1979, Robin Magowan, Tour de France: the 75th anniversary cycle race:
Hinault will also be wearing a 51 dossard, the same number with which Luis Ocana, Thevenet, Merckx, and Anquetil pedalled to victory in their first Tour.
2012, Matt Rendell, The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (→ISBN):
Laurent Jalabert led the strike, tearing off his dossard before the television cameras. Marco, then the rest of the peloton, followed.
2013, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France, Simon and Schuster (→ISBN)
A field of 79 riders began the race, not in itself a huge reduction from the 100 of 1930, but for raisons politiques both obvious and ominous, there were no German or Italian riders, and no Spaniards either in the harsh aftermath of the Civil War that had just ended. One French rider entered for the race was André Bramard. He was even allocated 69 as his dossard number, but by July he had been issued another number by the army, was already in uniform, and couldn't take part.
2014, David Walsh, Inside Team Sky, Simon and Schuster (→ISBN), page 201:
When Froome rode his first Tour in 2008 he did so with a little Kenyan flag stitched into his dossard. Last year when Bradley Wiggins conquered France he had a small mod symbol stuck to his bike. Blem wanted something which would personalise his friend's bike and maybe even inspire him a little.
