Tour de France: between national novel and world myth

Virginie Phulpin 07:23, July 01, 2022

The Tour de France starts today.

Departure from Denmark before arriving in France on the cobblestones of the North.

Whether you are passionate about cycling or not, the Tour remains a moment apart, between national novel and world myth.

Wait, I don't understand, the Tour is starting, and there isn't even the slightest controversy about the caravan, nor about the hostesses, nothing… Are you sure it's the Tour de France?

It still lacks a few grumbles from home, in there.

It may be because the big loop leaves from Denmark, it refreshes our ideas.

It even makes us a vacation when we are rid of these caricatural debates.

That's good, nothing rhymes better than Tour de France and holidays.

The runners set off, and we go directly on a trip.

A trip back in time, our memories of July riders stuck in traffic jams on the A6, with the little brother in the back seat repeating “are we there soon?

» while the adults, in front,

meticulously move the button on the car radio to be sure not to miss the commentary of Bernard Hinault's stage victory.

I don't want to preach for my parish, but the Tour is also a radio adventure.

Voices that accompany the peloton, giving free rein to our imagination.

It's fundamental, the imagination, in the Tour.

This sporting epic with the air of a national novel that makes us revisit history, big and small, while making us discover or rediscover geography.

Its big names, Arenberg, Galibier, Alpe d'Huez especially this year.

And also all these towns and villages which adorn themselves with their finest finery to welcome the Tour.

As if we were reconciling this divided France, as if it were one, between rural areas and large cities,

around bicycles which you no longer wonder if they run too red lights.

It's not a magic trick, it's the magic of the Tour. 

And it's not just Franco-French, it's a global myth, the Tour.

There aren't 50 popular sporting events around the world.

There are the Olympic and Paralympic games, the soccer world cup, and the Tour de France.

And neither the evolution of cycling nor the dark years of doping have done anything about it.

Lance Armstrong did a great job to make us lose all illusions, to destroy what remained of our naivety.

We could have looked away and moved on.

And yet, even the overloaded American does not weigh heavily against the myth of the great loop.

It is not for nothing that cycling offers us expressions that have passed into everyday language.

Get back in the saddle, for example.

It's more telling than the potato hunt, it's true.

The Tour de France is both the unattainable, these superhuman efforts made for three weeks by riders on the verge of breaking,

and the competition open to all par excellence.

Free and popular.

It is so rare today where the sound of cash drawers accompanies all sporting events.

And it is perhaps this paradox that gives the Tour de France its special flavor.