“Lance Armstrong asked me for the photo”: Meet the author of one of the most iconic shots of the Tour de France
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TESTIMONY - AFP photographer Joël Saget captured one of the most famous shots of the Tour de France in 2003, when Lance Armstrong cut across the fields after avoiding a crashing Joseba Beloki. He recounts this suspended moment that has gone down in history.
Lance Armstrong seemingly rolling over his great rival Joseba Beloki, who is stuck on the melted tarmac. All this under the gaze of a police officer and a little girl wearing a straw hat. The sequence, which took place during the 9th stage between Bourg d'Oisans and Gap in 2003, has gone down in Tour de France history. It actually shows the Texan narrowly avoiding the Spaniard, who suddenly fell before his eyes on a bend. Launched into an improbable journey through the fields, the American finally found the road again after a fantastic and unforgettable scene. An episode immortalized by AFP photographer Joël Saget.
The image hunter was then covering the fifth of his fifteen Tour de France. His long marriage to the world's greatest cycling race had, however, gotten off to a bad start a few years earlier, in 1998. "I arrived in the middle of the Festina affair with no expertise in the cycling world, not even knowing how to recognize a rider, or how to photograph on a motorcycle. And I…
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