1924 – The first drug revelations, when Pelissier and his brother Francis quit. ‘Do you want to see how we keep going?’ Henri asks the journalist Albert Londres, taking a flask out of his bag. ‘That’s cocaine to go in our eyes, chloroform for our gums, and do you want to see the pills? We keep going on dynamite. In the evenings we dance around our rooms instead of sleeping.’

Party time!

1953 – At the summit of the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, the tiny climber Jean Robic is handed a feeding bottle filled with lead, weighing 10kg, so that he can gain ground on the descent.

And riders today complain about the UCI’s minimum weight restriction. Pah!

observer.guardian.co.uk – pills, spills and bellyaches – a cheat’s guide to the Tour