This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/21/tour-de-france-wait-winner
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Tour de France slips away again as French endure long wait for winner | Tour de France slips away again as French endure long wait for winner |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| On the podium at the start of the penultimate stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France, the DJ is playing the hit song of another French institution gone global – Daft Punk's Get Lucky. | On the podium at the start of the penultimate stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France, the DJ is playing the hit song of another French institution gone global – Daft Punk's Get Lucky. |
| As the French cycling fans milling around the stalls on the lakeside lawns are painfully aware, once again there is no prospect of one of their fellow countrymen getting lucky and appearing on the final podium in the winner's yellow jersey in Paris on Sunday. | As the French cycling fans milling around the stalls on the lakeside lawns are painfully aware, once again there is no prospect of one of their fellow countrymen getting lucky and appearing on the final podium in the winner's yellow jersey in Paris on Sunday. |
| There is next year, of course. Always next year. It is the hope that has been carried in the heart of the French nation each summer for almost three decades since their last Tour champion, Bernard Hinault, won the last of his five races in 1985. | There is next year, of course. Always next year. It is the hope that has been carried in the heart of the French nation each summer for almost three decades since their last Tour champion, Bernard Hinault, won the last of his five races in 1985. |
| Next year, as French enthusiasts are only too aware, there will be a strong incentive for a British cyclist to win, with the Grand Départ taking place in Yorkshire. In all likelihood it will be a Briton, albeit a Kenyan-born one, Chris Froome, who – barring a disaster on the final stage from Versailles to Paris – will be defending champion. | Next year, as French enthusiasts are only too aware, there will be a strong incentive for a British cyclist to win, with the Grand Départ taking place in Yorkshire. In all likelihood it will be a Briton, albeit a Kenyan-born one, Chris Froome, who – barring a disaster on the final stage from Versailles to Paris – will be defending champion. |
| Sitting on a bench looking over the lake, with its bobbing pedalos and the sharp-crested mountains on the other side, Daniel Tribolot, a 57-year-old grandfather, reflects on Tours past when France and the Benelux countries dominated the race – contrasting with the most recent epoch, which has been dominated by Anglo-Saxon riders, even if the most famous of them, the American Lance Armstrong, was stripped of his seven titles for doping. "It's different these days," Tribolot says,a little sadly. "It's the English who are winning. The Anglos are strong, but they ride differently. The French riders have more heart, more passion. It may be international these days," he adds emphatically, "but the Tour de France is France." | Sitting on a bench looking over the lake, with its bobbing pedalos and the sharp-crested mountains on the other side, Daniel Tribolot, a 57-year-old grandfather, reflects on Tours past when France and the Benelux countries dominated the race – contrasting with the most recent epoch, which has been dominated by Anglo-Saxon riders, even if the most famous of them, the American Lance Armstrong, was stripped of his seven titles for doping. "It's different these days," Tribolot says,a little sadly. "It's the English who are winning. The Anglos are strong, but they ride differently. The French riders have more heart, more passion. It may be international these days," he adds emphatically, "but the Tour de France is France." |
| Pushing his mountain bike across the park, Thomas Ryckembusch, 24, another Annecy local, who races in the nearby mountains, is also optimistic for the future. "There are strong French riders coming through. I think one of them can win in the future." | Pushing his mountain bike across the park, Thomas Ryckembusch, 24, another Annecy local, who races in the nearby mountains, is also optimistic for the future. "There are strong French riders coming through. I think one of them can win in the future." |
| This year has not been a great Tour for France. In the department of consolation prizes, Christophe Riblon's victory on Thursday on the gruelling double ascent of L'Alpe d'Huez, the hardest stage on this year's Tour, rescued some honour for French riders. But it has been a brief respite in a Tour during which one article bemoaned: "Nil out of nine, and it's not ready to stop!" It took another nine stages – almost until the race's end – for Riblon to end that long run of stage defeats, the worst showing since the late 1990s. | This year has not been a great Tour for France. In the department of consolation prizes, Christophe Riblon's victory on Thursday on the gruelling double ascent of L'Alpe d'Huez, the hardest stage on this year's Tour, rescued some honour for French riders. But it has been a brief respite in a Tour during which one article bemoaned: "Nil out of nine, and it's not ready to stop!" It took another nine stages – almost until the race's end – for Riblon to end that long run of stage defeats, the worst showing since the late 1990s. |
| If it's easy to attempt an explanation of why nations, teams and individual athletes do well, what is less straightforward to diagnose – as France has been condemned to do – is the failure to succeed in an event for so long synonymous with national pride. Indeed, this year five French teams and 42 home-reared riders set off from the Grand Départ in Corsica. | |
