The Tour will not end in the French capital. It will do it in Nice because the French authorities, for security reasons, do not want to get their fingers trapped with the Olympic Games just around the corner.
32 years ago the Tour arrived to Paris, as it had done the previous 32 and the following 32. The protagonists, evidently, were different from those who will parade through the Elysian Fields, to the point that only one rider of those who will now finish in the top ten had been born at that time; nothing less than bilbao hairone of the highlights of this edition of the French round.
French cars still carried yellow license plates, in black those of the oldest. All the vehicles showed those yellowish fog lights that were used to identify them when they crossed the border through La Junquera or Irún.
Indurain’s song
The cyclists, the ones who managed to finish the race, felt just as happy as they were now when they rode along the most famous Parisian avenue among the bustle of the public. The difference is that at that time the spectators came from Spain and did nothing but shout a song that became famous during five years of consecutive victories: “Induráin, indurainIndurain! & rdquor ;.
Paris was just as expensive than now and a kind of satellite in France, a country that has nothing to do with its capital. Anyone who has only been to Paris can never boast of knowing France, a land of contrasts, where the north is nothing like the south, neither in climate nor in customs, nor inland, nor of course the Alpine lands, nor the Alsaces, full of towns with German names.
cared towns
I will always highlight the affection they have when it comes to take care of their towns where you hardly find those buildings of hard and pure billet that breaks all the charm with the old constructions. It is clear that there is another France, the one that so many times demands a bit of justice and equality, but with which you hardly find yourself when you travel through the territories of the Tour.
You will never see, among the thousands of fans who climb the passes of the Grande Boucle by bike, the boys from the fringesprobably because they don’t have money to buy those expensive bikes, which they cost an arm and a leg, and to which you can hardly aspire when you do not reach the end of the month. And much less can you consider going on vacation to the roads of the Tour, all more expensive due to the passage of the race.
The example of the United States
In other countries, like USAcycling is a sport for millionaires, those who still make a face of circumstances when Lance Armstrong’s sins are listed and those who continue to travel to Europe, or rather, to France, to climb the Tour monuments hours or days before the Tour heroes do.
In 32 years and 33 Tours, France has been changing and evolving, as the surrounding countries have done, mobile coverage continues to be lost when you go on the highway and let alone on departmental roads, but you can now dine at a decent hour almost everywhere, except in the forgotten north this year in the most alpine edition in the history of the Tour. And prices have risen like everywhere else: if you want Travel to France in the next few days it is recommended to fill the tank before crossing the border.
And if you want to prepare a trip to enjoy the French round of 2024 It is recommended to do it in October when the route is presented because if you wait until the end of winter or spring, unless you intend to sleep in a tent, there will no longer be a hotel or tourist apartment available for kilometers around the mountain town that will host the test.
An end away from the capital
Of course, we will have to forget about Paris, because for once and surely without serving as a precedent, the Tour will not end in the French capital. will do it in Nice because the French authorities, for security reasons, do not want to get their fingers caught with the Olympic Games just around the corner.
2024 will be a strange Tour that will start in Florence and it will end on the Côte d’Azur, far from the Olympic hustle and bustle of Paris and further still from the memories of the first Tour won by indurain, when his name was sung and it will begin to seem as easy and simple to win a Tour as to eat a tortilla sandwich. How wrong we were.