Tour de France 2012

Well folks, it's that time of year when Griff and I shave our legs, put on the bright lycra pants and don some weird headgear. No, we're not going to the shadier parts of Glasgow, but are joining the ‘worldwide peloton’ of cycling buffs, to immerse ourselves in all things French, and tune into this years Tour de France.

‘Le Tour’ is the premier event for cycling, and once you see the beautiful landscapes, the ribbon of brightly-coloured cyclists flowing majestically through it, and then the fierce determination needed to tackle the overwhelming height of the mountains, you can't help but be inspired by the beauty of the French countryside and the dedication of the athletes as they seek to test themselves against it.

“From Paris to the blue waves of the Mediterranean,

 From Marseille to Bordeaux, passing along the roseate

 And dreaming roads sleeping under the sun,

 Across the calm of the fields of the Vendée,

 following the Loire, 

Which flows on still and silent, 

Our men are going to race madly, unflaggingly.” 

-  Henri Desgrange (creator of Le Tour).

Today's Tour is nothing like the early race, which began back in 1903. At that time, riders themselves would fix punctures, drink brandy during the race, and would be required to ride through the night. Some were accused of cheating by hopping in cars, others took trains and riders were occasionally beaten up by rival fans. But one thing was sure, the unique atmosphere of Le Tour is such that it caught everyone's imagination and its popularity has continued to grow each year.

Didi Senft who, in a red devil costume, has been the Tour devil since 1993.

The Tour has inspired several popular songs in France, notably P'tit gars du Tour (1932), Les Tours de France (1936) and Faire le Tour de France (1950). More recently,  Kraftwerk had a hit with Tour de France in 1983 (covered 'here' previously on The Streetlamp) and produced an album, Tour de France Soundtracks in 2003, on the occasion of the centenary of the Tour.

In films, the Tour was background for Cinq Tulipes Rouges (1949) by Jean Stelli, in which five riders are murdered. It next fetured in the burlesque Les Cracks (1967) by Alex Joffé. Patrick Le Gall made Chacun son Tour (1996) and the comedy, Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert (2001), featured the Tour of 1974.

I find it a little surprising that there aren't more cultural references to le Tour, especially given the massive significance of the event in France. Perhaps the insane, grandiose spectacle of le Tour is such that any artist considering it finds themself overwhelmed by its sheer scale and opts instead to just sit back and enjoy its unique giddy whirl. I know that's how I tend to react to it all.


Given the sad absence of modern songs associated with le Tour I've decided instead to end this piece with a video by an important French musician from the 1960s whose work is sadly under-appreciated in the English speaking world. I'm referring to Jacques Dutronc a musician whose rough and energetic garage-style rock  surely served as a template for the British punk bands who sprang up a decade after his heyday. Have a listen below:

Jacques Dutronc - Et moi, et moi, et moi

Hope that shook away the cobwebs and left you suitably invigorated for three solid weeks of nerve-shredding, energy-sapping, top class cycling. See you all on the other side.

Ray

Griff says; Cycling Non Stop

You may not be surprised to learn, given the other cultural indicators which are prominent throughout this blog, i.e. the vegetarianism, the championing of feminism and socialism etc., that the Streetlamp team's preferred mode of transport is undoubtedly the bicycle. Yes, when it comes to getting around, the Streetlampers predictably conform to the stereotype of all righteously indignant, anti-capitalists the world over.
I love cycling and every day quite happily make a nuisance of myself to car drivers all over west central Scotland during rush hour. Yes, I'm the guy shouting and gesturing at you when you pass me too closely, and then trying to catch you at the next junction to harangue you further. Ray, is also a passionate cyclist and a huge fan of tight lycra to boot. Gordon, interestingly enough, used to put in the most cycling hours of all three of us. Right through his teens and twenties Gordon must have cycled virtually every day, putting in literally thousands of hours in every kind of weather (and this is Scotland, so I really do mean every kind of weather). Nowadays, sadly for Ray and I, it's difficult to coax him onto the bike (despite the fact that he truly hates, loathes and detests cars) , but we live in hope. I suppose that the sheer length of time he's spent in the saddle, and I really wasn't exaggerating above, has just scunnered him but I hope that tonight's blog will go some way to reminding him of the thrill of the open road and also bring back some fond memories of a band who he used to adore in the late 70s and early 80s.
This blog is also timely as it serves to remind you all that tomorrow, Saturday 2nd July, one of the world's greatest annual sporting events begins. I refer of course to The 98th Tour de France.



For the benefit of the non-sporting readers, The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. This year it will be made up of 21 stages and cover an energy-sapping 3,430.5km (2,058 miles). For three weeks the 198 riders will strain the human body to the limit; over mountains, through valleys and into the heart of France's towns and cities. It will all end on July 24th on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. During that time, do not expect to see much of our Ray. To say that he's a fan of le Tour is a bit of an understatement. I think it's fair to suggest that every time I meet up with him in the next six months he'll mention something about events in this year's Tour. Then, for the six months following that he'll start with the, "Not long now to the Tour" conversations. Gordon and I can only try to cope by steering the conversation gently onto something distracting, like the films of Audrey Tautou or the legs of Victoria Pendleton.
For our American and Australian readers I should probably point out that the Tour is a truly great European institution. It is, indeed, one of the largest international sporting tournaments in the world, with the globe's largest viewing figures for any annual sports event, and is surpassed in scale only by the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics. It inspires huge passions and absolutely dwarfs small, local sporting events, such as the laughingly-titled World Series of Baseball for instance. It has also, rather nicely for my purposes, inspired some wonderful music by another truly great European institution; those ironic purveyors of avant-garde electro-pop, Germany's own Kraftwerk.



In 1982 the band's leader, Ralf Hütter, had been looking for forms of exercises that fit in with the Kraftwerk image and, as a result, he encouraged the group to become vegetarians and take up cycling. At the time, the band were in the studio recording a new album and, in keeping with their new found passion, they wrote and recorded the song called 'Tour de France'. This atmospheric slice of Euro-pop included bicycle-themed sounds, such as; chains, gear mechanisms and the hard breathing of a climbing cyclist. At the time of the single's release in 1983, Hütter tried to persuade the rest of the band that they should record a whole album based around cycling. Unfortunately, the other members of the band were not convinced, and the theme was left to one solitary, but exceptionally good, single. Here it is (below):



C'est magnifique, non? And that may have been it for bicycle-inspired music for the rest of history but, luckily for us, 20 years later in response to the Tour's centenary, Kraftwerk finally got around to giving us that album based around cycling with the release of 2003's 'Tour de France Soundtracks', the groups first album of new material since 1986's Electric Café. Here's a sample song, Titanium (below):



Hope you enjoyed that. An MP3 of the wonderful 1983 single can be downloaded 'here'.

And remember, the Tour starts this Saturday.This year, Stage 1 is the Passage du Gois to Mont des Alouettes, a distance of 191.5 km.

Et maintenant, pour la gloire et pour l'honneur, laissez les jeux commencer !


Salut!

Griff
xx

Gordon angrily retorts: Pah! How dare you(of all people) beat me(of all people) to the Kraftwerk Blog!!! What next? Me writing about Ian Campbell & Friends Folk Band?
Only joking, of course....this is a great article and captures the symbiosis of Kraftwerk's music and subject far better than I would have done. Good stuff!
As for getting me back on a bike....kiss my saddle-sore arse!!!