I've had a scan of reports in the British press for info on the 1928 tour, and there's precious little. Mostly along the lines of 'aren't those foreigners crazy' with descriptions of what the race entails but no mention of riders. No mention of Mertens at all. Franz gets a brief mention, but only that he won the final stage but only the 2nd place rider overall (50 mins down) was within 3 hours of his overall time. The Australian participants get plenty of coverage, including Hubert Opperman, who came 18th. 3 of the 4 Australian starters finished "with grim determination and doggedness". There was also a Tour de France air race going on at the same time.
