his team of four, will be completing the gruelling Race Across America (RAAM) starting on June 12th, a 3,000 mile cycling race from the West to East coast of the USA, taking in 14 states in just seven days – 430 miles a day and climbing to heights of over 100,000 feet.

The new bottles feature the team logos and a splash of pink in keeping with the distinctive team colours. The bottles are available in two sizes 600ml (£3.99) featuring a wide mouth top making it easy to mix up Science in Sport energy powder without making a sticky mess and an 800ml (£4.99) with traditional top.

Visit http://www.sharp4prostate.org/ for more information on the Sharp4Prostate mission

For more on the Rapha Condor Sharp team click here

Fast and furious. The first round of the Tour Series kicked off last night and Rapha Condor Sharp team took home the overall leaders jersey.

The performance on the night put paid to any jet-lag the team may be suffering. The pace was high from the very start, and any escapes that did form were quickly pulled back on the 1km circuit, shaped like an elongated rectangle with tied turns at either end and the landmark Canada Tower, still Britain’s tallest building, in the centre. Dean 'The Duke' Windsor won one of the intermediate sprints and Graham Briggs took points in several of the other intermediate sprints on the night. Dean Downing former National Criterium Champion finished 3rd.

The team now travel to Durham for the next round on Thursday.

 

If you weren't able to watch the racing then tune tonight (26th May - 7pm) ITV 4 for coverage of all the racing from the opening night.

Other races in the series    

• DURHAM - Thursday 27th May
• PORTSMOUTH -Tuesday 1st Jun
• EXETER - Thursday 3rd Jun
• SOUTHPORT -Tuesday 8th Jun
• KETTERING -Thursday 10th Jun
• PETERBOROUGH -Tuesday 15th Jun
• STOKE-ON-TRENT -Thursday 17th Jun
• CHESTER -Monday 21st Jun
• WOKING -Thursday 24th Jun

Rapha Condor is pleased to announce a series of circuit races at the Hog Hill circuit in East London. The races will take place during May, June and July and guarantee cycling fans an action packed summer as they sprint for the line.

The races will be on the following Saturdays – please click on the race dates to enter on the RiderHQ website:

• 15th May
• 29th May
• 12th June
• 26th June
• 10th July
• 17th July

Online race entry E/1/2/3/4: £12.00

On the day entry E/1/2/3/4: £12.00 (£12.00 Club members)

LVRC (over-40s) entry on the day: £8.00

Juniors entry on the day: £6.00

Six races will be run on each race day

• 12:00 – EFGH – 35 minutes (lower circuit) plus 3 laps
• 13:00 – AB – 45 minutes (lower circuit) plus 3 laps
• 13:01 – CD – 45 minutes (lower circuit) plus 3 laps

Seniors

• 14:00 – 3rd and 4th Cat – 40 mins plus 3 laps
• 14.01 – Elite, 1, 2, 3, 4 Women – 40 mins plus 3 laps
• 15.30 – Elite, 1, 2, 3 Men – 50 mins plus 3 laps

Prize money

LVRC (prizes per age category): 1st – £10, 2nd – £8, 3rd – £5

3/4’s & Women: 1st – £20, 2nd – £15, 3rd – £10

Junior 1st place prize – £10

E/1/2/3: 1st – £40, 2nd – £25, 3rd – £15

Overall series winner prizes

• E/1/2 – Giro glasses and Shimano racing shoes (valued at £200)
  
• Women – Specialized women’s helmet (valued at £100)
  
• 3/4 – Specialized racing shoes (valued at £100)
  
• LVRC A/B – Retail voucher for £60 (£30 at Condor/£30 at Rapha)
  
• LVRC C/D – Retail voucher for £60 (£30 at Condor/£30 at Rapha)
  
• LVRC E/F/G/H – Retail voucher for £60 (£30 at Condor/£30 at Rapha)
  
• LVYCC youth races will be held in the morning from 10am.

The series will take place at the state of the art £4.5 million Redbridge cycling center, benefitting from London’s successful Olympic bid. The races will offer participants the chance to emulate their heroes as they battle for victory.

Rouleur 18 steps away from the traditional magazine it has grown to be.

For the latest issue there are 172 pages of Grand Tour themed stories but for a magazine focusing on the Tour. However Rouleur breaks from the norm of the usual cycling magazines and thankfully there is not top ten preidction or route around France in sight.

