Originally Posted by
shoota
As long as it's an uphill finish, no problem. It's the descent that would suck.
The uphills sucked too. While derailleurs were permitted in road racing by 1939, "racing" derailleurs of the day had very little chain wrap, usually less than 10 teeth. So in order to also have remotely-plausible gears on the flats, you were looking at doing mountainous ascents in a 55" gear or higher.