The Telegraph Book of the Tour de France by Martin Smith

Author:Martin Smith [Smith, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781310359
Publisher: Aurum Press

31 JULY 1998

TRAGIC SPECTACLE OF AN EPIC EVENT BEING TORN TO PIECES

Phil Liggett

For 26 years I have followed every day of the Tour de France. I have seen cyclists die, as in the case of Italy’s Fabio Casartelli. I have seen my car reduced to a spade-load of debris after Basque separatists blew it up near San Sebastian in 1992. And, above all, I have seen brave riders crawl across the finish, so that they can go through the same pain the next day.

So the events of the past three weeks will be remembered by me and many others as one of the great sadnesses in sport this decade. The Tour’s history, as colourful as the riders themselves, is full of stories of human endurance, as man has persuaded his body to achieve feats which most would believe could never even be attempted.

Since the Tour started in 1903, and the early days of marathon stages, when riders would sleep on the roadside and secret controls were set up to stop cheats missing out the mountains, the event has entered the folklore of not just France, but the world.

During July, Tour fever is epidemic. A million spectators a day is quite normal and 1,000 media men are seen bizarrely charging around back roads in an attempt to beat the riders to the line. Television is live to 100 countries and all they want to see and talk about is the race’s maillot jaune.

The Tour is no longer just a sporting event, it is part of the fabric of French culture. Yet the doping scandals and the way they have been handled these past few days have made many ask if the French themselves are trying to destroy their own heritage.

Make no mistake, some cyclists – but not all – take drugs and so do athletes, swimmers, footballers and any other sportsmen who are chasing a big cash reward.

Just now, the race is throwing up a clutch of young riders, such as the Australians Robbie McEwen and Stuart O’Grady, and the rider who is currently second, Bobby Julich. I know these guys well, and I believe they are clean, living through hateful times which, as McEwen hopes, ‘will change soon’.

Jean-Marie Leblanc is a sad-looking race director, walking around this week with a frown on his face and the drooping eyes of a bloodhound. Despite friends in high places – after all, he is the only man to get the Champs-Elysées closed for anything except the Bastille Day parade – he sees his race as being under threat from the scandals which, so far, have had nothing directly to do with this event.

When the riders went on strike on Wednesday, after the TVM team had been taken to a hospital in police custody to give compulsory blood, urine and DNA tests, he launched an impassioned appeal to the riders ‘as friends’ and to the 20 team managers not to stop but continue in the race whatever happens. More arrests are likely today when

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