You have to go to the Tour at least once in your life; one, no more, is enough to realize the greatness of this sporting competition. If no one is surprised in a final of any football championship to see the fans of one or another team touring the city that is hosting the match wearing their club’s shirt, if no one is upset when they see them eating or dining in a restaurant wearing the shirt of their favorite team, come and see, come to the Tour and Nobody, absolutely nobody, talks about football, balls, corners and offsides.
As an anecdote, in the UAE team, Tadej Pogacar, the leader of the race, and Joâo Almeida share a room. One is Slovenian and the other Portuguese. What did they do on Monday night while Slovenia and Portugal were playing for their sporting lives at the European Championship in the penalty shoot-out? I can even wait a few seconds, as if it were a contest, to see who gets it right. One, two, three… time! They went to sleep, to bedthat the next day we had to climb the Galibier and we were not in the mood for jokes.
Beyond football
In the Tour you see that There is sporting life beyond footballa different passion, different from the atmosphere that can be seen in any stadium in the world. Here nobody fights. Everyone, by pure human logic, has their favourite rider, but nobody would think of pulling their rival’s bike in order to benefit their favourite cyclist.
You come to see cycling, pure and simple, which it is, to enjoy it, and if your rival is in crisis, you encourage him just the same and even give him a chance. a little push if you need iteven though it is prohibited because the race judges almost always look the other way.
One might even be delighted when one discovers in a restaurant in Saint Michel de Maurienne, pure Savoy, 35 kilometres from the summit of the Galibier, a group of Argentine cycle tourists, perfectly dressed in jerseys and shorts, helmets on their feet, wearing cleat shoes and their bikes parked at the back of the establishment.
In a motorhome
They have come to the Tour from Argentina to rent a camper van in Bologna and experience the atmosphere of the race for three days before finishing the week by cycling up some of the giants of the Alpine mountain range such as Alpe d’Huez. If you ask them what an Argentine is doing in the Tour when they are world-renowned for their passion for football, the answer could not be more enthusiastic; Argentines don’t live by football alonethat there is a passion for bikes, that is what interests them and that before they went to the Vuelta a San Juan, the unofficial cycling tour in Argentina, and that now it will not be done due to the country’s cuts -those of the chainsaw- well, they have come to Europe to live the experience of having seen Pogacar, Vingegaard and company pass by just a few meters away from them.
Videos of the day
They share the table, showing each other the videos they have recorded with their mobile phones. If Vingegaard is not defeated, there is still a long way to go in the Tour and no one is surprised. Hence the comparison with football shirts, when they see the fans having dinner with their cycling jerseys on.
Because in the light of the restaurant’s chandeliers, wearing an official jersey of Primoz Roglic’s new team name, Red Bull Bora, a cycle tourist is dining alone and without company. He has found the restaurant open after descending the Galibier on his bike, making the most of the sunlight, while avoiding the traffic jam of cars and caravans that had enjoyed a climb led by Pogacar’s team and a descent that at times exceeded 100 kilometres per hour. This is a normal and common evening when the race is heading towards the Alps or the Pyrenees. A blessing for cycling enthusiasts and above all passionate about the Tour.
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2024-07-03 06:27:29
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