The Shattered Peloton

On June 28, 1914, one hundred and forty-five riders lined up in a suburb of Paris at 3 a.m. to start the first stage of the Tour de France. The race, which had been founded just a decade earlier, had grown to become the biggest bicycle race in the world. The riders did not know it at the time, but as they raced, an event was taking place on the opposite side of Europe which would change all of their lives forever: Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, triggering ...