Secret Cyclist: 5 reasons to watch the 109th Tour de France
The Tour de France is not just a race; it's a strategic power play for the riders, a spectator's dream for the viewers, and a chance for the underdog to compete with the cycling world's major contenders.
The 109th edition of the Tour de France commences today and to mark the occasion, I’m going to do my best to convince you to follow this year’s race. Here are five reasons why you should follow ‘Le Tour’. A special thank you to this week’s contributors who are all French.
The Tour attracts the ‘crème de la crème’ of the professional cycling world, an eclectic mix of personalities from regions all over the world. Professional cyclists seem to even rise above other elite athletes as they combine the fortitude that we see in marathon runners with the precision of an F1 driver, over 21 consecutive stages, most around 180km in length, with just a few rest days in between. This combination of peak cardiovascular fitness and decisive bike handling can be spellbinding to watch. Riders weave through villages and towns at speeds often in excess of 60km/h with agony, exhaustion, and elation all written across their faces for the world to see.
Watching the Tour can be a hugely sociable event. Most stages last around five or six hours and that’s plenty of time to chat, debate, and reminisce with friends or family. You might even squeeze in a short afternoon nap on the less eventful stages.
Honorary Consul of France in Cork, Josselin Le Gall tells me; "My Breton grandfather loved the Tour de France. He used to watch television from the start and the successive stages until the finish line. My family and I were on holiday at the time of the event, so we were spending a bit of our time watching the Tour with him."
Valérie David-McGonnell is President of the AIPLF, the largest association of teachers of French in Ireland. The Tour holds similar memories for her too. "As a little girl, I remember watching the Tour de France on television with my grandparents every summer. I was always amazed by the beautiful diversity of France's scenery that this cycling competition highlights."
The Tour is a gateway for many people into the world of cycling. Cycling is a broad church and people start cycling for all sorts of reasons. These days, most of my cycling is done on my commute to work. However, watching the Tour as a youngster was the reason I bought (cough, joint-purchased) my first road bike as a teenager, the reason I tried to cycle my first 100km, and the reason I think going for a long cycle is one of the best ways to spend a Sunday morning. This feeling of being inspired to cycle by the Tour as a kid is also shared by Bastien Peyraud, General Manager of the Imperial Hotel in Cork.
"I’m not a specialist of the Tour de France but what the Tour means to me is summer and some great fun with my friends when I was a kid! I used to live in a block of flats when I was younger and all the kids had a bike and we were cycling around the block pretending to cycle from Paris to Marseille."
Let’s face it, it’s going to rain at least one day in July. Plonking the kids down in front of the TV may seem count-intuitive for setting them up for a healthy lifestyle but it will be all worth it if they develop an interest in bikes.
We tend not to think of ourselves as a nation of Francophones but the French language is by far the most popular foreign language that Irish teenagers choose to study for their Leaving Certificate. Much like cycling is good for your heart, learning and speaking a second language brings benefits to your brain. Following the Tour exposes you to the French language and culture that may spur your interest to learn the language, visit a region of France, or take on some French customs and traditions. The Tour has often been called a three-week ad for French tourism and it’s easy to see why. The riders sometimes play second fiddle to long panoramic shots of imposing mountains, historic châteaux, and famous vineyards.
Most stages of the tour fall into two categories, flat or hilly. To be blunt about it, the hilly stages are where the tour is won or lost. Dr Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan is a lecturer in European politics at UCC and says "it is part of your general culture as a French person to know the iconic étapes like l'Alpe d'Huez or le col du Tourmalet." If time isn’t on your side over the month of July, make watching a hilly stage of the Tour your priority. While the French mountain top finishes are spectacular, they’ve also spurred me on to visit our own uplands by bike. France may have Mont Ventoux, l'Alpe d'Huez, and Col du Galibier but here in Ireland, we have Mount Leinster, the Healy Pass, and the Wicklow Gap.
If the Tour whets your appetite for road cycling, why not try a sportive ride this summer? Cycling Ireland has a list of upcoming events on its website. Looking for a different challenge? The Irish Association of French Teachers (AIPLF) have a Tour de France 2022 quiz on their website and social media channels. Bonne chance!
