ARD media library: New documentary series investigates the “Myth Tour”.

Status: 06/28/2023 11:59 p.m

Now in the ARD media library: The three-part documentary series “Mythos Tour” traces the fascination of the Tour de France and also asks how up-to-date it still is.

The Tour de France has existed for 120 years – the third largest sporting event in the world, long since a monument. The tour has survived everything: world wars, pandemics, doping scandals – the tour has written countless stories: there have been deaths and tragedies, black hours and legendary triumphs, crazy moments and always great pictures from the open-air stadium in France. The three-part ARD series “Mythos Tour” traces the fascination of the Tour de France and also asks how contemporary it is.

The episodes at a glance:

Episode I. Death

Alpe d’Huez is a mythical place – the most legendary climb of the Tour de France, surrounded by crowds. The Italian Marco Pantani won there twice, a few years later he died of depression and a cocaine overdose. On Mont Ventoux, the Brit Tom Simpson fell off his bike dead while intoxicated with drugs. Some riders died young. The Tour de France repeatedly claimed victims.

Episode II. Survival

The 2007 Tour de France was called the “Tour de Farce”. Just one year after the blood doping scandal surrounding the Spanish doctor Fuentes, the Dane Michael Rasmussen wrote a particularly dark chapter in tour history – he had to leave the tour under serious suspicion of doping. Today he is purified and a physical education teacher in Denmark. From the start there was cheating on the tour; but again and again the tour found a spectacular answer and squirmed out of the stranglehold of the scandals.

Episode III. Life

In 2022, Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France, which also started in his native Denmark. His duel with the previous two-time tour winner Tadej Pogacar turned into an earthquake-like spectacle, characterized by attacks and counter-attacks. Tour fascination – as it was felt again and again with the Germans in the history of the tour. But even today it doesn’t work without the suffering on the country road. And the tour needs more and more action to survive.