| The anxiety over the failure of a French rider to win is exacerbated by who is actually winning. It was articulated in one of the questions posed on Friday by Sylvain Mouillard of Libération who, in an interview with the Radioshack-Leopard team's directeur sportif Alain Gallopin and his nephew Tony (a rider in the same team), asked if "cycling was coming under a period of Anglo-Saxon domination". The answer – supplied by Tony – was equally instructive. "Equipment, nutrition, [the Anglo-Saxon teams] calculate everything," he remarked ruefully. "Whereas for us, our vision is whoever is strongest at the bottom of the hill will win. They've something different going on … and when they get going, they don't think about anything else." | The anxiety over the failure of a French rider to win is exacerbated by who is actually winning. It was articulated in one of the questions posed on Friday by Sylvain Mouillard of Libération who, in an interview with the Radioshack-Leopard team's directeur sportif Alain Gallopin and his nephew Tony (a rider in the same team), asked if "cycling was coming under a period of Anglo-Saxon domination". The answer – supplied by Tony – was equally instructive. "Equipment, nutrition, [the Anglo-Saxon teams] calculate everything," he remarked ruefully. "Whereas for us, our vision is whoever is strongest at the bottom of the hill will win. They've something different going on … and when they get going, they don't think about anything else." |
| That observation reflects a far wider cultural concern in France that, while conceding that the Anglo-Saxon model – regarded as it is with deep suspicion in all things – might produce success, it remains mechanistic, ruthless and alien to the French way of doing things. In cycling terms it lacks a crucial element of the great Tour cyclists of legend – the notion of panache embodied in figures like the current and popular French rider Thomas Voeckler, nicknamed Monsieur Panache. And while the almost three decades without a French Tour winner pales beside the 77-year wait for a British male singles champion at Wimbledon before Andy Murray's triumph this summer, the race carries a similar weight of national expectation. | That observation reflects a far wider cultural concern in France that, while conceding that the Anglo-Saxon model – regarded as it is with deep suspicion in all things – might produce success, it remains mechanistic, ruthless and alien to the French way of doing things. In cycling terms it lacks a crucial element of the great Tour cyclists of legend – the notion of panache embodied in figures like the current and popular French rider Thomas Voeckler, nicknamed Monsieur Panache. And while the almost three decades without a French Tour winner pales beside the 77-year wait for a British male singles champion at Wimbledon before Andy Murray's triumph this summer, the race carries a similar weight of national expectation. |
| One reason for the continuing disappointment, believes William Fotheringham, the Guardian and Observer cycling correspondent, is that after the Festina team scandal in 1998 French cycling was much quicker to crack down on doping than its rivals, in an era dominated by the most infamous doper of them all – Armstrong. He believes, however, there are other reasons that have combined to work against French riders. | One reason for the continuing disappointment, believes William Fotheringham, the Guardian and Observer cycling correspondent, is that after the Festina team scandal in 1998 French cycling was much quicker to crack down on doping than its rivals, in an era dominated by the most infamous doper of them all – Armstrong. He believes, however, there are other reasons that have combined to work against French riders. |
| "The internationalisation of the race almost overnight in the mid-1980s resulted in a lot of winners from outside the old core of European countries. Then there was the tougher approach by the French cycling authorities to doping, although French cycling has somewhat hidden behind that excuse. But the truth is they have underperformed." | "The internationalisation of the race almost overnight in the mid-1980s resulted in a lot of winners from outside the old core of European countries. Then there was the tougher approach by the French cycling authorities to doping, although French cycling has somewhat hidden behind that excuse. But the truth is they have underperformed." |
| That is a judgment shared by some in French cycling who believe French riders developed a "complex" during the Armstrong years they have struggled to shake off. The lack of success in the Tour – and in the 100th edition in particular – reflects a wider national anxiety over how the race has become increasingly less "French". Where 30 years ago the few foreign riders would have been expected to speak French, these days English is as common as the race's lingua franca, with press releases published in both languages. | That is a judgment shared by some in French cycling who believe French riders developed a "complex" during the Armstrong years they have struggled to shake off. The lack of success in the Tour – and in the 100th edition in particular – reflects a wider national anxiety over how the race has become increasingly less "French". Where 30 years ago the few foreign riders would have been expected to speak French, these days English is as common as the race's lingua franca, with press releases published in both languages. |
| On the PA at one of the Tour boutiques in Annecy – encouraging fans to buy T-shirts and hats – English alternated with French. That internationalisation stands at odds with the sense of national ownership of la grande boucle – the great loop – as it is affectionately known. That is because the Tour, in its 110 years of history, came to represent not simply a sporting competition but a vehicle for France to interpret its competing notions of Frenchness. | On the PA at one of the Tour boutiques in Annecy – encouraging fans to buy T-shirts and hats – English alternated with French. That internationalisation stands at odds with the sense of national ownership of la grande boucle – the great loop – as it is affectionately known. That is because the Tour, in its 110 years of history, came to represent not simply a sporting competition but a vehicle for France to interpret its competing notions of Frenchness. |
