Race Favourites
Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France entered national teams, consisting of eight cyclists. Additionally, 40 touriste-routiers, cyclists without a team, entered the race.
The French team has been named the best collection of pre-war cyclists. The Belgian team had talented riders, but were split between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking cyclists. The Italian team was headed by Learco Guerra. Guerra had won three stages in the 1933 Giro d'Italia and had been world champion. Tour director Henri Desgrange had named Guerra as probable winner of the race.
Read more about this topic: 1933 Tour De France
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“Nobody is glad in the gladness of another, and our system is one of war, of an injurious superiority. Every child of the Saxon race is educated to wish to be first. It is our system; and a man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, envies, and hatreds of his competitors.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)