Pioneers & Early Era

A deck by Sage Sinclair · 26 cards

The men who built the legend before WWII.

Federico Bahamontes

Federico Martín Bahamontes, born Alejandro Martín Bahamontes, was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist. He won the 1959 Tour de France and a total of 11 Grand Tour stages between 1954 and 1965. He won a total of nine mountain classifications and was the first cyclist to complete a "career triple" by winning the mountain classification in all three Grand Tours. Following his retirement, Bahamontes ran a bicycle and motorcycle shop and was named the best climber in the history of the Tour de France by a panel organised by L'Équipe in 2013.

Hugo Koblet

Hugo Koblet was a Swiss champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional. He died in a car accident amid speculation that he had committed suicide.

Gino Bartali

Gino Bartali,, nicknamed Gino the Pious and Ginettaccio, was a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice, in 1936 and 1937, and the Tour de France in 1938. After the war, he added one more victory in each event: the Giro d'Italia in 1946 and the Tour de France in 1948. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race.

Charly Gaul

Charly Gaul was a Luxembourgish professional cyclist. He was a national cyclo-cross champion, an accomplished time triallist and superb climber. His ability earned him the nickname of Angel of the Mountains in the 1958 Tour de France, which he won with four stage victories. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1956 and 1959. Gaul rode best in cold, wet weather. In later life, he became a recluse and lost much of his memory.

Fausto Coppi

Angelo Fausto Coppi was an Italian cyclist, the dominant international cyclist of the years after the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo. He was an all-round racing cyclist: he excelled in both climbing and time trialing, and was also a good sprinter. He won the Giro d'Italia five times, the Tour de France twice, and the World Championship in 1953. Other notable results include winning the Giro di Lombardia five times, the Milan–San Remo three times, as well as wins at Paris–Roubaix and La Flèche Wallonne and setting the hour record (45.798 km) in 1942.

Romain Maes

Romanus Maes was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1935 Tour de France after wearing the yellow jersey of leadership from beginning to end. Maes was the 13th child in his family. He started racing when he was 17. He turned professional in 1933 and won the Tour de l'Ouest. The following year he started the Tour de France and twice finished stages in second place. He then crashed on the day from Digne to Nice and left the race in an ambulance.

François Faber

François Faber was a Luxembourgish racing cyclist. He was born in France. He was the first foreigner to win the Tour de France in 1909, and his record of winning 5 consecutive stages still stands. He died in World War I while fighting for France. Faber was known for his long solos; he is the only rider in Tour de France history to lead solo more than 1000 km.

Maurice Garin

Maurice-François Garin was an Italian-French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with eight others, for cheating. He was of Italian origin but adopted French nationality on 21 December 1901.

Lucien Petit-Breton

Lucien Georges Mazan, known by the pseudonym Lucien Petit-Breton, was a French racing cyclist best known as the first two-time winner of the Tour de France.

Octave Lapize

Octave Lapize was a French professional road racing cyclist and track cyclist.

Gustave Garrigou

Cyprien Gustave Garrigou was one of the best professional racing cyclists of his era. He rode the Tour de France eight times and won once. Of 117 stages, he won eight, came in the top ten 96 times and finished 65 times in the first five.

Louison Bobet

Louis "Louison" Bobet was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955.

Firmin Lambot

Firmin Lambot was a Belgian bicycle racer who twice won the Tour de France.

Henri Pélissier

Henri Pélissier was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France. In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour. He was killed by his lover with the gun that his wife had used to commit suicide.

Ottavio Bottecchia

Ottavio Bottecchia was an Italian cyclist and the first Italian winner of the Tour de France.

Odile Defraye

Odile Defraye was a Belgian road racing cyclist who won three stages and the overall title of the 1912 Tour de France, which was the last tour decided by a points system instead of overall best time. He was the first Belgian to win the Tour and was only invited to join Alcyon's all-French team at a late stage for publicity purposes.

Léon Scieur

Léon Scieur was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1921 Tour de France, along with stages 3 and 10. His first great victory was the 1920 Liège–Bastogne–Liège; he won a stage and finished fourth in the 1919 and 1920 Tours de France.

Antonin Magne

Antonin Magne was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager. The French rider and then journalist, Jean Bobet, described him in Sporting Cyclist as "a most uninterviewable character" and "a man who withdraws into a shell as soon as he meets a journalist." His taciturn character earned him the nickname of The Monk when he was racing.

Nicolas Frantz

Nikolas Frantz was a Luxembourgish bicycle racer with 60 professional racing victories over his 12-year career. He rode for the Thomann team in 1923 and then for Alcyon-Dunlop from 1924 to 1931. He won the Tour de France in 1927 and 1928.

Ferdinand Kübler

Ferdinand Kübler was a Swiss cyclist with 71 professional victories, including the 1950 Tour de France and the 1951 World Road Race Championship.

André Leducq

André Leducq was a French cyclist who won the 1930 and 1932 Tours de France. He also won a gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics in the team road race event and the 1928 Paris–Roubaix.

Lucien Buysse

Lucien Buysse was a Belgian cyclist and a champion of the Tour de France.

Roger Walkowiak

Roger Walkowiak was a French road bicycle racer who won the 1956 Tour de France. He was a professional rider from 1950 until 1960. He died on 6 February 2017 at the age of 89.

Georges Speicher

Georges Speicher was a French cyclist who won the 1933 Tour de France along with three stage wins, and the 1933 World Cycling Championship.

Sylvère Maes

Sylvère Maes was a Belgian cyclist, who is most famous for winning the Tour de France in 1936 and 1939. In 1937, Maes left the 1937 Tour de France together with his Belgian team while he was leading the general classification, in response to actions from French spectators and decisions from the jury.

Roger Lapébie

Roger Lapébie was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France. In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National. He was born at Bayonne, Aquitaine, and died in Pessac.