De Gaulle's surprise, Mitterrand's camera, Chirac's beer... the presidents' delicious anecdotes about the Tour de France
1/20
Charles de Gaulle began the tradition of French presidents visiting the Grande Boucle in 1960. On July 16, the peloton was preparing to cross Colombey-les-Deux-Églises when the head of state arrived in the middle of the crowd with his wife Yvonne. The couple had made the short journey from the Boisserie estate, a few hundred meters away. - - / AFP
2/20
Warned of this surprise appearance at the last minute, Jacques Goddet, the race director, improvised a meeting with the riders, who were asked to put their feet on the ground and uncover their hats as a sign of respect. " Mr. President, the Tour salutes you ," Goddet declared, perfectly in his role as master of ceremonies. A few cyclists at the head of the procession had been asked to shake the General's hand and exchange a few words with him. - - / AFP
3/20
The head of state, amidst the crowd, traces a path that all his successors, with the exception of Georges Pompidou, would follow. - - / AFP
4/20
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, pictured here at the finish of the 1975 Tour de France, also left the Élysée Palace to join the caravan, even though he had no particular appetite for cycling. " Memories of him at the Tour de France are rare ," confirms journalist Jean-Paul Ollivier, who covered forty editions. - GABRIEL DUVAL, JEAN-PIERRE PREVEL / AFP
5/20
Yet it is to him that we owe the now traditional finish on the Champs-Élysées, established in 1975. The President of the Republic had given the green light to this idea, which Yves Mourousi had suggested to him at a Horse Show. He was also the only president to present the Tour de France winner's jersey to Bernard Thévenet that year. - JEAN-PIERRE PREVEL, GABRIEL DUVAL / AFP
6/20
Georges Pompidou's successor returned to the event much later, in 1990, for the ascent of the Puy-de-Dôme on a follow-up motorcycle... while dispensing with the compulsory helmet! - AFP
7/20
With François Mitterrand, the presidential visit took a new turn in terms of communication. " The president's presence then became a true political act ," summarizes Jean-Paul Ollivier, who credits Mitterrand with a real attraction to cycling. " As a child, he attended the race's passages in the North and regularly came to his home in Château-Chinon to follow the criterium ," explains " Paulo la science ." On July 10, 1985, Mitterrand took advantage of a commemoration on the Glières plateau, a stronghold of the Resistance, to attend the stage between Morzine and Lans-en-Vercors. A calculated choice. - STAFF / AFP
8/20
For the first time in history, the head of state landed on the course aboard his helicopter, followed by his inner circle. Mitterrand positioned himself on a bend at kilometer 117, on the Montaud hill, then took out his camera to immortalize the passing of heroes Greg Lemond and Bernard Hinault. The unusual image made the rounds on the television news. - AFP
9/20
When he invited himself to the Tour de France in 1998, Jacques Chirac was riding high on the French team's victory at the World Cup a week earlier. But the trip to the Corrèze stronghold came at the wrong time. Undermined by the Festina doping scandal, the Tour was on the verge of exploding. On July 17 at around 11:00 p.m., Jean-Marie Leblanc, the race director, excluded Richard Virenque's team. In the process, he hurried to the Château de Bity, where the Chiracs were hosting a dinner. - DESCHAMPS/PRESSE SPORTS
10/20
" I arrived late. Minister Jean-François Lamour, some advisors, and Jacques Chirac were still there, insisting that I eat. I can still see him pouring me a glass of Bordeaux and encouraging me to attack the grilled entrecôte. He especially wanted to have information on the case, because the next day, he was due to visit the village. And between us, he wasn't very well-versed in Tour matters... ", says the former leader, who, despite the tense atmosphere, will retain a good memory of the time trial held the following day. Jacques Chirac is seen here with Laurent Gerra (far left), David Douillet (left), and Jean-Claude Killy (right). - PASCAL PAVANI / AFP
11/20
