Dear Pierre Woodman,

are you interested in the Tour de France, overall? As we know, it´s the world most important bicycle race competition. For instance, first time in history a german was able to win the Tour de France, the Meilleur jeune, was in 1997, Jan Ullrich. Last time France won the Meilleur jeune was in 1985, Bernard Hinault. France won the Tour de France many times before. For me personal, it´s just a great event. And the video-footage of the Tour de France is just awesome, there are always many helicopers and motorcyles around, in order to get always the best video-footage: They show france in perfection, for instance many landscapes and châteaus. What are your feelings about this event, is it something, you care about?

https://www.letour.fr/fr/

Greetings

I really enjoy following it on tv, when you think of all that's going on during a tour with the different goals each team has and tries to reach, the dynamics, tactics and drama are just unique to this sport. But then you have bastards like Armstrong and probably Froome who sadly make you have mixed feelings about cycling.

you meant to say "maillot jaune", which means "yellow jersey" and is the leader of the Tour.
Meilleur Jeune means best youth, he wears a white jersey and is the best under 25yo ranked cyclist.

As I am born at one mile from a mountain called " puy de dôme ", when I was a child, every year the tour was coming there and I was so happy to see and touch the hand of Poulidor, Thevenet and my all time favorit Eddy Mercks.
I remember particulary the Tour 1973 when Ocana arrived on the top of the mountain in yellow and I could also touch him but I refused because I was angry and sure he will won the Tour only because Mercks wa not there that year.

I also remember Bernard Hinault but when I met him for a photo shooting in 1988 in Europe 1 radio, I was a bit disappointed by his cold attitude.
I think my biggest souvenir was July 11.1975, I was waiting to see my heroe Eddy Mercks be the first on the top of Puy de Dôme but less than a quarter of mile before the arrival, someone spanked his liver with a fist kick. I was 10 years old, I did not know what was the problem when he was walking back with the police to the place it happened but I get to be near of him and he put his hand on my neck at same time he was speaking with people, it was on televison and next day in school some people told me they saw me, I was so proud ...

Today I don't really care this competition, as Formula 1, I think the best was in past.
All is different, so much dopping, team to help the richest ones, it's far the time of the real men like Fausto Coppi able to go on the top with a 12 kg bike and not under steroids ...
When I was in Police school, it was at 25 km from my home in a city call Châtel Guyon.
I was going and back every day by bicycle, which means with all other things around I was making more than a thousand kilometers every month this way, and in the mountain, so yes I know what it means for those guys to do such efforts !!!

PW

BONJOUR pierre pour moi a toutes epoques ils était charger dans l ancien il appeler ca le pot belge moi apres ca me derange pas plus que ca et les gens veulent toujours plus de spectacle sur l etapes de montagne et apres ca crie aux loups le seul truc qui me plait pas ses les velos avec leur petit moteur la meme moi je fini en tete lol

C'est tout pareil maintenant, velo ou formule 1, je n'ai plus aucun plaisir à regarder ça.
Il reste le tennis ( I love Federer and Nadal ), le UFC ( Fedor est de retour à 39 ans ) la boxe et un peu le football, mais sinon tout est à chier ...

PW

Thanks Pierre Woodman,

i agree with you in almost every single issue, exept the using of doping in the Tour de France. Ok, we all know, they still use doping in the Tour de France, in my opinion, every singe cyclists, every team is doing it. In germany, there was a huge scandal few year ago, when Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag and Jens Voigt pretend in public press conference, they used doping, but just once. Erik Zabel had tears in his eyes and told, that he don´t want to lie to his son any longer. But he just confessed thing which happend in the early years of his career.

That was the point, when public interest amoung the Tour de France went almost near zero in just a few days, because of this press conference, people hate lies. I think, lot of people don´t care, if cyclists or other athletes are using doping. But they hate to watch these idols in television, pretending, that they are clean. Anyway, we know, even in the "ancient times" people always use drugs, think about the first summit of Annapurna (8091m) by Maurice Herzog und Louis Lachenal, they use pervitin, but in my opinion, this doesn´t lower this great success climbing the Annapurna and a 8k-Peak for the first time in history. And just think about international football, the Leage 1 or the Premier Leage. Anyway, i just feel today, it´s not fair anymore, to just blame and punish the cyclists for using drugs. Cyclists earn much less than 2nd devision football players, and they all use doping as well. There is no sense in outlawing Tour de France and watch international Football ...

Jan Ullrich 1997, Stage 10, Andorra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 3jRlrknXzM

PW

PW