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

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The pandemic arrested the usual rhythms of his life: “I measured out my life in yellow jerseys,” he notes, when he’s ­confined to providing commentary from the studio, biking to Kent rather than the mountain passes of France.

In the autumn of 2020 Ned Boulting (ITV head cycling commentator and Tour de France obsessive) bought a length of Pathe news film from a London auction house. Critérium des Aiglons, August 12, 1923, Georges Cuvelier (Lapize), Nicolas Frantz (Thomann), and Théo Beeckman (Griffon). Witty, discursive, and tons of fun, Ned Boulting has the Tour de France under his skin, and you will too by the time you've read this. It really shows just how much history we have no idea about and how fortunate we are to have a written record of almost everything happening today. The juxtaposition of the two worlds a century apart, and the tying together of assorted historical loose threads makes for an entertaining read, not just for cycling enthusiasts.A great example of what constitutes the best longform writing about sport - The New European You may also be interested in. Join him as he explores the history of cycling and France just five years after WWI - meeting characters like Henri Pelissier, who won the Tour that year but who would within the decade be shot dead by his lover using the same pistol with which his wife had killed herself.

But 1923 isn’t the type of book that seeks to build on the work of others (needless to say, none of those authors appear in Boulting’s bibliography … but three books by Hemingway do).In this engaging melange of sports writing, history, travelogue and detective story, ITV's head cycling commentator and author of On the Road Bike explores a short piece of film footage from the 1923 Tour de France and shares his fascinating investigations into the riders featured. 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. You will have seen or heard of the little scrap of film, and if you are familiar with the Author on podcasts, TV commentary and social media then there are connecting echos from this to the present day. But it is further evidence that Beeckman may not have been the most straightforward man to manage, after all. Fun fact for you: as the French bicycle industry went from boom to bust, the surviving companies had a tendency to pick up the pieces left behind by their fallen comrades.