Tour de France 2025: in Mayenne, at the back of the cows, the other people of the roadsides

One day, a cow fixed its tranquil eyes on Warren Barguil 's. He was a young rider, solo on a descent of the Tourmalet, during a Tour a decade ago. As their gazes met, the rider thought, "Is she going to move forward?" Dig her horns into his rindless skin? Throw him into the void? Moo in his face? Cows have lazy vision. Jerky but unhurried, one image at a time. At the first flash, the cow on the Tourmalet saw this kid, his ass lifted from his saddle and perched on the frame, his chest pressed against the handlebars of his mount, piercing the mountain at 90 km/h. She slowed down as she crossed the road and the rider sped ahead. At the second flash, she saw the France Télés motorcycle following Barguil. She said, "You, wait a second." Then she jumped onto the side of the road.

This Saturday, July 12, the tarmac of the Tour route sizzled. The peloton remained gregarious for this "transition" stage from Saint-Méen-le-Grand (Ille-et-Vilaine). It crossed the forage fields, the meadows sometimes emptied of their population, the red stubble fields. A breach in the rural and agricultural territory of Mayenne, a department which has both p