The articles discuss the inner workings of a Grand Tour with interviews with the people who look after the best riders in the world.
The usual columnists and a few special guests make an appearance and there are exclusive and unique photographs and illustrations.

Rouleur 18 - Grand Tours guide
On sale  at Condor Cycles - 2nd June

What are you doing here? Bill Strickland & Taz Darling
Climberspeak Robert MillarService Course Guy Andrews & Gerard Brown
Grimpeur Jack Thurston
Mountains Graeme Fife & Pete DrinkellBaroudeur Matt Seaton
Garde Républicaine Graeme Fife & Gerard Brown
Ian Steel Herbie Sykes & Ben Ingham
Sprinteur William Fotheringham
Soigneurs Ian Cleverly & Yazuka Wada
Mechanic Guy Andrews
One Day in July Richard Mitchelson
Rouleur Johnny Green

Twenty-seven year old Namibian champ Dan Craven notched up another epic win at the weekend to continue his winning streak in Ireland.

Just two weeks after his win at the Shay Elliot memorial race Craven returned to the Emerald Isle to out sprint seven others to take the yellow jersey at the FBD Insurance RAS. In the stage from Dunboyne and Dundalk a break formed early and Craven jumped across to join the escapees. Whilst he had the legs to take the gallop he also scored second on each of the days intermediate sprints.

Dan explained how the race went for him "After 15km I jumped across on my own to a break of 7, most of the big teams had one rider each. After about 80km two riders came across, so then all big teams were represented. We worked really well together which was actually rather surprsing." The Chas Messenger winner continued, "on the last King of the Mountains (KOM) I broke away with the David Pell  from Drapac Porsche and finally won a KOM. We stayed away for 10km but 15km to the finish six of the initial break caught back up to us, once again we worked together really well. I attacked twice in the final 3km, my last attack was chased down by Mark McNally who kept going once he caught and passed me, he just kept going so I had a free ride for about 500meters in which time the 6 guys also latched back onto us. I started my sprint very late, somehow did not realize how close we were to the line but was still able to come around for the win as well as taking all the jerseys besides the young riders one."

Nice one Dan, we reckon you're going to be pretty hot in all three jerseys on todays stage.

Overall standings after stage one

1. Dan Craven (Rapha Condor Sharp) 3 hours 28 mins 12 secs
2. Mark McNally (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 7 secs
3. Kit Gilham (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) at 11 secs
4. Masakki Kikuchi (Japan – Nippo) at 12 secs
5. David Pell (Australia Drapac Porsche) same time
6. Andrew Roche (Motorpoint Marshall’s Pasta) at 16 secs
7. Lucas Schadlich (Germany Thuringer Energie)
8. Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) both same time
9. John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 2 mins 2 secs
10. Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche)
11. Vincente Grau Jorda (Burgos 2016-Castilla y Leon)
12. Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis)
13. Rob Partridge (Wales)
14. Stuart Shaw (Australia Drapac Porsche)
15. John Anderson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) all same time

• For more on the race click here
• Find out more about Rapha Condor Sharp team here
• Click here to find out more about the Condor Leggero bike ridden by Dan Craven

National Champion Kristian House solo'd to a win in the mountains on stage six of the Tour of Japan. Congrats.

Stage 6 of the race took place in and around the Japanese Keirin School, a vast site that boasts, 3 outdoor all weather velodromes, BMX, 4X, Downhill and cross country courses as well as the 12km road circuit around which today's stage would roll. In addition, if all that failed to entertain, the venue is also home to a theme park, crazy golf course and no doubt many other delights we didn’t have time to sample this time around.

Hard work by Darren Lampthorne saw him in the lone breakaway tapping out a rhythm no one could match. Sat into a chase group was team mate Kristian House.
As the race rolled passed 86 kilometres of 100. Kristian attacked and Darren played the role of team mate sitting on thechasers wheels as they attempted to claw back the Dude.

Gradually Kristians lead increased over the next few kilometers until at 85km and 15 left to race he had a 30 second advantage over his chasers and a further 45 over the main bunch.

Team Assistant Paul Rowlands explained "As the bunch passed the 500m to go  banner we finally heard the words we’d wanted as race radio announced 'race number 11 Kristian House of Rapha Condor wins."

The team at Condor send their best wishes to Kristian, Darren and the team who have proven on more than one occasion that their is no I in Team.

