The Tour de la France 2015

by Tom Kando

The Tour de France is the world’s greatest annual sport event. It is viewed by four billion people electronically (half the world) and by 15 million live - most of them French, many of whom misbehave. Despite all of its problems, I remain an avid fan, and I keep writing about this (see for example my article Tour de France Factoids) .

Nowadays, this bicycle race is about twenty-two hundred miles long, divided into twenty-one stages covered over a period of twenty-three days. It takes place in July and it goes around France, with forays into adjacent countries. The decisive stages are in the high mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees. The arrival always takes place on the majestic Champs Elysees in Paris. There are nearly two hundred participants. They come from several dozen countries, and are divided into about twenty teams. The race was introduced in 1903, and it has taken place nearly every year since. 2015 was the Tour’s one hundred and second edition.


My Childhood Experience: Living History: I grew up in France. When I lived in a suburb of Paris during the 1950s, the greatest treat in my life was to see the race whizz by every year on its last day, on the way to the finish at the Parc des Princes stadium. My favorite was the Frenchman Louison Bobet. However, at first he kept losing to people like the Swiss Hugo Koblet, and especially the Italian Fausto Coppi. I say especially Coppi, because although he “only” won twice, many say that he was the greatest cyclist of all times. Back then, the Italians were the best (including also the great Gino Bartali, who won the race before World War Two, ans again after the war, ten years later!). During the sixties and early seventies, the Belgian Eddy Merckx won the Tour five times, and many say that HE was the greatest cyclist of all times.I have fond memories of and many anecdotes about these giants.

● I remember Hugo Koblet, the 1951 winner, as a handsome and vain Swiss. The first thing he did after reaching the finish on any given day was to go for his comb and his hair gel.

● Another unforgettable figure was the Algerian cyclist Abdel-Kader Zaaf. He kept participating in the Tour year after year, but he only finished once, dead last. Sometimes the newsreels showed him taking a quick nap on the roadside during the race. When he woke up to continue, he once started riding  the wrong way, back toward the start!

● In the sixties and seventies, there was the Frenchman Raymond Poulidor. Poor Poulidor did fourteen Tours, but he came in second or third eight times! His nemesis was another Frenchman, Jacques Anquetil, who won the Tour five times.

● I saw many of these men live. Once, at the finish line, I got to meet Coppi, Bobet and another great French cyclist, Raphael Geminiani, and I got autographs from them, plus a photo of them and me. I was twelve.

● In 1954, the Tour de France started outside France for the first time. This was in Amsterdam, and it happened to be the very same year that I moved from France to Holland. Since then, the Tour has started outside France many times, even across the water in England. This year (2015), it started in Holland again, with a time trial in Utrecht.

Problems:
There have been massive problems with the Tour de France. One is the frequent misbehavior of the fans. Secondly, there is the perhaps unavoidable physical danger inherent in such a sport. Thirdly, there are the doping scandals that have plagued cycling more than any other sport.

1. Spectator misbehavior: One of the most aggravating things to watch is the behavior of the roadside spectators. Whenever the race passes through narrow winding mountain roads, the spectators move closer and closer to the center of the road, barely leaving enough space for the cyclists to pass through. Collisions are frequent. Sometimes, they cause falls.

Sometimes such an athlete-fan encounter is the difference between victory and defeat: The Belgian Eddy Merckx, possibly the all-time greatest and most prolific bicycle race winner, is tied for the most Tours won - five. However, had a spectator not punched him during one of his seven tours, he would have won six of them, which would be unique.

The 2015 Tour saw more than its share of grotesque fan behavior: Richie Porte is an Australian cyclist and one of Chris Froome “domestiques.” Froome is the superstar who was supported by his team to win the 2015 Tour, as he did in 2013. A “domestique” is a teammate whose responsibility it is to support and to help the main star to win it all. He does this by carrying drinks and food for the star, helping him ascend steep mountain climbs by letting the star draft behind him, etc. During this year’s Tour, Richie Porte was punched by a roadside spectator. A few days later, another pervert through a cup of urine in Froome’s face, and later, some spectators spat at him.

There have been  rumors that Froome is doping, following in the footsteps of Lance Armstrong. This is supposed to justify such spectator behavior. It doesn’t. I have complained repeatedly to the Tour organizers about such abominable “fan” behavior (see my previous articles about this: Do Something, Message to Tour Organizers).

2. Dangers; Lack of Security: Over the entire history of the Tour, “only” four cyclists have died during the event.

● Way back in 1910, a french rider drowned on the French Riviera during a rest.

● In 1935 a Spanish contestant died when he fell into a ravine in the Alps.

● In 1967 a British rider died of a heart attack while riding up the Mont Ventoux (he had taken amphetamines).

● In 1995 an Italian racer died when he crashed head first in a descent doing 88 km/h. After this last accident, the Tour organizers instituted mandatory helmets.

● Among spectators, sixteen Tour-related deaths have been recorded (Tour de France).

● I remember witnessing the Dutch rider Jan Nolten crashing into a ravine during one of the Alps stages. He recovered.

● Massive pile-ups of a dozen or more cyclists are very frequent.

3. Cheating; Doping: No sport has been more plagued by cheating and doping allegations - and probably  violations - than bicycling. This has accompanied the Tour de France from the very beginning. Back in the early 1900s, cheating went hand in hand with bad fan behavior, when contestants could count on their supporters to spread nails and broken glass underneath the wheels of their competitors.

