Stage minus one: Plymouth to Bilbao
The team has arrived and is ready for the Grand Départ
by Lionel Birnie
Simon and I arrived in northern Spain in style, having taken the overnight ferry from Plymouth to Santander before steering The Cycling Podcast’s broomwagon into Bilbao where we collected our accreditation and waited for Mitch Docker and François Thomazeau to arrive.
On our approach to Plymouth earlier this week, we travelled down the Devon Expressway – the A38 dual carriageway – where a small but significant piece of cycling history took place. For it was there, 49 years ago, that the Tour de France made its first visit to Britain. The stage went up and down the bypass near Plympton – not the most inspiring parcours when you consider the charms of Dartmoor were on the doorstep.
A few years ago, my old Cycling Weekly colleague Keith Bingham wrote a great chapter about the Tour’s fleeting visit to southern England in 1974 for an edition of The Cycling Anthology. In it, he explained the circumstances that led to the first Tour stage to be held overseas.
The reason for bringing the Tour to England was to promote a new ferry route between Plymouth and Roscoff in Brittany, and to open up new markets for Breton farmers hoping to sell their produce – in particular, artichokes – on the other side of the channel. Ironically the riders took the plane rather than the ferry, arriving at Exeter airport before being transported to a hotel in Plymouth where, it turned out, there was nowhere for them to change their French francs into British pounds.
The rest of the Tour entourage – team cars, official vehicles and some of the publicity caravan – did take the ferry across. Sean Kelly, who was a teenager and part of a group of Irish riders who’d come over to do some races and watch the Tour, remembered seeing the publicity caravan pass. Fruit and vegetables were being tossed out to the crowd and he remembers a teammate of his biting into an artichoke as if it was an apple. Kelly had grown up on a farm but had never seen an artichoke before.
The stage finished in a sprint victory for young Dutchman Henk Poppe rather than a British win for Barry Hoban or the Hertfordshire-born, Belgian-based Michael Wright that the cycling fans in the crowd hoped to see. Despite the success of Tom Simpson, Beryl Burton, Graham Webb and Hoban, cycling was not a sport that had captured the imagination of the mainstream media in Britain. The Daily Mirror’s headline once the Tour had gone back to France read: ‘50 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong’ – a play on the title of a song that had been a hit in the 1920s.
Within three hours of the stage finishing, the road was reopened to traffic and the riders were on their way back to France via Exeter airport – although the flight was delayed by two hours because British customs officers insisted on a laborious search of every rider’s luggage, meaning the peloton didn’t get to its hotel until well after 10pm.
As Ken Evans, the editor of Cycling magazine wrote: ‘Plymouth’s great and largely successful efforts may well have been ruined by that officiousness. It will probably be a long time before we see the Tour again.’
It was 20 years, to be precise, before the Tour returned to England, with two stages finishing in Brighton and Portsmouth.
Now it is the turn of the Basque Country to host the start, and it’s the first time since 1992. This time Bilbao has the honour, back then it was San Sebastian, which will also host the finish of Sunday’s stage. What is for sure, given the steep Pike Bidea climb at the end of Saturday’s stage and then the Jaizkibel – which features so prominently in the Clasica San Sebastian – on Sunday, is that we’re in for a lot more excitement than the crowd in Plymouth enjoyed 49 years ago.
A couple of our Kilometre 0 episodes will focus on the Basque Country. On Sunday, to mark the start in Vitoria, we’ll hear Laura Meseguer’s conversation with Joseba Beloki, who grew up in the city and finished on the Tour podium three times. Then we’ll seek to get under the skin of a cycling-crazy region, and try to explain how the fiercely proud Basque identity fits into Spanish culture and politics.
Kilometre 0 – Shooting the Tour
Dropping into the free feed very shortly will be a bonus episode of Kilometre 0, featuring the makers of a new 90-minute documentary made during the 2020 Covid Tour and featuring the EF Pro Cycling team.
I spoke to the director Ted Youngs, producer Matt Rogers and story producer Alexis Steinman about the film, which gets its streaming debut on NBC Sports’ Peacock platform tomorrow (Saturday, July 1) to coincide with the start of this year’s race.
Midway through the 2020 Tour, the night Sam Bennett had won a stage in Il de Ré, Richard, François and I had dinner in La Rochelle with Ted, Matt and Alexis and I remember the strain and uncertainty of trying to make a film during a pandemic-affected race coming across. They had a cinematographer, Samantha Andre, embedded with the team but very little additional access apart from rest-day Zoom calls with the riders, and so they were in the dark about what sort of story they’d be able to tell until they swapped full drives for empty ones and saw what Samantha had shot.
The Cycling Podcast played a very small part in the film too, with Richard and François both appearing on camera to add explanations and context to the story.
Crus 2023
Once again Greg Andrews and his team at DVine Cellars in London have assembled the perfect accompaniment to the Tour de France. A selection of six wines that reflect the Tour’s journey. As you’d expect from looking at the route, there’s a strong representation from the south west of France. There’s also some big classics here – Bordeaux, Burgundy and Beaujolais – as well as some less heralded gems.
Listen to Greg telling Daniel about this year’s case.
- Cuvée Gastronomie 2021, Chignin Bergeron, Savoie
- Lapeyre, Jurançon Sec, south west France
- Domaine Billard, 'La Justice' Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, Burgundy
- Domaine Frédéric Berne, 'Pierre Bleue, Beaujolais Lantignié, Beaujolais
- Les Trois Fontaines, Côtes de Gascogne, south west France
- Chateau Labadie, Médoc, Bordeaux
Stacy Snyder’s ceramics on sale tomorrow
Stacy’s 2023 Tour de France collection tells the story of the race with a clearly-defined beginning, middle and end. There’s Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, the Puy de Dôme in the Massif Central, which the race will visit for the first time since 1988, and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
A collection of mugs, small cappuccino cups and gelato bowls will go on sale on Saturday, July 1 from Stacy’s Etsy shop. The on-sale time is 10am US east coast time, which is 3pm in the UK and 4pm CET. Once again, proceeds will go to a charity nominated by you, our listeners. If you have a worthy cycling-related cause you’d like to nominate, please email us at contact@thecyclingpodcast.com
Looking forward to the Tour in The Cycling Podcast's fine company.
I thoroughly enjoy spending July (as well as the rest of the cycling season) with you all. A big thank you to the entire The Cycling Podcast team!