One fact that has been proven that here on Grays Inn Road, London we make the Condor Leggero and it can compete with brands from across the globe.

Dempster third on the rain

The seventh and final stage of the Tour of Japan was a fast criterium around downtown Tokoyo.  A fitting end to a great race.
In stark contrast to the previous day there was torrential rain throughout the stage.

Breaks came and went but only managed to create a 10 second gap over the bunch. At 75 km gone a group containing Kristian and Dean Downing escaped and looked like it would stick but within the final lap it all came together for a final sprint.

With four criterium specialists in the race this was an ideal opportunity for Rapha Condor Sharp to test their leadout train in advance of the forthcoming Tour Series races and the team didn’t disappoint as Zak Dempster popped up to take third place on this rain soaked stage. A fitting end to a memorable and successful race for Rapha Condor Sharp.

You can read the full race write up from each stage, see team interviews and more pictures on the team website www.raphacondorsharp.cc

Thirty five riders lined up under a hot Surrey sun for the 2010 edition of the Women’s South East Road Race championships on Saturday, 22nd May.

Roads were quiet and the pace of the race began at a fairly low tempo as riders had been advised of poor road surfaces on some parts of the course. After two laps, the riders were settled in and Emily Bagnel (Kingston) started the attacking and was joined by Claire Beaumont (Rapha Condor) and Nikki Juniper (Ciclos Uno).
With some five laps to go, it was a testament to the good legs in the chasing peloton that the break wasn’t able to escape. Soon after, attacks came thick and fast with a representation from all the main teams including Zappi's, Rapha Condor, Kingston Wheelers and Pearson's. Nikki Juniper (Ciclos Uno) was one of the main drivers of the race along with Maryka Sennema (Kingston Wheelers) and as they tried to force breaks with other teams as did Rapha Condor.

Into the final laps and the flat course profile meant that the split was not going to happen. The riders realised that a bunch sprint would decide the race and the attack subsided. With one lap to go, Clare Galloway of team Zappi stepped up the pace and strung out the rest once more, wearing down riders legs and reducing the group to around 20 riders who would be left to contest the final sprint.

Into the final bend, there was a kick from Team Zappi and Emma Patterson (London Dynamo) as the sprint wound up from quite a way out. The eventual winner of the South East Champs title was Lucy Chittenham with Pearson's Elise Laverrick claiming second over Rapha Condor's Claire Beaumont.

Rapha Condor women’s team is in full support of the BC campaign to keep racing on the road. Register your support here. Rapha Condor riders and DS would like to thank today's commissaire for running a safe race and the motorbike out riders for aiding the race.

As technology moves on Condor does so too and since 1950's founder Monty Young has produced a bike catalogue for the latest road bike range.

Looking back through the archieves Rapha weren't the first to use pink and black.

The 80's catalogue features the Condor Italia road bike still part of the Condor range , however the frame has been updated since it was first designed. In comparison the Condor TTTurbo was an out and out time trial bike.

The seatstay is cut out so the rear wheel can sit inside the frame to create a shorter wheelbase.
Cut outs have been made along the top tube to make it lighter and frame strengthened by liners.

The team are currently in Osaka at the Tour of Japan where six of the squad will take part in this stage race set over 7 days, beginning on Sunday.

Darren Lampthorne is currently 3rd on the GC after two tough stages with a solid team display in support.

You can follow the team's progress on the Rapha Condor Sharp Team on their website

Tomorrow sees the riders take on the 160km Mino stage, a little longer than today but no less relentless in its severity. Hopefully we’ll have twitter back up and running in time for that. Follow them on Twitter via www.twitter.com/raphacondor

A12,388ft Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, it is part of a three mountain range call the "Three Holy Mountains" on a clear day can be seen west from Tokyo.

Mount Fuji was the playground for the Rapha Condor Sharp team as the peloton tackled its tough ascent for stage 5 of the Tour of Japan.

For the sprinters Deano, The Duke and Briggsy the stage was about surviving and making the cut. As for National Champ Kristian House and Darren Lampthorne they wanted to maintain their position on GC.

Team asisstant Paul Rowlands picks up the story as the car driven by Team DS, John Herety catches up with the riders who are away.

"On we accelerated and before we hit 5km to go we caught sight of Darren ahead of us fighting hard to limit his losses on what was clearly not going to be his best ever day on a bike, speaking after the finish Darren explained what had happened out on the mountain after we’d initially heard his number mentioned amongst the leaders on race radio:

“I just pushed myself a little too hard to stay with the leaders and then the light went out about half way up and I could never recover properly, I just couldn’t stay with them in the end."

