1 year earlier. Départ du Tour de France cycliste sur l'avenue des Champs-Elysées. Paris, juillet 1939. | Paris en images Départ du Tour de France cycliste sur l'avenue des Champs-Elysées. Paris, juillet 1939.
"Well, Hans, I always say, it beats walking!" This thread though did make me wonder about what happened to the Tour during WW2. The organizers refused to cooperate with the Germans, so there was no Tour, although a right-wing paper organized a "Circuite de France" in 1942. Wikipedia says that after the war the magazine behind the tour, l'Auto, was closed for collaborating with the Germans - I wonder what that was, though, given that they wouldn't organize the Tour.
Thank you, now I understand! Did you see that (per wikipedia) in early 1940 there was a proposal for a Tour de France with teams from the British and French armed forces, including going past the Maginot Line? \