Goggles & Dust: Images from Cycling's Glory Days

By The Horton Collection

Drawn from the one of the world's finest collections of cycling artifacts, Goggles & Dust collects over 100 stunning photographs from competitive cycling's heyday. Spanning the 1920s and '30s, Goggles & Dust: Images from Cycling's Glory Days celebrates the grit and determination of the bicycle racing pioneers who established the records, traditions, and distinct flavors of Europe's most hallowed races.

The spirit of these hardy competitors was perhaps matched only by the resolve of the remarkable photographers who prevailed in all imaginable conditions, situations, altitudes and latitudes to capture unforgettable prints of the racers at work and play. From Alpine panoramas to hair-raising crashes and idyllic roadside celebrations, the gorgeous restored photographs in Goggles & Dust--most unseen since their original publication in the newspapers and magazines of the day--provide an indelible and delightful record of a more carefree and adventurous time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: VeloPress
• Release date: Nov 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781937716639

The Horton Collection

The Horton Collection is one of the world’s finest collections of cycling memorabilia. Over the course of twenty-five years Shelly and Brett Horton have amassed an unprecedented 15,000 objects and 170,000 original vintage photographs. Their passion for the sport and its legacy have led them to the world’s greatest races, and many of the sport’s living legends have entrusted their own treasures to the care of The Horton Collection. The Hortons live in San Francisco, California.

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INTRODUCTION

From the turn of the 20th century through the late 1930s, cycling was an important part of a magical era. Bicycle racing, particularly stage racing over Europe’s snow-covered peaks and along its unmade roads, quickly became the continent’s most popular sport, creating an ambience that was both grueling and romantic. While the names of the great riders were celebrated with increasing fervor in the daily press, the races devised to showcase their abilities became diabolically difficult. To draw crowds and sell newspapers, race directors sought the most difficult routes, the highest passes, the hardest conditions, the longest distances. The 1926 Tour de France, for example, spanned 5,745 kilometers, or 3,570 miles, over a mere 17 stages. Today’s much more humane and realistic races, by contrast, run about 3,400 kilometers over 21 stages.

The giants of the sport endured all this and more, and their names have been carved into cycling immortality. Many are represented here, including André Leducq, Georges Speicher, René Vietto, Nicolas Frantz, Learco Guerra, Ottavio Bottecchia, Maurice Garin, Antonin Magne, Roger Lapébie, Eugène Christophe, Lucien Buysse, Honoré Barthélémy, and Maurice De Waele. The events these riders contested made them the leading sports heroes of their time, and their feats and legacy have been celebrated in cycling literature ever since.

Yet while written accounts of the races have