It’s a sobering sight to see a rider give their all from the vantage point of the team car on a climb like today’s. Nothing you can do to assist, no words you can say that will lessen the pain, you just drive and hope, willing them forward, hoping they won’t crack. The ride by Darren today showed why he’s such a good rider and why he’s worthy to lead the Rapha Condor Sharp team. Many riders sit up when they realise it’s not their day, Darren used every muscle in his body to grind out a result today, justifying the work done by his team mates over the last week and representing the Rapha Condor Sharp jersey with honour."

With another hard, hilly day tomorrow and a fast and furious stage around Tokyo to wrap up, there’s something for everyone in this team before the end of the race.

Get live updates from the Tour of Japan by following the team via Twitter @raphacondor
For more news and photos from the Tour of Japan visit http://www.raphacondorsharp.cc/

Condor has deep seated roots in supporting and sponsoring cycling teams and riders.

The sixties was the era of the Condor Mackeson team and Condor bikes were ridden on the track in world cups and the Olympics. Names such as Hugh Porter (1968 World Pursuit Champion), Colin Lewis, Dave Bonner and Tom Simpson all graced the track on Condors.

Mackeson Stout is a dark sweet beer also known as also known as milk stout because it contains lactose, a sugar derived from milk. The stout was believed to be a great recovery drink, one of the first sports drinks. Soon the world of science was getting involved in improving sporting performance and by the seventies riders were no longer necking stout post-race.

In the 1970s Condor supported the legendary Milk Race, then in the 1980s became the bike sponsor for the UK Pro team Percy Bilton that featured National Road Race Champion John Herety.

Through the 1990s team sponsorship continued in th e form of the AngliaSport-Condor team and individual sponsorship of promising riders, most notably Olympic medallist Bradley Wiggins.

Cycling Weekly magazine paid a visit to Condor Mackeson rider Dave Bonner at his home in Andalusia to get the low down on what it was like racing in the sixties and find out more about his Spanish training route in Sierra Bermeja.

Cycling Weekly is on sale today priced at £2.65

Speaking after his win Chris Newton said "I love riding my bike as much as ever", and it shows, and the fantastic win follows a succession of victories by the Rapha Condor Sharp team who have proven that there is no 'I' in team.

Early this month Dan Craven finished four minutes ahead of the pack at the Chas Messenger while his team mates Darren Lapthorne and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke secured a second and third place. Earlier in the season, Dean Downing sprinted his way to first at the Tour of Taiwan and the team competed against Pro Tour teams at the Tour of Battenkill, America's version of the Paris-Roubaix. While the team was stuck in New York (thanks to ash clouds) Dan Craven rode the dusty CiCle Classic, riding back from 2 punctures to score second place in UK's very own classics race.

There were highs at the Tour of Doon Hame in Scotland, which saw Chris Newton win overall and success in stage victories at the Tour of the North in Ireland for younger rider Matt Cronshaw.
Today they head out to Japan for a week of racing before heading back to the UK for the Tour Series.
The riders are firmly perched on the tried and tested Condor Leggero, a frame that can do it all from stage races to criteriums. The team ride standard stock frame sizes with Shimano Dura-Ace, PRO components, and Fizik custom team colour saddles. Find out more about the team bike below...

The Bike

aims to achieve exceptional standards of both style and quality. Team riders were closely involved in the development of the bicycles, not only for professional use but also for consumers. Each tube is cut and wrapped by hand in our factory in Italy, and strengthened using strategically-placed pieces of carbon. The carbon tubesets are produced in Japan by world leader Toho Tenax using nano technology.

Technical Detail

• Frame weight: 900g.
• Carbon tubeset made using four layers of uni-directional and two directional high modulus carbon layers. Resin contains nano pieces of carbon. This is compressed and resin is forced out while the carbon pieces randomly fill gaps in the fibre. Tubing can be made thinner and lighter whilst increasing strength.Using nano technology, the nano pieces of carbon are randomly dispersed so stress won’t travel in straight lines, providing a more comfortable ride.
• New cut out rear section for increased compliancy.
• Deda Nero Supermacy full carbon monocoque fork.
• Full Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 groupset (some riders will use Shimano Di2 groupset).
• Shimano Dura Ace deep section wheelsets (may vary according to the event).
• PRO bars and stems wrapped with Fizik custom pro bar tape.
• Custom team edition Fizik Arione saddle with pink, white and black detailing.
• Tyres supplied by Continental.
• PRO Vibe carbon seatpost.
• Elite bottle cages and custom Science in Sport water bottles.
• Available in crisp white. Limited number available in Rapha Condor team colours.

