Tour de France 2020

Just a Bike Race

Orla Chennaoui's wonderful paean to Le Tour from issue 20.4

Photos: ASO / Pauline Ballet Words: Orla Chennaoui

JULY WITHOUT THE TOUR DE FRANCE


It’s just a bike race, it shouldn’t matter. 

When the world as we know it is torn and tattered,

It doesn’t. Not really. 

But what is July, without the Tour de France? 


Without the romance, the orchestrated song and dance,

The expanse of glorious chateaux and sporting heroes? 

And yes, we know, it will return. 

So what exactly will we mourn?


Is it the peloton slicing through the sway of hay, 

As helicopters thunk their way through the summer air above?

Is it the proud sky of fluttering flag, of every colour and contested land, 

Masted to campervans almost as old as this pilgrimage of love?

Maybe it’s the tribesmen of wide eyes and wild hair, 

Lost in dance and happenstance, running wildly as an act of presence, 

Spittling beery benedictions and blasphemy towards 

The vacant stares of their demi-Gods. 

As is their rite. As is their right.


Or the layers of history on which we tread, 

Through the ghosts of heroes and villains we’ve read, 

Whose annual commemoration and condemnation keep them real,

As though they rode and roused among us still.


It’s hardly the well-meaning, often congealing camembert wedges, 

Eaten off disposable plates in disposable places, 

Filed in the press memory for the buffet and winner that day,

Rather than the history and beauty of why we came that way.


Nor the endless curse at the damned sat nav, 

Which has led us once again straight into the path, 

Of the rather too gleeful gendarmerie, only too happy to point out that we 

Are but visitors here, and must follow their rules 

And take the long way round, to be played for fools.


I’ll miss the daily parade of energy, teeth and tan,

Belying the hangover of the publicity caravan,

Marinating in the excess of last night’s indiscipline,

Throwing jellied sweets like caution to the wind.


And nothing will replace the visceral thrill of being

Right on the edge of your seat at that giddying

Moment when all enemies and fears are thrust aside

In the charge for the line. Years of pain, fair tender for pride.

 

Originally published in issue 20.4 of Rouleur magazine



Photos: ASO / Pauline Ballet Words: Orla Chennaoui

READ MORE

Tadej Pogačar Strade Bianche recon

In pictures: Inside Tadej Pogačar's Strade Bianche recon

Rouleur tracks the defending champion and his team through their pre-race recon in Tuscany

Leggi di più
The poetic beauty of Siena: exploring the city that hosts Strade Bianche

The poetic beauty of Siena: exploring the city that hosts Strade Bianche

Rouleur's James Startt takes a photographic journey around one of Tuscany's most picturesque cities

Leggi di più
Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering at Strade Bianche Donne 2024

Strade Bianche 2025 women’s contenders: a showdown over the dirt roads of northern Italy

Rouleur looks at the contenders to take victory in Siena at the tenth anniversary of Strade Bianche Donne

Leggi di più
The peloton at Strade Bianche 2024

Strade Bianche 2025 men’s contenders: Who will conquer the white roads of Tuscany?

As the WorldTour takes on the dirt roads of northern Italy, Rouleur looks at who is in with a chance of winning in Siena

Leggi di più
Opinion: Unless other teams step up, Alpecin-Deceuninck are about to dominate this Classics season

Opinion: Unless other teams step up, Alpecin-Deceuninck are about to dominate this Classics season

Good luck to the rest of the peloton, because the Belgian team are on track to be stronger than ever in 2025

Leggi di più
Upset at Omloop: Is this going to be the most unpredictable Classics season ever?

Upset at Omloop: Is this going to be the most unpredictable Classics season ever?

Wærenskjold’s surprise victory in the men’s Omloop Nieuwsblad shows that with the peloton at its current level, winning is tougher than ever

Leggi di più

READ RIDE REPEAT

JOIN ROULEUR TODAY

Get closer to the sport than ever before.

Enjoy a digital subscription to Rouleur for just £4 per month and get access to our award-winning magazines.

SUBSCRIBE