Changes From The 1921 Tour De France
In the 1921 Tour de France, the Belgians had again been dominating, which the French audience did not like. Tour organiser Henri Desgrange did not like the cooperation between cyclists, because he wanted the Tour de France to be a display of individual strength. He had sworn to change the format for the 1922 Tour de France, but this did not happen, and the formula remained the same.
Although World War I was already a few years ago, its economic impact was not yet over. The cycling companies were still not able to sponsor the cyclists in the way they did before the war, so as in 1919, 1920 and 1921 they bundled their forces under the nick La Sportive. The cyclists were divided in two categories, this time named 1ère classe (first class), the professionals, and 2ème classe (second class), the amateurs.
The French cyclists Henri and Francis Pélissier had stopped the 1920 Tour de France after Henri received a penalty from the Tour organisation for throwing away a tire. For this reason, the Pélissier brothers did not start in the 1921 and 1922 Tours.
Read more about this topic: 1922 Tour De France
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