You can see 25 pictures from the Magnum archive of the Tour de France over the years on Slate.
For me, while I particularly admire John Vink’s pictures in this set – and you can see more in his story France Tour De France from 1985, I think it’s really the images by Robert Capa from the 1930s that have the strongest appeal. The event has changed so much over the years, and somehow back then it was all so more human and appealing.
And of course they even rode bikes rather like mine, though that dates from the late 1950s, although since then its been through several sets of wheels, new brakes, a new saddle and so on. But the Cinelli of Milan frame and forks, the drop handlebars and even the cranks and bottom bracket are still the same as those that raced on the continent – but only before I was given it because it was worn out after a year and its owner needed a new steed for the coming season. It’s almost exactly the same age as my Leica M2 and had I kept it in anything approaching its original state, equally a classic, though rather more valuable.
But bikes have evolved and so have cameras, and Leica (I speak as an M8 owner) just haven’t kept up so far as cameras are concerned, though the lenses remain state of the art. Yesterday I was rather envious of one of my friends, shooting with a Panasonic DMC-G1 with an adaptor to take Leica lenses. One drawback of it is that the Four Thirds size sensor means that a 24mm is a standard lens. Also, the body seems only available with a kit 14-45mm f3.5-5.6 lens; however, not the GH1 with movie capability is available it does seem to be selling at relatively reasonable prices around £450 (the GH1 comes with a much more expensive lens at more than twice the price.) But a cheap adapter for Leica M lenses from eBay adds another £50 or so, and the camera isn’t quite as quiet as I’d like…
So perhaps I’m still not convinced that anyone has yet produced a really viable digital replacement for that M2. I can’t bring myself to get rid of it, but neither can I persuade myself its worth shooting film any more.
I don’t often ride the Cinelli either, or at least not further than the local shops or library. Most of the cycling I’ve done in recent years has been on a Brompton. The Cinelli is better at getting from A to B fast, but so often I want to fold the bike up and put it on a train, and in other ways the Brompton is very handy too – and a shorter wheelbase maies it a better bike in rush hour traffic.