| Christopher Thompson, the US historian and author of The Tour de France; a Cultural History, argues that since the first race in 1903, the Tour – through the aftermaths of the first and second world wars – has been deployed as an exemplar of ideas about national regeneration in periods when there has been fear of decline or trauma. Despite that, he argues, France's relationship with the Tour has never lacked complexity, held up during its long history as sometimes embodying a worrying modernity and – paradoxically – as a symbol of a traditional France threatened by precisely the same modernity. | Christopher Thompson, the US historian and author of The Tour de France; a Cultural History, argues that since the first race in 1903, the Tour – through the aftermaths of the first and second world wars – has been deployed as an exemplar of ideas about national regeneration in periods when there has been fear of decline or trauma. Despite that, he argues, France's relationship with the Tour has never lacked complexity, held up during its long history as sometimes embodying a worrying modernity and – paradoxically – as a symbol of a traditional France threatened by precisely the same modernity. |
| Most powerfully it was shot through with almost mythical values of courage, perseverance, and rituals of sportsmanship. All of which was threatened when the Tour became an international event, dominated by multinational sponsors and worth hundreds of millions. That in itself set up an inevitable tension: between an idea of the Tour as French supporters would like it to be, and the reality of the slick global affair that in recent years was corrupted by widespread drug abuse. | Most powerfully it was shot through with almost mythical values of courage, perseverance, and rituals of sportsmanship. All of which was threatened when the Tour became an international event, dominated by multinational sponsors and worth hundreds of millions. That in itself set up an inevitable tension: between an idea of the Tour as French supporters would like it to be, and the reality of the slick global affair that in recent years was corrupted by widespread drug abuse. |
| "The French fans feel as though they have been served up an inauthentic race in recent years dominated by cheaters," says Thompson. It is why the eternally plucky underdog of a past era, Raymond Poulidor, who finished second three times and third on five occasions in the Tour, is still held up as an exemplar of the French Tour cyclist. | "The French fans feel as though they have been served up an inauthentic race in recent years dominated by cheaters," says Thompson. It is why the eternally plucky underdog of a past era, Raymond Poulidor, who finished second three times and third on five occasions in the Tour, is still held up as an exemplar of the French Tour cyclist. |
| Not everyone agrees, not least the last French champion, Bernard Hinault, a consistent critic of the state of French cycling. Visiting a Leeds school in June to promote the 2014 Tour, Hinault insisted: "It's upsetting for me. If tomorrow we had a Frenchman in the first three in Paris, he would be a god to French people. Most just don't have the winner's mentality. They think it's enough to be seventh or eighth." On his bench, however, Daniel Tribolot is still optimistic. "We hope ... we hope. Maybe next year. Next year, perhaps, it will be a Frenchman." | Not everyone agrees, not least the last French champion, Bernard Hinault, a consistent critic of the state of French cycling. Visiting a Leeds school in June to promote the 2014 Tour, Hinault insisted: "It's upsetting for me. If tomorrow we had a Frenchman in the first three in Paris, he would be a god to French people. Most just don't have the winner's mentality. They think it's enough to be seventh or eighth." On his bench, however, Daniel Tribolot is still optimistic. "We hope ... we hope. Maybe next year. Next year, perhaps, it will be a Frenchman." |
| And in Annecy, after the caravan of sponsor floats, a man dressed as a giant baguette, the photographers and medics, security and TV cameramen on bikes, the nature of the event that draws 12 million to watch each year reveals itself for an instant. At the front is Chris Froome, a flash of yellow behind the race direction cars. A family from Edinburgh shouts his name and in a blink the racers are gone. For most in Annecy the Tour is a vast social occasion. Its annual pilgrimage round France is as much an opportunity to bring people together as it is a sporting event. | And in Annecy, after the caravan of sponsor floats, a man dressed as a giant baguette, the photographers and medics, security and TV cameramen on bikes, the nature of the event that draws 12 million to watch each year reveals itself for an instant. At the front is Chris Froome, a flash of yellow behind the race direction cars. A family from Edinburgh shouts his name and in a blink the racers are gone. For most in Annecy the Tour is a vast social occasion. Its annual pilgrimage round France is as much an opportunity to bring people together as it is a sporting event. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. | Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Enter your email address to subscribe. | Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Enter your email address to subscribe. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox every weekday. | Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox every weekday. |