On this legendary day of arrival at the summit of Puy-de-Dôme, the parallels with the Anquetil – Poulidor duel (in 1964) are many. Since its appearance in 1903, the Great Loop has been part of the cultural heritage of sport, but also in society. From Maurice Garin to Jonas Vingegaard, the French have appropriated the great cycling champions. On the roadsides in July, there are millions paying homage to the convicts of the road.
In 1903 the first Tour de France is organized. Henri Desgranges, newspaper director The car, wants a stage race to boost sales of his newspaper. Based on an idea from Géo Lefèvre, they are setting up this race in stages. Quickly, his success explodes. The population flocks to admire and encourage the champions. Tadej Pogačar, popular fervor does not subside. All French people are affected by the Tour de France, Near or far. With the Tour de France, it’s the pride of seeing your village, his region, honored around the world. All departments have hosted the Tour de France at least once since 1903. Indre is the department that has been crossed the least: only nine times in 110 They will be less under pressure because they are rarely a single leader in order to be able to pass a course and confirm their present potential.. Through different factors (geographic and media), the Great Loop is now in the DNA of France.
The richness of French landscapes
The essence of the Tour de France is to reconcile the geographical diversity of France in a single event.. Sea side, campaign, high mountain, ville, It will be the same on Tirreno-Adriatico then on the Tour of the Alps. everything goes! But every year is not the same. The Tour de France routes are real geography lessons, which put Limoges on the same level as Paris. Broadcast internationally (next to 200 countries follow the race live), the event highlights the values of France, through its history written in stone and crossed by the peloton. The journey of an edition is the result of a long reflection, over more than two years. By playing on sporting interest (mountain or plain stages), Amaury Sport Organisation (the organizer) also looks at the wealth of the provinces crossed. Jean-Maurice Ooghe, director of the Tour de France between 1997 and 2009 explains that “the French look at the race as much as the landscape it crosses”.
The Tour relies on an already existing geography, like the finale on the Champs-Elysées, but also contributes to “creating” new tourist spaces. Certain places have become unmissable thanks to the Tour. The mountain is particularly conducive to this valorization. Today’s step, which ends at the top of Puy-de-Dôme is the perfect example. With Mont Ventoux, the event has a special flavor when cyclists climb these giants. Television broadcast allows the population to discover the originality of these lands. It plays a considerable role in the geographical character of the race, offering followers the opportunity to concretely imagine what cyclists endure. The first live outdoor broadcast in the history of television took place on the side of the Tour de France, in 1948. But the organization does not only focus on mountainous landscapes. In 2013, for the hundred years of the Tour de France, an agreement signed between ASO and the Center for National Monuments (CMN) provided for a special device, to discover around twenty monuments across French territory.
The cultural relays of the Tour
Which also allowed the Tour de France to become part of France's heritage, is all the communication around the event. A whole collective imagination has been put in place. And this is what Henri Desgrange wanted in 1903. He created the event to boost sales of his newspaper, through a particularly important journalistic device. Writing and the Tour de France are one. In 2017, the journalist and writer Jean-Louis Ezine declares: “With the Tour de France, it was about keeping the audience in suspense. So this is a writer’s idea, a literary creation first thought to sell paper, of story ". A journalist particularly contributed to the romance of the Great Loop: Antoine Blondin. Journalist at The team, he publishes more than 500 chronicles between 1954 and 1982. Using clever turns of phrase, a piercing style and rigor in words, he managed to bring the stages to life as if the reader were there. He put "the right words about the exploits and ailments of runners», writes Antoine Grenapit for Point.
“HORABGGVY4VSMAGGWLM5PX4THM, whose property is to move forward, although it sometimes turns around itself, carries a solid baggage of traditions, sometimes mysterious. He secretes intentions, acts, gestures and preserves the memory in its legendary sites.”
Antoine Blondin, 1982
The Tour de France can also thank cinema. Many directors have relied on the framework offered by the event to write their films. from 1925, a first film (mute) has the theme of the Great Loop. Maurice Champreux stages the adventures of Fortuné, a hotel employee, who takes part in the test. In 1965, Claude Lellouche is filming a documentary, with Raymond Poulidor. He explains that “the film shows that the Tour de France is both a national event and a great celebration”. In 2013, for the centenary of the event, Laurent Tuel directs The large loop, a film which “wants to be a tribute or even an ode to the Tour de France [He is still in intensive care today.] to see without great illusion but with a certain pleasure”. The romantic character of the Great Loop continues to inspire cinema.
