Hey @spaingaroo, I missed this comment of yours somehow, sorry, man!

...starts to prepare the guest room for mr. cockup
(if you don't have a clue what's that about, just let me know, ok? If you do, you'll know it's well intended ;)

I tagged you in the very first sentence there, but steemit apparently doesn't inform one when one's tagged.

Anyway -- this being out of the way: thank you! Glad you appreciate and love the story - it really is an obscure, little known anecdote with much synchronicity. Coulnd't say it any better: those tours were epic (imagine riding 373 kilometres on a bike in 14 hours - and that's just the first guy...) - heavy equipment, no helpers...

And the mountain-roads were just dusty tracks, really... Much respect for those pioneer-cyclists.

And no doping, come to think of it..

Thank you, glad you appreciated the post after all :) And this is the chain that made it so:

my brother writes a book and does some research > a friend journalist reads it, doublechecks the facts and writes a column > I read the column and make a painting > the painting is integrated with your sketches > the integrated work gets a visual life of its own > the story of Emile Brichard is shared.

Full circle? Or do we go on from here? Can't tell (yet!) :)