Cycling team that competed in the 1928 Tour de France

In 1928 the first english speaking team competed in the Tour de France. The Ravat Wonder team was made up of cyclists from New Zealand and Australia. Wellington man, David Coventry happened upon their story in 2012, and was so intrigued he immediatly set to writing a fictionalised version of their race. It became his first novel, The Invisible Mile, which was recently named one of four fiction finalists in the 2016 Ockham book awards. The book centres on one of the kiwi riders in the team, a fictional character, from Taranaki, for whom the gruelling ride is more of a pilgramage to the world war 1 battle fields that inflicted so much emotional damage on his brother.