1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession

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It’s no exaggeration to say that what began as a journey to satisfy a certain curiosity, during that long, sad first Covid winter rapidly became an overwhelming obsession; one which spun off in any number of different directions, all of which seemed to me to be uniquely fascinating. Which is actually quite funny in a way as the riders of the 1920s’ Tours were seen as sandwich-board men hawking the wares of the bicycle industry and Boulting does come off a bit like one of those men standing outside parliament with hand-made signs hanging on his chest and back, warning us of our impending doom.

In one sense it’s a very random book and in another a fascinating insight into the world a century back. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. When cycling commentator Ned Boulting bought a length of Pathé news film featuring a stage of the Tour de France from 1923 he set about learning everything he could about it - taking him on an intriguing journey that encompasses travelogue, history and detective story. Faced with a cultural assumption and competing probable and improbable outcomes – Griffon jersey, saying the photo is either 1923 or 1924, and possible wedding ring, meaning the photo would have to be after 1925 when he should be wearing a different jersey – which razor do you think Mr Occam would suggest you choose to shave with?Ned set about learning everything he could about the sequence – studying each frame, face and building – until he had squeezed the meaning from it. We ride on dynamite,” 1923 ­winner Henri Pélissier told ­journalists, his kitbag including chloroform and cocaine, needed to push his body through the torture of the Tour. The places he has taken it by the end of the book are a really nice way to cap it off and they give readers some form of closure. A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: SPORT LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 'An absorbing mix of historical sleuthing and travel writing' The Telegraph '[a] fascinating and often touching book… Wonderful' The Times The story of an obsession. It sets him off in fascinating directions, encompassing travelogue, history, mystery story – to explain, to go deeper into this moment in time, captured on his little film.

The footage comes from the fourth stage of that year’s Tour, the 400-plus kilometre haul down from Brest to Les Sables d’Olonne. In this image, he holds a victor’s bouquet in one hand and his bike in the other, by the side of the track at what appears to be the Parc des Princes velodrome in Paris. The result is that rare creature, an introspective page-turner; but it is also a romantic quest if ever there was one – imagine Don Quixote minus the slapstick (guest-star: Sarah Bernhardt as the love interest Dulcinea) – drawing extensively on those great events, reflecting the tensions and prejudices of that turbulent interwar period (so unlike our own! Locked down in his London home, Ned dedicates himself to internet study reaching far into the lives of the people, the race and the history linked to his tiny piece of film. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.And then there are the many, many characters, some scarcely believable, whose extraordinary lives brush up in unexpected ways against this fragment of history, preserved from oblivion by nothing more providential than pure coincidence. About the Author: Ned Boulting began his television career in 1997 when he joined Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday. Beginning with a fragment of a century-old race, Ned has written a ‘biography of the unknown rider’. Boulting leading himself astray is one thing, but when he then tries to take his readers with him down some duff history cul-de-sac, that’s a problem. And all this from a video clip that is only a small part of the original film and that would likely have been lost and forgotten had Boulting’s friend not spotted it in an online auction.

Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.On the same day, there’s the bombing of the Duisburg-Hochfeld bridge spanning the Rhine, in which several people were killed.

I expected an in-depth review of a 100-year old race, but this was only one aspect of a brilliant book. Beeckman was a solid if ­unremarkable member of his cohort; his attack captured on film a rare occasion in which he especially troubled the limelight. Biography: Ned Boulting is the UK's best known voice of cycling - he commentates on the Tour de France for ITV, and all other major cycling races. This book was seriously boring to the point where I skipped some of it and didn't bother reading to the end. Mysterious beauty: the daymark on St Martin's, Isles of Scilly, whose coastline is explored in The Draw of the Sea.It sets him off in fascinating directions, encompassing travelogue, history, mystery story to explain, to go deeper into this moment in time, captured on his little film. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Ned set about learning everything he could about the sequence - studying each frame, face and building - until he had squeezed the meaning from it.