Robert Capa at the 1939 Tour de France

FRANCE. Paris. 1939.

People waiting for the Tour de France bicycle race to pass by. The Tour de France is one of France's greatest annual sport events. Hundreds of cyclists, together with their teams and crews race through the flatlands

and hills of France during the hot summer months.

The tour brings out thousands of spectators who line the road, as well as photographers and journalists who cover every section of the race.

The press photographers clutch onto the motorcycle drivers as they lean backwards and forwards to capture the best pictures.

Every day the teams have to complete a specified route, which has a certain winner. At the end of the tour, according to the number of points, there is an overall winner, who automatically becomes a national hero.

Robert Capa at the 1939 Tour de France

In his brief and intense career, Robert Capa became best known for his portraits of war, especially "The Falling Soldier," which was

taken during the Spanish Civil War.

But there was more to Capa than just war photography. In 1939, he was on hand for the Tour de France -- then and now cycling's

centerpiece event.

This year's Tour, the 102nd, runs through July 26 and attracts thousands to its route. That was equally true 76 years ago.

Capa's war photography often focused on soldiers, with stark images of the D-Day landing or the ruddy faces of prisoners of war. But when he wasn't at war, he could capture the quiet excitement of villagers, as with this picture of boys discussing the Tour de France.

Before the start of the Tour de France bicycle race, a cyclist talks with children.

Boy watching the Tour de France.

Two former war veterans take a drink waiting for the arrival of the 'tour', one of them hold a bugle showing his role as the local announcer of events.

Goggles firmly in place and a flask of water in their back pockets, each man pedals faster to reach the front.

Capa often chronicled headline-making events, war being the obvious example. But sometimes timing put him in the crossfire. As a Jew, he left Berlin, where he lived in the early '30s, after the rise of Nazism. During World War II, he was in Naples, Italy, when a series of time bombs went off, destroying the central post office. The Tour was a happier event. Here, he shows locals lining up to get news of the race.

The race is a huge event for spectators, who come out to cheer on the racers moving at high speeds

 A crowd gathered in front of Mr. Pierre Cloarec's bicycle shop. The owner of the shop is racing in the Tour de France.

A Gendarme points with his truncheon the route to be taken through a town, the locals wait at kerbside to watch the passing of the cyclists.

Cyclists resting between laps

The Tour de France is less a single race than a series of races -- some sprints, others lengthy trips through the countryside. Capa, who was just 25 when he took these pictures, would go on to chronicle World War II, the postwar Soviet Union and the early days of Israel. He died in 1954 while covering a new war -- one in Vietnam, then part of French Indochina. He was 40. "He left behind a thermos of cognac, a few good suits, a bereaved world, and his pictures, among them some of the greatest recorded moments of modern history," Morris wrote in Capa's obituary.

When the route was changed during the 1939 Tour, Capa was there to show the cyclists carrying their bikes over some brush -- and to note the curious eyes of local residents.

Though born Andre Friedmann in Budapest, Hungary, Capa lived in Paris in the 1930s, taking his new name there to cover his ethnic heritage. His Tour pictures aren't just a look at a race. They're also a look back in time to a different France, with neatly dressed schoolboys, working-class toilers and the occasional -- and presumably unironic -- beret.

Village crowds waiting for the arrival of the tour.

In a small French town, a veteran sits below the fountain and contemplates the press designation of the cyclists.

A press car of the tour talking to their motorcycle outrider.

Being a Press Photographer on the "tour" is not an easy job, yet there are moments when the backseat passenger can take a rest.

Spectators waiting for the tour to pass.

A refreshment break for the cyclists and their maintenance team

A stopover refreshment halt in a harvest cornfield for tired cyclists.

A newspaper vendor draws buyers on the latest results of the 'tour'.

Nowadays, cyclists are on teams funded by major corporate sponsors, with doctors, dietitians and other specialists on staff catering to their every need. The situation was a little more austere in the '30s. Here, the cyclists stop for the day to rest, wash and clean up. Capa, too, was down to earth; a friend, editor John Morris, told FT Magazine that he simply called himself "a journalist."

Part of the hardest stretch are the Alpine mountain passes, people come down from their mountain villages to await the passing of the "tour".

A radio announcer at the arrival of the team in a stadium. These days, the race is carried live all over the world, including online streaming by NBC Sports.

A short stopover and refreshment point, weary cyclists meet the local population.

Even though aspects of the equipment have changed -- including synthetic fabrics and carbon-fiber bike frames that didn't exist in the 1930s -- the Tour still comes down to muscle and stamina.

A nurse treats the injured arm of a cyclist grazed during a fall.

Cyclists take a break to put on rain gear as a storm drenches the course. Capa had a particularly sharp eye for capturing quiet moments, even in the midst of chaos. "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough," he once said. In 1947, Capa founded Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert.

The official car of LE PETIT DAUPHINOIS newspaper with its sports journalists.

A photographer of the tour with his motor cycle driver.

Photographers like Capa had to find ways to keep up with the Tour cyclists. A favored method was hitching a ride on a motorcycle. Here, Capa shows a press reporter and his motorcycle driver.

Young spectators with leaflets showing the participants of the tour.

Brittany. Pleybon. 1939. A crowd gathered in front of Mr Pierre Cloarec's bicycle shop. The owner of the shop is racing in the Tour de France.

Brittany. Pleybon. July 1939. A crowd gathered in front of Mr. Pierre Cloarec's bicycle shop. The owner of the shop is racing in the Tour de France.

Brittany. Pleybon. July 1939. A crowd gathered in front of Mr. Pierre Cloarec's bicycle shop. The owner of the shop is racing in the Tour de France.

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cast Robert Capa at the 1939 Tour de France

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