Toulouse-Lautrec did not draw the bicycle chain correctly which resulted in this design being rejected. However, he went ahead and printed 200 copies at his own cost for the amusement of his friends and collectors. The cyclist is the British champion Jimmy Michael whose trademark was a toothpick in his mouth. The man with the stopwatch is the sports correspondent Frantz Reichel and the man bending over the bag in the background is Michael's coach, Choppy Warburton. The scene is at the Buffalo track in Neuilly, France.