Words and history matter to Jeannie Longo. By dint of hearing about a first women’s Tour de France, about the Women’s Tour de France created this year by Amaury Sport Organization (and which ends today), the cycling legend has taken the fly.
« Ce is not very respectful for those who have already run it, for the winners like [l’Américaine] Marianne Martin, [l’Italienne] Maria Canins or me. We marked cycling and we are a little sad “, was – a little – annoyed, in an interview at the Parisian on July 25, the triple winner (1987, 1988, 1989) of this “prequel” organized in the 1980s.
At the time, Jeannie Longo already captured all the light with her duel against Maria Canins, or with her assertive personality, as when she showered on the set of Antenne 2, during the 1987 Tour de France, a Marc Madiot, jersey champion of France on the back, who finds that “seeing a woman on a bicycle is ugly”.
Women’s cycling and Longo, a pleonasm
In France, women’s cycling and Longo ended up becoming a pleonasm. His results – thirteen world titles and an Olympic title in 1996 – as well as his longevity have contributed to this. Another factor also, and above all, is not unrelated to this: the absence of a structured and professionalized women’s sector, allowing young women to devote themselves only to cycling, without having to work in parallel.
In 2012, when the French championship arrived in Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux (Nord), more than thirty years after its debut, it was still her, for example, who was at the center of attention. Not for her results – she had taken the 12e place – but because she had to answer questions about her husband’s alleged purchases of EPO.
“She vampirizes all the media attention”, then lamented the president of the French Cycling Federation (FFC), David Lappartient. The victory of a young local went almost unnoticed. Her name ? Marion Rousse.
A decade later, the Northerner competes in notoriety with Jeannie Longo between her role as a consultant for France Télévisions and her new title of director of the Tour de France Women. Sunday July 24, the two women stood side by side for the big start from the Champs-Elysées, in Paris.
When The world asked the boss of the event if the “Longo legacy” did not end up proving cumbersome, she deployed treasures of diplomacy: “Jeannie has become a public figure outside of sports. It’s strong all the same to manage to do that: everyone today knows Jeannie Longo. However, at the time, we didn’t talk about women’s cycling at all: she’s a great lady. »
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