The Green Toothed Witch and the Yellow Canary

Book excerpt: At twelve minutes past three on June 28th 1919, the leaders of the 'Big Four' Allied powers met in the Palace of Versailles in France, to sign a Treaty which would bring down the final curtain on the First World War. Ten hours later, at one o'clock in the morning, a new battle commenced as 67 riders met at the Parc de Princes in Paris, to set off on the second longest Tour de France in history.Exactly 100 years to the day, let's follow in their footsteps, witnessing every excruciating pedal turn of the 5,560km route. Let's struggle through the bloody battlefields of the Somme, land on the Normandy beaches and bumble along the Brittany Coast. Let's climb the perilous Pyrenees, get swept away by the Marseille Mistral and celebrate the 100th birthday of the 'maillot jaune' outside the Cafe de l'Ascenseur in Grenoble. We'll visit France's long-lost sisters of Alsace & Lorraine, before coming face to face with the mud and blood of the poppy fields of Flanders. Finally, we pedal on to the Party in the Parc in Gay Paris.This is the story of those brave men, newly returned from the Great War, cycling through the night, often in horrendous conditions, on fixed wheel bikes, all to win the now coveted yellow jersey.Travel with me and discover the story of the Green-Toothed Witch and The Yellow Canary.