Le Métier is an honest and sometimes touching look into the life, the trials and the tribulations as well as the triumphs, of a cycling domestique.

As a professional cyclist, Barry has lived the dream that many an aspiring racer covets – worldwide travel in the heady atmosphere of professional bike racing and all that it brings. Michael is also a pro cycling rarity in that he has an immense talent for writing and it is the coupling of these two aspects of his life that are now captivating readers of his books and print and online columns.

His poignant prose, which has also been featured in the New York Times, and Camille’s atmospheric photography create a volume that gives the reader a rare glance into the fascinating and occasionally strange world of professional cycling.??Such writing and emotion can be felt through many of the book’s passages:??“In the middle of the peloton, there is a surge in speed. With it the riders move into a long single line and each one of us jumps out of the saddle to accelerate. The increase in pain is uniform throughout the bunch. Each rider feels a burn in his legs. Our expressions twist into grimaces as our bodies tense with the stress of the effort.

To attain the level of fitness to achieve abnormal physical heights, each rider has committed his life to the races. The spectators and the television audience who watch us from a distance cannot see the professional cyclist’s suffering and sacrifice.”

Le Metier is in store now - priced at £35

 

It's nearly Grand Tour season, kicking off first with the Giro before the toughest tour around France.

To celebrate, Condor are hosting a book signing in the store on Wednesday 12th May, with two best selling authors, William Fotheringham and Graeme Fife. Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the twentieth century, Fausto Coppi was the campionissimo - champion of cycling champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate postwar years, Coppi’s scandalous divorce and controversial death convulsed Italy in the 1950s and were still making headlines half a century later.

William Fotheringham's, "Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi", provides the definitive English-language account of Coppi's life off and on the bike, including this excerpt about Coppi's tumultuous 1949 Tour de France.

Below is an excerpt from William Fotheringham's latest book:

After Bartali had won the 1948 Tour and taken seven stage wins along the way, Coppi had told his gregario Ettore Milano that if he didn't win the 1949 Tour he would give up - he was sick, he said of hearing people talking about Bartali's win on the radio. In the event he came within an ace of ignominious failure. Just five days after the race began, he was standing by a roadside in the depths of Normandy, holding a broken bike, and asking plaintively if he could go home. It was the greatest crisis of his career, with his vulnerable side brutally exposed. The most dominant cyclist of that generation was also a fragile man who was easily destabilised.

Coppi had begun his Tour with a tour of his own, a trip around the sights of Paris on his bike. By stage five, which ran over 293 kilometres from Rouen to Saint Malo in blazing heat, the Italians were not showing well; both Coppi and Bartali were 18 minutes behind the race leader, the Frenchman Jacques Marinelli. But on that day, Binda ordered his Italians to go on the attack, and Coppi worked his way into what looked like the stage-winning escape. Best of all, he left Bartali well behind him, in a tactical fix: the older man could not set up a chase, because he could not ride against his own team mate.

As the race passed through the village of Mouen, with 100 miles remaining to the finish and the lead over the peloton already 10 minutes, disaster struck. Marinelli reached for a bottle that was being held out to him by a spectator, he wobbled and fell, taking Coppi with him and entangling both their bikes. The Italian's machine was a broken wreck: forks twisted, tyre forced off the back wheel, front wheel broken, the chain in the spokes.

That should have mattered little: showing considerable foresight, Binda had asked the Tour organisers to allow him a second team car to provide service in the event of his riders having mechanical problems, on the grounds that he had two leaders, who might be in different places on the road. So there was a car behind Coppi, and in it was his Bianchi directeur sportif, Tragella, who was on the Tour as Binda's assistant. But the only spare bike Tragella had was too small. Coppi's spare was with Binda, who had stopped at the feeding zone in order to ensure Bartali got his lunch. No less than seven minutes had passed by the time Binda caught up, to find Coppi and Tragella standing by the roadside, looking as he put it, "like two dogs that have been beaten with sticks". Coppi was certain that his race was over.

