In the 18th century, it was customary for young English aristocrats to go on a ‘grand tour’, a lengthy trip through western Europe often centring around Italy. They would spend time looking at antiquity and the art of the renaissance, educating themselves on the supposed ideals of the continent.
In the world of cycling, a Grand Tour has come to mean something very different – no, not the Top Gear successor – the lengthy, extreme tests of a riders ability in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España.
Covering one of these races in its entirety still has a whiff of the old grand tour about it, however; this year, following the Tour, I spent 28 days across four countries, staying in 21 different hotels. Someone like Lord Byron probably would not have considered a confusing four-week tour of Denmark, France, Belgium and Switzerland to be up to much, and it is doubtful he would have ever chosen to visit towns as varied as Longwy, Tarbes and Sønderborg. It did certainly educate, to a point, though.
Now the dust has settled on the Tour – and the Tour de France Femmes – here are eight things I learned from covering my first Grand Tour. Hopefully not my last.
You will not see a lot of the race
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One might imagine that being at a bike race, especially as a journalist with special access, is the best way to see the action. Not so.
Watching the Tour on television, especially now coverage starts right from the beginning of the stage, you get to see almost everything that happens, well, as much as the director wants to show you. You can see the break form, the late attacks, the rider who is forced to change bikes multiple times.
From the ground, it is often difficult to get a grasp of what’s going on. Obviously, the same is true of the fans standing at the side of the road for a single glimpse of their heroes, but some days it’s even worse. You can follow on social media or catch a glimpse on your phone, but it’s not really the same.
On stage 19, from to Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors, there was so much driving to do from the start to the finish that I think I saw about 5km of the stage in the end, and did not see Christophe Laporte charge to the line until much later. If anything interesting happened that day, I’m sorry for missing it.
Driving up Alpe d’Huez is hell
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Sure, Alpe d’Huez looks fun, with its party atmosphere, its an amphitheatre of cycling. Dutch Corner, what a laugh! Some of the riders even look…