With Paris-Nice on, time to look back at the race’s history. Over the years it has welcomed exotic teams, transported riders by air and invented new race rules. Through the race’s history we can trace the evolution of the sport we know today.
France
Le Tour Med Preview
A quick preview of this five day race starting today in France. It’s a event that offers something for everyone with stages over 200km in length, a time trial as well as a steep summit finish on Mont Faron to settle things on Sunday.
It’s not on TV but worth scanning the results over the next few days because this is a hard event that should reveal who is in form.
Roads to Ride: Col de Marie-Blanque
GP d’Ouverture – La Marseillaise preview
The season has started the Tour Down and the Tour de San Luis. But this weekend marks the return of road racing in the Northern Hemisphere with the Grand Prix d’Ouverture-La Marseillaise. With it comes a sense of familiarity and repetition and if there are only a few hours to go before this race starts you sense there’s another clock ticking too and this race along with others might have only a few years left on the calendar.
102 Year Old Robert Marchand Breaks Hour Record
Set aside your Chris Horner jokes and say bonjour to Robert Marchand who at 102 years old has just done an hour record attempt and set a new personal best distance of 26.925 kilometres, pulverising his old record of 24km.
Nationalism, Psychogeography and the Tour de France
What do you see in the painting? A class, some boys and a map of France. Look closer, note the military uniforms. The teacher is pointing to the Alsace Lorraine region to the East of France which was lost to the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1. What’s this got to do with Tour de France? Everything.
We celebrated the 100th Tour de France this year and praised Tour founder Henri Desgrange as a visionary entrepreneur, publicist and sports promoter who launched the race to promote sales of his L’Auto newspaper. But we skipped over the parts where Desgrange labelled Prussians “bastards” and called on his countrymen to “slam the butts” of their rifles into German chests until the blood spilled.
The Tour de France was created to sell newspapers but it was also used to promote French nationalism.
Roads to Ride: The Col du Galibier
The Tour de France likes its themes with anniversaries, war memorials and more in recent years. 2011 was the year of the Col du Galibier with the race visiting the mountain pass twice and each time with thrilling consequences. Even the Giro d’Italia has paid a visit.
A crucible for the sport but a vast open space and a climb that has everything, from ski resorts to wildlife.
Roads to Ride: The Champs Elysées
It’s testimony to cycling’s mythology that a race can turn a boring road into the centre of the world for a day. Or see Paris-Roubaix for a race where cyclists yearn to finish in a place that many ordinary people might try to avoid. All this is different with the Tour de France and its Parisian finish line when the road is closed for the cyclists, a privilege only shared with visiting heads of state.
But at the same time this is an ordinary road. Grand and famous yet accessible too and not every road in this series has to be a high mountain pass. Here’s a look at the road and also where else to ride if you’re in Paris with a bike.
Roads to Ride: The Col du Lautaret
As part of a series to explore the famous roads of cycling, here is the Col du Lautaret in the French Alps. The idea with this series is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether in cycling’s folklore or to explore what it is like on a normal day without a race.
The 2014 Tour de France route was unveiled and Stage 14 looks to like the Queen Stage, it’s certainly got alpine aristocracy with the climbs of the Lautaret before the Izoard and the final climb to Risoul. The Lautaret is a long climb by itself but also one of two ways to reach the start of the mighty Col du Galibier. It’s a climb that’s perfect for the Tour de France but unpleasant for others. A road not to ride?
Roads to Ride: La Planche des Belle Filles
As part of a series to explore the famous roads of cycling, here is the Planche des Belles Filles in France. The idea with this series is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether in cycling’s folklore or to explore what it is like on a normal day without a race.
The Planche des Belles Filles is a novelty that first appeared in the Tour de France in 2012. According to several sources it will be back in 2014 and it could well reveal the podium contenders once more. But for now it’s an unusually steep road that leads to a small ski station with a controversial past.