Harry Pearson is the author of 'The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman: A bone-shaking tour through cycling’s Flemish heartlands' (Bloomsbury, 2019)
The early Olympic games of the modern era set out to celebrate both ‘muscle and mind’ – which meant that artists were in the mix for medals
The invention of the modern bicycle in 1885 led to a whirl of enthusiasm for racing these new machines – and artists were swept up in the craze
