Tour de France
Starting today, France again in Tour's grip

By Mark Akins
Seattle Times staff

MARK AKINS / THE SEATTLE TIMES/2003 Richard Virenque, wearing the yellow jersey, climbs Alpe d’Huez last year. His single day as race leader prompted an outpouring of French pride.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Over the next 23 days, the Tour de France will have a white-knuckle grip on the attention of cycling devotees.

In Seattle, it means programming your VCR to start at 6 a.m.

In France, it's a little bigger hassle. Restaurants are packed. Roads along the route are closed for hours, and traffic jams last all day. Hikers arriving on their favorite mountaintops are met by an occupying force of 100,000 or more fans — some of them sober.

The French, for the most part, happily endure the inconvenience. They've endured worse, such as the 19-year drought since Bernard Hinault claimed the last Tour victory by a Frenchman.

Last summer, Richard Virenque, the darling of French fans despite his nine-month ban in 2001 for blood doping, prompted nationwide spasms of joy when he briefly seized the yellow jersey. Bedsheets unfurled along the next day's route shouted, "Courage, Richard!" and "Allez, Virenque!"

Virenque finished last year's Tour 16th. The best a Frenchman could do was Christophe Moreau's eighth.

The French are starving for a winner. The rest of us must endure only hunger pangs.

It starts today. Bon appetite.

Mark Akins is a Times copy editor who has been following the Tour de France since 1989. He can be reached at 206-464-8994 or makins@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More sports headlines...