Jean-Marie Leblanc recalls an anecdote from that day: “ We were following Jan Ullrich and, after a while, Chirac said to me: ‘Well, Mr. Leblanc, maybe we’ll stop for a beer, shall we?’ We stopped in an unlikely bistro for a poor-quality beer, but it was very nice. ” That day, Chirac had taken care to avoid the riders as much as possible. “ He simply didn’t know them,” Leblanc says. “ He had come to breathe the air of the Tour and enjoy a walk among the crowds. I met a simple, open, friendly man, not one to stress you out. ” - PIERRE ANDRIEU / AFP
12/20
Nicolas Sarkozy's visits generated a lot of excitement within the organization's ranks. " A Tour de France fanatic ," emphasizes Christian Prudhomme, who hosted the future winner of the 2007 presidential election at length and on several occasions. Even though the political animal was never far away, it was primarily as a cycling enthusiast that Sarkozy savored, a few weeks after his election, an entire stage between Briançon and Val d'Isère in the official car. - Iso Sport / Icon Sport
13/20
During the stage, he wants to know everything, asks about the gaps, discusses gears and dissects tactics. " In 2010, in the Tourmalet, in the fog, we follow Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck, who are in the breakaway. He says: " Contador is going to attack ." Gilles Maignan, my rider, twice French time trial champion and who has competed in the Tour four times, says to him, "No, Mr. President, I don't think so." Two minutes later, Contador attacks! Sarkozy, with a punch to the shoulder, exults: " I told you so!"," says Prudhomme. - JOEL SAGET / AFP
14/20
In Valloire, where his helicopter landed before the stage, Sarkozy was greeted by a very enthusiastic crowd. His popularity rating among the French reached 65%, the peak of his five-year term. " It was a bit like the arrival of a rock star ," recalls Pierre-Yves Thouault, Prudhomme's deputy, well-versed in the organizational problems associated with VIP arrivals. - ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP
15/20
While Nicolas Sarkozy took the time to spend the entire day on the Tour de France, François Hollande, then a presidential candidate, juggled in 2011 between the day's stage and finalizing his economic program in the middle of the caravan in Ariège! " It was going up, it was going down, and he was saying on the phone: 'There, you correct it, here you change that...' I was thinking, he's going to be sick! Well, not at all, even though we were going at 95 km/h. It took him three-quarters of an hour ," recalls Prudhomme, the Tour boss. - Belga / Icon Sport
16/20
The following year, Sarkozy's successor was struck by the roadside enthusiasm for Thomas Voeckler, the new darling of the French. " You learn humility in this car ," he reacted, relieved to have received a favorable reception. "I had to advise every president to sometimes roll up the window. You never know, you might get some beer..." , qualifies Prudhomme. - JOEL SAGET / AFP
17/20
An affront that Nicolas Sarkozy, once again passing through in 2015, did not have to deplore. The former resident of the Élysée Palace had even been flattered by the few "Sarkozy, president!" remarks that escaped from the crowd in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. So much attention that had prompted him to discreetly whisper in Prudhomme's ear: "Ah, there are people who have common sense here!" - Belga / Icon Sport
18/20
In 2019, the arrival of Emmanuel Macron's presidential motorcade had smiled on the French in the peloton. Thibaut Pinot (pictured here) won ahead of Julian Alaphilippe, leader of the general classification. - JEFF PACHOUD / AFP
19/20
That day, the president had a long conversation with the new darling of the French public, not without sharing a warm handshake. Since he was elected in 2017, Macron has only failed to attend the Tour de France once, in 2018, when the Élysée Palace was embroiled in the explosive Benalla affair. - Sirotti / Icon Sport
20/20
Christian Prudhomme remembers a short sentence slipped into his head in 2016 by the Minister of the Economy, who was visiting Luchon. " He told me: ' I'm going to make my escape too .' " A month later, Macron cut ties with the Hollande government before formalizing his candidacy for the presidency of the Republic in November... - KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
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