N.Z. IN TOUR de FRANCE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30471, 19 June 1964, Page 13

N.Z. IN TOUR de FRANCE

Four Cyclists Competing

[From NORMAN HARRIS] PARIS.

The winds of fortune in the Continental cycling world, which seem to be entirely unpredictable, have changed once again to favour beyond all expectations the New Zealand riders. The situation is now virtually that New Zealand will be represented for the first time in the amateur section of the Tour de France—Tour de L’Avennir—as half of a Luxembourg team. The four New Zealanders who will undertake the venture are L. J. Byers, who has stayed in Paris gambling on this possibility, R. D. Thomson, D. K. Grave and J. Kuiper. This final development transpired when Luxembourg complained at its exclusion at the hands of Bulgaria, allegedly a weak country, and when all hope had seemed lost for the New Zealanders. After Thomson, Grave and Kuiper had left to ride in the Tour of Britain, and Byers had remained in the hope of being selected for the preliminary eight-day Tour of the West.

Byers’ decision has proved justified because the Tour of the West is timed as an ideal warm-up for the big tour. Not so, however, the other three, who have only a week to recover after the two-week Tour of Britain.

It is significant that other countries in the British tour such as the Spaniards and Poles, have separate teams for each of the Toiir of Britain, the Tour de France, the world road championship and the Olympic Games.