LA GRANDE BOUCLE FINALLY RECONNECTS WITH THE SPIRIT OF MERCKX AND HINAULT
We joined in for the third stage ‘Binche-Epernay’ and drove from the Belgian roads over some of the race-course roads to Montcornet (Hauts-de-France region) and then to Reims (Grand Est region) where we chose to spend the night in the neighbourhood. This in order to see a glimpse of stage 3 and the start of stage 4 in the centre of Reims the day after.
This summer we wanted to visit the Tour de France with a
couple of friends. After
all if there’s music in cycling the three weeks during race is the rock'n roll part of it... and not only Peter Sagan. Theoretically it should not have been all too difficult to jump in because
the Tour 2019 started in our capital Brussels on the 6th of july as 'le Grand
Départ' and had a team-trial the next day in the same town. But I couldn't make
it there those days so we left the busy first two stages rightful to the
Brussels' inhabitants and cycling lovers that showed up in mass: 100.000 people
at the start, 120.000 at the 'arrivée' and a total of 500.000 in the
Brussels-capital region on the first day only!! Whow! An extra attraction was
the fiftieth anniversary of 'cannibal' Eddy Merckx’s first of five victories in
the French stage course. Eddy was properly celebrated with among others a giant
ground picture of him wearing his yellow Faema jersey in 1969.
We joined in for the third stage ‘Binche-Epernay’ and drove from the Belgian roads over some of the race-course roads to Montcornet (Hauts-de-France region) and then to Reims (Grand Est region) where we chose to spend the night in the neighbourhood. This in order to see a glimpse of stage 3 and the start of stage 4 in the centre of Reims the day after.
Fight for merch
The first day we stopped at Montcornet, a little village at the crossroads between Laon and Reims and situated in the Aisne department, to watch the cyclists and the mighty Tour caravan which precedes them for about two hours. If you've never been to a stage you can compare the Tour caravan to a carnival parade or an election campaign in the eighties where all sorts of merchandise are thrown to the spectators at the side of the road who fight among each other for the little publicity wanna-have's. After that it's a long wait to see the rider's peloton. A helicopter guiding the cyclists has then long flown by. In the Hauts-de-France region there are a lot of farmers and everyone does their best to welcome the Tour.
This goes from hay stacks in special trimmed forms, a lot of bikes in different sizes and colours and different banners with slogans on, which you can see pretty detailed on television too or maybe on stream.
I had positioned myself just outside of Montcornet at the bottom of the hillside leading into the village centre where the cyclists attained the highest speeds of the descent, which I estimate around 50 miles an hour (80 kms per hour) or more. Direction hillside I could see a traffic sign pointing to Brussels at a distance of 163 kilometers like it was made for this Tour. The first cyclist I took down on image was Belgian Wellens who was spectacularly leading the breakaway that got him the polka dot jersey. When the peloton arrived I managed to get some well-known cyclists in my lens such as Van Aert, Mattthews, world champion Valverde, Simon and/or Adam Yates, Fuglsang and the later victorious De Ghendt - a little blurred because a Dutchman just came leaping into my focus (grrrr).
The 215 kilometers long stage was eventually won by the French talent Julian Alaphilippe, officially and unofficially the best rider in the world at the moment, who also took the yellow leader's jersey that day. When we arrived the evening at our hotel near Reims we were surprised to see the leader's team Deceuninck - Quick-Step residing next to us at a footstep's lenght.
So we paid them a visit but when the yellow jersey arrived after the exhausting stage and the press and sponsors duties afterwards, he was properly shielded by the staff members - nothing more than justified - and no sign of the teammates either. Also present were some TV crews - I remember Danish, Dutch and Belgian TV - shooting or preparing their short journal news contributions.
Luckily the day after we got to see the pro competitors of the Belgian team before they were driven to the start in their giant team bus. That way I could take a nice shot of Alaphilippe who was already heavy sollicitated and also of sprinter Viviani, climber Enric Mas and of the Belgian helper Devenyns. This was around a quarter past ten in the morning with the start of the ‘Reims-Nancy’ stage at noon.
Ewan’s unforgettable debut
Reims centre, where the wheel heroes were being presented to the public, was our next stop. Passing a booth with the official Tour de France memorabilia on the lane to the giant cathedral we came just in time to see the then white jersey - best young driver - and later sprint victor (but also very unlucky) Wout Van Aert manoeuvring on the podium. A lot of people were gathered on the Boulingrin parking square for the presentation, at the Rue de Mars and also in the adjacent streets leading out of Reims but obviously not as much as in Brussels that waited more than sixty years to be yet again host of the Tour's departure.
The starting line in Reims was constitued of the holders of the classification jerseys. Already that morning I had taken the later winner of the day, Elia Viviani, on picture - as if the Gods of the wheel were generous. Soudal-Lotto's main sprinter, the Australian Caleb Ewan, comes prominently in my lens in the streets of the Marne subcapital. At that moment nobody knew he would become the most succesful sprinter in the Tour 2019. Caleb had been a few times close to victory in the first half of the Tour and eventually won the 11th stage with only a few centimeters advantage to Holland's top sprinter Groenewegen at Toulouse. It is said Groenewegen know writes Toulouse as to lose. In Nimes, at the end of the 16th stage, the quick Ewan speeded up to win the day’s head prize a second time. The cherry on the cake then was yet to come with a glorious win on the last day at Champs-Elysées, every sprinter's wet dream. Again Groenewegen was beaten making the hierarchy very clear for this year.
