Future Perfect
Ned Boulting on cycling's odd love affair with its own past — and why a sport steeped in nostalgia is also endlessly obsessed with the future.

How Russian avant-gardist Natalia Goncharova put a factory worker on two wheels in her 1913 Cubo-Futurist masterpiece, Cyclist. Words by James Startt.
By James Startt
Photography by STR/Getty
1 DECEMBER 2023 | UPDATED 09.39 AM BST
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Le Tour de France: a race defined by colour, passion and history, whose drama and romance continue to shape the identity of cycling’s greatest stage.


Le Tour de France: a race defined by colour, passion and history, whose drama and romance continue to shape the identity of cycling’s greatest stage.
Le Tour de France: a race defined by colour, passion and history, whose drama and romance continue to shape the identity of cycling’s greatest stage.


Le Tour de France: a race defined by colour, passion and history, whose drama and romance continue to shape the identity of cycling’s greatest stage.