In time, the methods and products used became more sophisticated. Blood doping became one of the favorite means. Racers and their coaches have often been able to stay ahead of ever more thorough testing, continuing to cheat and to get away with it for many years. By the turn of the 21st century, It had long been common knowledge that hardly a team was untouched by cheating and doping, although only a few of the guilty were caught.

The epicenter of it all was Lance Armstrong, winner of an unprecedented SEVEN Tours. He was my idol. Many people had long suspected him of cheating, but no proof ever materialized, despite the fact that he was tested more often than any other athlete in the world. Finally, in 2012, the entire Armstrong house of card fell apart, partly as a result of some of his minions (American cyclists such as Floyd Landis) turning him in so as to save their own neck. Professional cycling’s doping world broke wide open. Not only did Armstrong go down, but so did dozens of other cyclists, including the Americans Landis, Frankie Andreu, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer and others. Now, many cyclists from many different countries also came forward. Many confessed voluntarily, wanting to come clean. These included the Germans Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel, the Italian Ivan Basso, the Spaniard Alberto Contador, the Kazak Alexander Vinokourov, the Danes Michael Rasmussen and Bjarne Riis, the Luxemburger Frank Schleck and many others.

I defended my great hero Lance Armstrong to the bitter end (Lance Armstrong, The French Hate Armstrong, Questions about Lance Armstrong). Then, I finally admitted that I had been fooled, just like millions of others. (Eating Crow).

Now, in 2015, the whole issue has come up again: Because Chris Froome has been so incredibly dominant, many suspect him of cheating. What is one to do? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, right? But on the other hand, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, isn’t that true? My personal stance for now: Give Froome the benefit of the doubt unless shown otherwise. 

Cheating has become pandemic in all sports, whether it’s Tom Brady’s deflategate, Barry Bonds’ use of steroids or Jamaican runners taking performance-enhancing drugs. And remember when the Soviet Union and East Germany covertly used transgendered men to compete in women’s events? 

Factoids and History:
The Tour de France represents the apex of the cycling sport in prestige, in difficulty and in all other respects. It is arguably the single most challenging sport event in the world.

Today, about three fourths of the starters manage to complete the twenty-one stages and reach Paris. It was not always so. The first Tour, in 1903, had sixty starters, twenty-one of whom completed the race. Unbelievably, the total length of the Tour was about fifteen hundred miles, divided into six stages. Thus, the average stage length was about two hundred and fifty miles. It sometimes took twenty-four hours to complete a stage, leaving one day and arriving the next. Many of the roads were unpaved.

Twice came the killing fields: There was no Tour during the First and the Second World Wars. A different sort of competition took place across the fields of Flanders, one that took twenty million European lives.

I have calculated that through 2015, there have been a total of about 14,450 entries in the Tour de France. Because some of the competitors have entered the Tour as often as seventeen times, while many have only done it once, I estimate that the average number is three participations. Therefore, about five thousand different bicyclists have ever done a Tour de France. I don’t know how many of them managed to complete it.

The record for most Tours ridden belongs to three men: George Hincapie (US), Jens Voigt (Germany) and Stuart O’Grady (Australia): Seventeen. None of them ever won, and sometimes they did not finish. The Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk did sixteen Tours, and he won one. He finished ALL his Tours, and thus holds the record for most Tours finished. Most racers who participated in the Tour de France did so only once, and many of them did not finish (Tour Statistics).

Most frequent winners:
1. Jacques Anquetil - five victories - France (1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964)
2. Eddy Merckx - five victories - Belgium (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974)
3. Bernard Hinault - five victories - France (1978,1979, 1981, 1982, 1985)
4. Miguel Indurain - five victories - Spain (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995)
5. Philippe Thys -three victories - Belgium (1913, 1914, 1920)
6. Louison Bobet - three victories - France (1953, 1953, 1954)
7. Greg LeMond - three victories - USA (1986, 1989, 1990)

Winners, by country:
Over its entire history, the Tour has been won by far most often by a Frenchman. However, to their horror, the French people haven’t had a winner over the past thirty years.
1.France: 36
 2.Belgium: 18
3. Spain: 13
4. Italy: 10
5. Luxemburg: 4
6. US: 3
7. UK: 3
8. Switzerland: 2
9. Netherlands: 2
10. Ireland: 1
11. Denmark:1
12. Germany: 1
13. Australia: 1
Scratched because of cheating: 7. All seven Tours that were scratched and list no winners were initially won by Lance Armstrong.

For me, the Tour de France remains a superlative show, even though it is tainted by drug scandals. It is impossible to watch it and not be transfixed. There is of course the fierce athletic competition, the spectacular falls, the superhuman effort to ride up steep fifteen-mile long ascents, to compete over hundred-mile stages day after day, sometimes at speeds in excess of fifty miles per hour, and the ferocious sprint finishes.

But what makes this event so spectacular above all else is the setting: It takes place in one of the most magnificent landscapes on earth - the mountains, rivers and forests of France. For nearly a month, the entire caravan passes by rustic fairly-tale towns lovelier than Brigadoon, ocean-side fishing villages, the canyons of the Ardèche, the endless vineyards of the Rhone Valley, the snow-capped Alps and Pyrenees, the Loire castles, innumerable cathedrals and palaces, and then it arrives gloriously on Paris’ monumental Champs Elysees. It showcases a country of unsurpassed beauty, a country where ugliness seems to have been banned.
© Tom Kando 2015 leave comment here