Law enforcement, doctors, seasonal workers, the Tour de France mobilizes thousands of people. Report with the “Tour pre-race brigade”, departmental agents who throughout the three weeks of the race affix road signs on the route to indicate the dangerous points.
From our special correspondent in Carcassonne,
It’s 7am and three fluorescent yellow vans are making their way through the day’s stage. ” Here we are at kilometer zero of the stage, the two arrows are there guys “. Precise and directive in his walkie-talkie, Loan, departmental agent in the Hautes-Alpes for the year, has been working on the Tour for several summers. With his colleagues from the departments, he opens the road… And he also opens the doors of the van. These six men will do it 118 times that day on the stage between Morzine and Megève.
Their mission: to identify and indicate all the obstacles on the route taken by the runners. ” We have roundabouts, narrowings, speed bumps that must be indicated “, explains Jean-Pascal Bourmaud, departmental agent of the Hautes-Pyrénées. ” We help runners find their way around the road. If they arrive at a roundabout, they will be told whether they should go right or left. This is also useful for the Tour caravan, we do the work upstream for all the followers he says.
Their own stage is at least as long as that of the runners. At each “dangerous point”, apply the handbrake, take the sign from the van and affix it to what is a post or a traffic sign. ” You really have to anticipate and analyze the place well so that the sign is visible adds Loan.
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The pleasure of covering the 3,349 kilometers before the runners
It’s exhausting work… especially with the strong heat that rages on the roads of the Tour. ” It’s a discovery for me “says Eric from Charente-Maritime. ” We have a certain responsibility, so we mustn’t make mistakes, it’s quite demanding and physical. But that I like “. Make no mistake, says Eric… Well, they confessed: it happened a few days ago.
A small referral error without consequence. ” It’s true that we always joke while driving and, that day, we forgot to turn left smiles Jean-Pascal Bourmaud. ” The first two vans pulled straight ahead, the third was still far behind, so he didn’t see us and we continued to mark everything we saw on the side of the road for ten kilometres. At one point, we realized we had taken the wrong road. So, half-turn and everything had to be removed. »
This happy little band revels in the landscapes every day. What they also enjoy is covering the 3,349 kilometers of the Tour before the riders… and spotting the difficulties. ” It’s going to be tough today. There, we see that they are going to attack a hill, and after that it goes up again. There, they will have a day where the calves will heat up. They will have fun pulling gear. It’s going to be a great race again today “says Bernard, another agent. A race, which as cycling fans they will watch once their duty is done.
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