Why are there no black or asian riders on the Tour de France?

Between 1910 and 1920 two Africans were brought to the Tour de France to compete, and for many days they hammered the competition. This was back in the days when slipstreaming was seen as cheating, and each rider rode solely for himself. One of the Africans had to drop out through illness, but the other kept a huge lead over the opposition.
At one point he ran out of water, and was passed a bottle by a spectator. The rider necked the lot, only to discover it was wine. The rider was Muslim, and had never drunk alcohol in his life, so the vino pole axed him. The spectators caught him as he fell, and realising he was pissed, laid him under a tree to sleep it off.
By and by the other races caught up and passed the sleeping African, and the crowds drifted away.
Hours later he awoke.
It dawned on him what had happened, so he leapt on his bike and raced off in pursuit. He pedalled furiously, but failed to catch any of the other riders.
Why?
In his befuddled state, he set off in the wrong direction.
If it wasn't for one bottle of wine, then an early Tour winner would have been African, and with him as a hero, the face of cycling would have (literally!) been changed forever.

source

I think that the reason track cycling is big in Japan is because of the parallels with zen / discipline, that make the sport socially respectable.

The reason why Kierin became big in Japan was during the war the Japaneses ate most of the horses/dogs, and with the population growth there was very little suitable land to keep horses. So after the war they started to gamble on Keirin racing. At some of the bigger events more money is gambled on one night than the four days of the Grand National meeting.

The reason why Kierin became big in Japan was during the war the Japaneses ate most of the horses/dogs, and with the population growth there was very little suitable land to keep horses. So after the war they started to gamble on Keirin racing. At some of the bigger events more money is gambled on one night than the four days of the Grand National meeting.

HA!

zen my ass.

I can recall one of the Japanese members of this very forum also mentioning the gambling aspect as the main reason for the great success of Keirin circuit:-)

^^ was gonna tell the story of the african rider but i forgot his name. Story is accurate but he was algerian and it was the 1950s, when algeria was fighting for independence from France. He was an unfortunate collateral victim of the civil war, got shot in the leg, spent a spell in prison (his crime... being shot in the leg by a policeman. Seems some things never change) and was 'rediscovered' when travelling to paris for an eye operation in the 80sand feted as a hero.
PLEASE SOMEBODY OUT THERE TELL ME HIS NAME. Its really bugging me.

^^ was gonna tell the story of the african rider but i forgot his name. Story is accurate but he was algerian and it was the 1950s, when algeria was fighting for independence from France. He was an unfortunate collateral victim of the civil war, got shot in the leg, spent a spell in prison (his crime... being shot in the leg by a policeman. Seems some things never change) and was 'rediscovered' when travelling to paris for an eye operation in the 80sand feted as a hero.
PLEASE SOMEBODY OUT THERE TELL ME HIS NAME. Its really bugging me.

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abdel_Kadher_Zaaf&action=edit&redlink=1"][/URL]Abdel Kadher Zaaf

yep, just looked it up in a book, innit.

http://www.kb.nl/uitgelicht/vitrine/2003/tour/zaaf_1950.jpg
http://babelouedstory.com/cdhas/33%20cyclisme/images/abdelkader_zaaf.jpg
http://notrejournal.info/journal/IMG/jpg/552_Fri20072007132950-Echappee_Molines-_Zaaf-3.jpg

http://notrejournal.info/journal/Le-Cyclisme-des-Annees-50

Marcel Molines (born December 22, 1928 in Chibli, Algeria) was a French racing cyclist and the first African to win a stage of the Tour de France.
Molines, because he was born in Algeria (at that time part of France), competed in the 1950 Tour de France in a team representing French North Africa. His background meant neither he nor his teammate, Abdel-Kader Zaaf, suffered in that summer's heat wave. The temperature was so high on the stage from Perpignan to Nîmes that the race stopped at St-Maxime on the Mediterranean coast and many riders ran or even cycled into the sea.
Two exceptions were Molines and Zaaf, who profited from their lowly status and from a widespread disinclination to ride fast by riding 200 km by themselves and sometimes getting up to 20 minutes' lead. Their advantage was enough to make Zaaf the de facto leader of the race and he would have taken the yellow jersey of best rider had he not began to zigzag 15 km (8m) before the end. An official, or perhaps a spectator, pulled him off his bike and let him sleep under a tree. Molines went on to win by five minutes and remains the first African and the only non-white rider to have won a stage.
His career included riding for big teams such as Peugeot and Dilecta. He has subsequently vanished and nothing is known of his whereabouts or if, like Zaaf, he has died.
The most successful African rider in the Tour de France is the Frenchman Richard Virenque, born in Morocco in 1969, who won the race's King of the Mountains competition a record seven times.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Tour_de_France[/ame]
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Molines[/ame]

Nice google skills, hippy. These are great photos

I think we shall make him a patron of our forum drinks.

+1

Another article from the Guardian generally about black / non-white riders in
cycle racing. It all builds a picture of the sport in general. Maurice Burton, mainly
a track rider 70's and 80's, also mixed race, is mentioned in this report too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/aug/10/cycling-white-sport

http://projectrwanda.org/

See Team Rwanda. Looks promising.