PERSPECTIVES
ACCESS DENIED
WHY CYCLING’S UNIQUE MODEL OF ACCESS MUST BE PRESERVED
JEREMY WHITTLE
W
hen journalist Albert Londres pushed his way through the throng and sat down with the Pélissier brothers, Henri and Francis, in the Café de la Gare in Coutances in June 1924, he realised he had a scoop. Exhausted, disenchanted and enraged with Tour de France organiser Henri Desgrange, the Pélissiers slugged hot chocolate and poured their hearts out, railing against the inhumanity of the race, pulling cocaine, chloroform and pills from their pockets.
The article that Londres wrote, ‘Convicts of the Road’, became legendary. His stories had as much impact as those produced by Le Monde during the notorious Festina Affair of July 1998, when the revered daily called for the drug-addled Tour to be stopped.