One of the coolest things that we’ve had the privilege of experiencing during our time here, occurred last month when le Tour de France, often referred to simply as le Tour, made a stop through Albertville.
For those not familiar with le Tour, it is perhaps the most infamous bike race in the world which takes place every July in France. The cyclists spend three weeks traversing the French countryside. Parts of the route, called stages, vary each year while others remain the same. This year the route totaled almost 2,100 miles over the 21 stages, which means the cyclists averaged roughly 100 miles per day, and this includes several extremely intense climbs through the mountains. Each year the race ends going up Champs-Élysées Avenue, the most famous avenue in Paris.
While listening to a French Duolingo podcast the other day, I learned that the race was actually started in 1903 by a sports newspaper which was trying to create extra content to cover during the slower summer months (talk about knocking it out of the park). The race quickly caught on and now attracts the best cyclists from around the world. Historically, the race has been exclusively for men, but this summer the first women’s edition to le Tour took place as well.
The race is hugely popular here and therefore to serve as a host city is a big deal, bringing with it a lot of publicity and visitors. Le Tour is sponsored by big corporations and a parade of corporate-sponsored vehicles, called la caravane du Tour de France, usually drives ahead of the cyclists and throws out cadeaux (presents) to the spectators who are waiting on the sides of the road.
This year Albertville served as the starting location for stage 11. On the morning of the race we went down to the race route to check out la caravane. Now if you are like us, when you hear the word parade you probably think of high school marching bands, local business floats pulled by trucks and local politicians putzing down the road while throwing out candy and interacting with the spectators. Well don’t tell this to those participating in la caravane. The floats that participate in la caravane are actually vehicles themselves and they fly down the road at more than 25mph, many while blasting music and throwing out goodies such as t-shirts, key chains, hats, pencils, product samples, bags of crackers, etc. (see videos below). It was an absolutely wild experience to witness this!
After the parade we went and checked out the large plaza area where the cyclists would eventually start from. Here there was a large stage where cyclists were being introduced as well as tons more vendors giving out free stuff including temporary tattoos, stickers, snap bracelets and shots of espresso (obviously this was our favorite).
About two hours after the parade, it was time for the race to begin. We left the plaza and went and found a spot along the race route to watch the cyclists go by, which took all of about 20 seconds (see video below). I should mention that for about the first mile of their ride through Albertville, they were not actually racing. The cyclists were only casually biking through the city as more of a show for the spectators. This stage of the race began once they got out into the mountain roads. All in all, this was a really cool experience and one that we will not soon forget!
– Adam
