{"id":174508,"date":"2019-07-16T05:42:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T05:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=174508"},"modified":"2019-07-16T05:42:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T05:42:54","slug":"the-most-memorable-tour-de-france-stages-through-the-eyes-of-one-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/07\/16\/the-most-memorable-tour-de-france-stages-through-the-eyes-of-one-family\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Memorable Tour de France Stages Through the Eyes of One Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tour de France has one of the longest traditions of all races. It has raised passion throughout generations and will continue to do so for a long, long time. In some families, the Tour is a mandatory holiday time. The Dubois family from Paris aren\u2019t all that religious, but have been there to witness many Grand Boucles anyways. I was lucky to meet them back in 2016, when they cheered Romain Bardet as he won stage 19. And Louise Dubois (62) was kind enough to meet me in her home in Z\u00fcrich to talk about her family\u2019s shared passion.<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting in the middle of the back seat. My grandad on one side, my granny on the other. No seatbelts, no lights because the car was crap. Just a baguette in my hand, and cigarettes in the hands of all the others. The smoke rivalled the misty morning outside the windows. What a sight that would be now,\u201d Louise laughs about her very first trip to see the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

The year was 1964 and the family camped under the famous climb of Puy. The next day, they lined the mountain road with half a million other spectators. On the very first family trip to the Tour, the 7-year-old Louise witnessed history. Jacques Anquetil, the movie star of cycling, was battling it out with Raymond Poulidor, the beloved farmer boy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jacques Anquetil (on the left) and Raymond Poulidor in the Puy-de-D\u00f4me.\u00a0\u00a9 Profimedia, Roger Viollet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI remember the roar. It was deafening. I had no idea where the road was. I was just hugging my grandfather\u2019s leg. Then he sat me on his shoulders and I saw the two. I remember their faces. One stoic, like he wasn\u2019t even there. The other one trying to hide the pain, unsuccessfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can probably guess which one was which. Jacques Anquetil was leading the GC. He knew he only had to hang on to Poulidor\u2019s wheel long enough to minimize the loss. The last stage was a time trial. And he was far better at that than his rival. Yet, for once in his career, the great tactician refused to do the reasonable thing. He rode side by side with Poulidor, claiming he would not give his rival the satisfaction of being in front. The battle went on forever. 10km to be exact.<\/p>\n

In the end Poulidor did manage to break away from Anquetil. But only with the finish line almost in sight. Poulidor cut 42 seconds off his lead, but that was not enough. A few days later Anquetil conquered the Tour for the record-breaking fifth time. Did the great tactician know when exactly to let go? Most likely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to many Tours after that. But no memory is as strong as the first one. Years went by and I went from the shoulders of my grandad to the firm hand of my granny, then the shoulders of my father and ended up with hugs just from my mother. In the end, the only thing that remained was the smoke,\u201d says the woman with a bittersweet smile, lighting another cigarette.
\nThen the year 1989 came around and Louise started a family of her own. Just in time for her daughter Marie to see another thrilling stage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Greg LeMond rides on the Champs Elysees during the last stage of the Tour de France on 23 July 1989. \u00a9 Profimedia, AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe lived in Paris back then and my husband at the time demanded that we go. \u2018It\u2019s your stupid family tradition after all,\u2019 he said,\u201d Louise laughs at the memory.<\/p>\n

The Tour seemed to be a sealed deal back then. Everybody was expecting Laurent Fignon to win his third Tour, but somebody forgot to tell Greg LeMond. He was better at time-trialling, that was very well known. But the stage was 24 kilometres long. Far too short to gain 50 seconds. At least that\u2019s what everyone thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember Marie babbling away into my ear as my husband went on about LeMond looking like a Martian. He really did look odd, in his aero helmet on that weird bike. He was quick though. You could tell he cut that corner we were at, in a totally different line than the others. He clearly had nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end Fignon\u2019s time was 58 seconds slower than that of LeMond. And all newspapers around the world had to rewrite their pre-written articles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember thinking that every true Dubois sees something special on their first trip to the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bardet during the nineteenth stage on July 22, 2016 between Albertville and Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.\u00a0 Profimedia, AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fast forward to 2016 when I met Louise, and it\u2019s happening again. Marie is a grown woman now, with a baby of her own. And her son, even though not named Dubois, is huddling under a raincoat on the sideline as Romain Bardet rides to victory on the ascent to Mont Blanc. The family invites me to their caravan for a celebration of what they are sure was the start of the Frenchman\u2019s road to GC victory.<\/p>\n

Well, we know that didn\u2019t happen, but Louise doesn\u2019t despair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe French just need to wait for another Dubois,\u201d she smiles and shows me an ultrasound picture. Marie is apparently pregnant again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tour de France has one of the longest traditions of all races. It has raised passion throughout generations and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":174513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[3226,2396,775,2115,3088,3234,3233,473,433],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-174508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-2019-tour","tag-2019-tour-de-france","tag-greg-lemond","tag-jacques-anquetil","tag-laurent-fignon","tag-louise-dubois","tag-raymond-poulidor","tag-romain-bardet","tag-tour-de-france"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Most Memorable Tour de France Stages Through the Eyes of One Family - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Tour de France has one of the longest traditions of all races. 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