It was down to Binda and the other Italians to keep Coppi going. But merely getting him started again required Binda to use all his persuasive powers. Initially he tried compulsion, warning him that if he stopped without his permission, he would be fined. That failed and the manager resorted to white lies, telling Coppi that he himself had retired from races in this kind of situation, and had always regretted it. This was fantasy, but the situation was desperate: Coppi would not respond. Eventually, like a parent negotiating with a toddler, Binda told him that if he rode as far as the finish, he could go home the following morning, if he still wanted to.

Binda's next step was to make Bartali wait; he knew that Coppi would be stimulated by the idea that Bartali might win if he went home. Initially Bartali pedalled alongside, "alternating persuasion and insults", he recalled. "It was like talking to a wall. Then I got angry. ‘I'm going home', Fausto said. And I replied ‘my fine boy, how are you going to look to your fans? You're giving up. Goodbye glory, goodbye cash, no one will take you seriously any more. You wanted me to stay at home for this Tour and what do you do, you give up on the fifth stage?'"

There were a total of 18 Italians in the race, split into two teams: the national team itself (who actually wore jerseys in the red-green-white of Italy rather than the sky blue of today), and the cadetti, a team of younger riders.

One of the latter, Alfredo Martini, told me that once Coppi was with the bunch again, he told the Italians not to bother chasing the leaders, although they tried several times. The race, Coppi said, was over as far as he was concerned. "He said" - and Martini suddenly lapses into the throaty Ligurian patois, half French, half Italian - "I might as well be at home under an umbrella with a cold beer."

Coppi was not even willing to stick with the peloton, and when he drifted off the back, Binda asked another Italian, Mario Ricci, to wait and escort him to the finish. There was more psychology here. Ricci was an old friend of Coppi's from his Legnano days and was also the best-placed Italian overall. Asking him to give up his own chances was a way of making Coppi aware that his status in the team was not being challenged. But even as he rode, Coppi continued to repeat that the Tour was a madhouse, and he was going home. At the finish on the St Malo outdoor cycling track, he had the body language of a man defeated: drooping shoulders, ponderous footsteps. He was almost 19 minutes behind the stage winner, Ferdi Kubler, and a massive 37 minutes behind Marinelli, and the Italian team's next job was to persuade him to stay in the race overnight. That took a concerted effort led by Binda.

It was, says former gregario Ettore Milano, a chaotic evening in the team hotel just outside St Malo: some of the team in tears, imprecations and curses flying through the air.

Milano told me: "We said to him, ‘Look mate, we are at war here, we will go on to the end. We don't want to be disrespectful, [pulling out] is not just like being cheated on by your wife, it's like having your balls cut off.' What could we do but joke? We all made him go on. We got round him and made him continue in the race." Milano also pointed out to Coppi that he was marrying shortly and needed money. If Coppi went home, he would have no wedding. Binda again played his man well, persuading Coppi to postpone his departure for a few days, knowing that the next day's stage was relatively easy, the day after that was a rest day, and that in turn was followed by a time trial which "he, the king of racing against the watch, was capable of winning on one leg."

With hindsight, the campionissimo acknowledged that his behaviour was not rational. To his critics, he said, "you try, just once, sitting on the roadside with an unusable bike, with the impression of being terribly alone, and with the knowledge that your rivals are all against you." Coppi told team-mates that in his view Binda and Bartali were in league and the reason his bike was not on the van was because Binda wanted Bartali to win. There was another explanation: Coppi had trouble adapting to the Tour. This was not the schematised, controlled racing of Italy where the gregari looked after things until the campioni took over. "Coppi's morale fell to bits because he realised that the Tour wasn't like the Giro," says Raphael Geminiani, a friend and rival, later a team mate.

"Controlling the Tour was much harder, because everyone went from the gun, everyone was a danger, breaks could get a huge amount of time; it was more chaotic."

There was Coppi's innate need for reassurance, the background of potential double dealing involving Bartali, and the sudden transition from dominance - 10 minutes ahead of the great rival on the road, a massive statement being made - to complete powerlessness.

St Malo marked a turning point: beforehand, Coppi had won only finished first in one major road race outside Italy, the previous year's Het Volk Classic, where the judges disqualified him for being given a wheel by a fellow competitor - another example of the difficulty of racing abroad. The dominant victories that followed, in the next couple of weeks and the next five years, suggested that getting back into the 1949 Tour actually made him a more formidable competitor.