Just become a father, Ewan's debut at the Tour was unforgettable for him with three wins just as for his Belgian Soudal-Lotto team with four team wins and Tim Wellens holding the scarabee climber jersey for fifteen days, a souvenir from the early attack we witnessed in Montcornet. As a team only Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma could equal the number of four stage wins. Another person I recognised in Reims - not a rider but the former Belgian minister of mobility, how appropriate - was Jacqueline Galant with her baby boy. She’s still mayor of Jurbise, a village near Mons, so for her the trip to watch the yellow jersey - an idea a century old reflecting the page colour of the organising journal - was easily within reach.
Long and thrilling
The Tour would go on to provide a long and thrilling race
where mainly in the mountains was decided who would be this year’s number one:
the young Columbian Egan Bernal.
Bernal, who is the first Columbian to ever win the Tour de France, makes an end to a long British hegemony, starting with Bradley Wiggins over Chris Froome to Geraint Thomas, but confirming yet an even long supremacy of the same Team Sky, since this year Team Ineos.
Bernal, only 22 years old, at his turn could be in for a very long series of wins if he remains untouched by unreasonable bad luck. Time will tell! Most important was that we finally got to see a race again where the riders attacked to win the race instead of trying to control it not to lose. The French climbers Alaphilippe and Pinot - very unlucky at the end - were the best personifications of that. Cannibal Merckx had made it already to the Pyrenees after the Brussels’ celebrations and saw it was good: the riders raced in the spirit of his way of cycling and we all know that was... simply attacking! Sadly fate made this extremely attractive course end on a bit of an anticlimax with the injury of challenger Pinot, one of the few favourites who had been able to leave Bernal behind on a climb, and the both shortened 19th and 20th stage because of weather conditions.
We must not forget that La Grande Boucle has always been a very hard competing race while technology has made the stages even go harder year by year. That makes the riders also more vulnerable, it's not a profession for sissies to say the least.
Bernal, who is the first Columbian to ever win the Tour de France, makes an end to a long British hegemony, starting with Bradley Wiggins over Chris Froome to Geraint Thomas, but confirming yet an even long supremacy of the same Team Sky, since this year Team Ineos.
Bernal, only 22 years old, at his turn could be in for a very long series of wins if he remains untouched by unreasonable bad luck. Time will tell! Most important was that we finally got to see a race again where the riders attacked to win the race instead of trying to control it not to lose. The French climbers Alaphilippe and Pinot - very unlucky at the end - were the best personifications of that. Cannibal Merckx had made it already to the Pyrenees after the Brussels’ celebrations and saw it was good: the riders raced in the spirit of his way of cycling and we all know that was... simply attacking! Sadly fate made this extremely attractive course end on a bit of an anticlimax with the injury of challenger Pinot, one of the few favourites who had been able to leave Bernal behind on a climb, and the both shortened 19th and 20th stage because of weather conditions.
We must not forget that La Grande Boucle has always been a very hard competing race while technology has made the stages even go harder year by year. That makes the riders also more vulnerable, it's not a profession for sissies to say the least.
"Technology has made stages go harder year by year. That makes the riders also more vulnerable"
One can hope for the near future the
riders will be progressively better protected as well as one must realise that there
will never be a zero risk in this tour or sport which is highly accessible for
fans, especially in the mountains. At least the Tour organisation has done what it
should to cancel the 19th stage in the descent preceding the climb to Tignes,
because the roads were covered with mud, snow and water when a heavy hailstorm occured.
No professional cyclist should ever be put in danger, after all the races are
already tough and difficult enough by itself!
Pédaler dans la misère in 3019?
But just prophesying where this big tour and cyclism will
stand in yet another hundred years? Computerisation and algorithms have now fully
entered the sport and their use will only increase. The harsh iron bicycles
have been traded in for faster ultralight carbon types with disc brakes not offering
any protection so the outcome of their race will now lay in a combination of
the rider’s physical and steering capacities, their safety helmet, the team
orders, the future weather and a bit of luck or shall we say fate, assuming all organisational faults
have been ruled out.
Many will probably ride the virtual Tour de France by then but don’t doubt that 'bread & games' will be even dominant as it is now. It will also have become even more difficult to know the sport’s history by heart, but that's not new: already lots of champions are forgotten or nearly and the list will only become longer with only a few exceptional champs to be remembered. Some spectators will still probably use the event to express their misfortune or poverty - didn't I read "Et le peuple pédale dans la misère" on the Brussels' Jubelpark-Cinquantenaire tunnel bridge at the end of the first stage? That were yellow jerseys too… But that finances by then will be more evenly distributed over the people remains highly questionable. In the northeast of France up to the Belgian border you see most or many of the houses still have the old tv-antennas on their roof. I predict that in 3019 these folks will at least have cable tv to see the future candidate winners on screen trying to grasp yellow stardom!
Many will probably ride the virtual Tour de France by then but don’t doubt that 'bread & games' will be even dominant as it is now. It will also have become even more difficult to know the sport’s history by heart, but that's not new: already lots of champions are forgotten or nearly and the list will only become longer with only a few exceptional champs to be remembered. Some spectators will still probably use the event to express their misfortune or poverty - didn't I read "Et le peuple pédale dans la misère" on the Brussels' Jubelpark-Cinquantenaire tunnel bridge at the end of the first stage? That were yellow jerseys too… But that finances by then will be more evenly distributed over the people remains highly questionable. In the northeast of France up to the Belgian border you see most or many of the houses still have the old tv-antennas on their roof. I predict that in 3019 these folks will at least have cable tv to see the future candidate winners on screen trying to grasp yellow stardom!
31.07.2019
My words were not a week old and Belgium lost one of its biggest tour talents in the Tour of Poland. A serene golden boy who competed in 2017 to win the Tour of the Future only to be beaten by Bernal. Belgium's sports and cycling community is devastated by this loss. The new weather and fate take a heavy toll. RIP Bjorg Lambrecht 02.04.1997 - 05.08.2019
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