A Dangerous Profession...
In the 1923 Tour de France, the roads weren’t paved and were full of ruts. Stones could shoot out from under the wheels and could shoot into riders’ eyes. If a rider took off his dusty goggles, the stones could do him in. That happened to Frenchman, Honore Barthlelemy. He lost his eye that way.
During the 1924 Tour, Barthlelemy took out his eye sometimes and those who didn’t know it was made of glass, wondered what was going on. Anytime it bothered him, when it became infected due to the dust, he replaced it with cotton wool. When people on the roadside saw the hole filled with cotton wool, they were shocked.
This extraordinary rider completed in eight Tours, finishing three, winning five stages. More so, he finished in seven Paris-Roubaix’s and stood on the podium in third back in 1919. However, one underlining factor became all too clear, Barthlelemy complained that he spent more money on replacement eyes than he earned in prizes!