A moment in time The Convicts of the Road

s the third stage of the 1924 Tour de France was about to get under way, Albert Londres, who was covering the race for the French daily Le Petit Parisien, decided to drive ahead of the peloton. The riders were due to leave Cherbourg at 2am, bound for Brest some 405km away, so Londres scanned the list of control points and the predicted timetable. His eyes fell on Granville, 105km into the stage. It seemed as good a place as any for a first stop to watch the riders pass: roughly one quarter distance; 30km after the preceding control point at Coutances;