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 The French love cycling. You see them every Sunday morning, all kitted out in their Lycra gear, pushing the pedals and covering kilometers with (more or less) consummate ease. It’s fun to watch the wheel spinners, but if you really want to see some live bike action, the Tour de France is coming to the Languedoc again this year. For those who live here – or who’ll be passing through – Friday July 14 and Saturday July 15 are ideal opportunities to experience the excitement first hand. The Tour arrives in Carcassonne (from Luchon) on the 14th, before setting off again the next day from Béziers at 10 am, headed for Montelimar (capital of nougat, gateway to Provence). View a on the official Tour de France website and at the end of this Diary you’ll find estimated arrival times of the peloton at main points along the route as it travels through the Languedoc.
 Many Languedoc locals pack a picnic and then sit at the roadside in eager anticipation, working their way through a six pack or three, until the honking of horns and the arrival of the police motorcade signals that Something Major is about to happen. The pack sweeps past at breakneck speed in a blur of colour (blink and you’ll miss ‘em), but nothing beats watching this historic event live. These days I’m only a fair weather cyclist, but back in the day, I used to belong to a French cycling club, and I still have my trusty road bike. Just thinking about the Tour makes me come over all shivery. Ooh, put me back on me bike, as British rider Tom Simpson allegedly said. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, .
For the uninitiated, here’s What You Need to Know about the Tour de France, in a nutshell. It’s a cycle race, founded by one Henri Desgrange in Paris in 1903. It’s held annually in France (although World Wars I and II got in the way, so this year’s event is the 93rd Tour) and surprise, surprise, no British rider has ever won it. Last year’s event was a biggie because top American rider Lance Armstrong secured his seventh consecutive win (he subsequently retired) but with the Texan gone, this year’s Tour is wide open, and arguably more interesting.
If you’re not au fait with the world of cycle racing, the Tour de France is a bit like a poker game played on bikes at speeds from 8 kph (up the Alps) to 80 kph (down the other side). At the time of writing there are 21 teams of nine riders set to tear up the Languedoc tarmac on July 15th, with team members endeavouring to help their top riders achieve the fastest overall time by a variety of tactics (including getting in their rivals’ way). The winner is the rider with the fastest overall time from start to finish, calculated daily, with the yellow jersey (le maillot jaune) moving from rider to rider during the race.
The reward for all this blood, sweat and tears is a handsome €450,000 – a sum which would keep you in padded shorts for a lifetime. Besides the coveted yellow jersey, there’s a rather fetching white and red polka dot number (awarded to the King of the Mountains), a green jersey for the rider with the greatest overall number of points, and a white jersey that goes to the best young rider under 25. Got it? Good – now let’s have a look at that race route and scope out the best vantage points!
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