There’s bike races and there’s the Tour de France. The world’s greatest cycle race is approximately 3600 km long and runs across France and its neighbours. This year, the itinerary is taking riders from Rotterdam to Paris, via the Alps and Pyrenees – the scenic route. It lasts three weeks and will finish in Paris on 25th July. 22 teams and 219 riders started it on 3rd July. How many will finish?

A bit of history

“Le Tour” as they call it in France was first organised in 1903 by the newly formed newspaper, L’Auto (now l’Equipe). The race started in Paris and stopped off in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to Paris. There were no mountains and no difficult stages. Between 60 and 80 entrants were attracted by an overall winner’s prize of 12,000 francs and a “day” prize of 3,000.

Cheating was such that the second race was almost the last with riders being beaten up by rival fans. The stages were so long that participants were required to race at night. The third race in 1905 had 11 stages rather than 6 and was held during the day to make cheating more obvious. By then though, the race had captured the public’s imagination. L’Auto‘s circulation trebled and the rest, as they say, is history.

Great riders

The greatest of recent/all riders is Lance Armstrong, a household name almost across the world for having beaten off cancer to win the race 7 times. He has never been popular in France though because, to put it quite bluntly, there have always been rumours that he was cheating. Or may be it’s just because he’s an American.

The last Frenchman to win it was Bernard Hinault (Le Blaireau or the Badger) who won 5 times between 1978 and 1985, as did Jacques Anquetil between 1957 and 1964. Belgium’s Eddy Merckx and Spain’s Miquel Indurain both won it 5 times in the 70s and 90s respectively.

Special mention should also be made of Raymond Poulidor, famous in France for being the greatest rider never to win the race and Tom Simpson. He won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1965 and in 1967, although he had never won a stage, felt he could make an impact on the Tour. In those days riders were limited to 2 litres of water and he died of dehydration going up the Mont Ventoux. Oh and the amphetamines probably didn’t help.

Three types of stage

There are three types of stage, mountain, flat and time trials. The race starts with a prologue, increasingly not held in France, which is a time trial. British rider Chris Boardman had a spectacular crash when leading the first stage time trial in 1995 and was forced to withdraw through injury.

Flat stages are for those riders who can sustain extended effort on flat(ish) terrain and they often end in sprints. Although this year the itinerary took them along the route of the Paris-Roubaix race along 13 km of cobblestones. Ouch…There is a reason for it being called L’enter du Nord (Hell of the North).

Never mind the cobblestones though, the mountain stages look like hell. Those stages that have riders swanning around the Alps and the Pyrenees are won by specialists and all the flat riders group together with their teams in the middle of the peleton and wait for them to be over.

The most famous is the Col du Tourmalet where the climb starts at Luz Saint-Sauveur and continues for 18.3 km at 7.7%. After Barèges, there’s a 9% slope that lasts for a kilometre. I went up there once in a coach that really struggled to get through the gears. There’s an observatory at the top and it’s a great view, not that the riders care, they have to go straight down again.

What do all those coloured jerseys mean?

We’ve all heard of the “maillot jaune” (yellow jersey). It’s the overall race leader who has the fastest aggregate time. The rider with the maillot jaune at the end of the race is the winner, even if he’s lost in the pack when they all cross the line on the Champs Elysées in Paris on the third Sunday. The maillot vert (green jersey) is awarded to the fastest sprinter and the maillot à pois rouges (the white jersey with red dots) is awarded to the King of the Mountains, the first rider to reach designated spots in the mountain stages.

Lanterne rouge

The expression “lanterne rouge” (the red lantern) has now passed into common usage in French It is awarded to the rider that comes last. In the past there have been fights amongst cyclists to become last simply because no-one remembers the guy that comes second last.

What does it take to win it?

A cynic would say a lot of EPO and other performance enhancing drugs. The race has always had its share of doping allegations right back to 1903. The most (in)famous year was 1998. Willy Voet of the Festina team was arrested with EPO, growth hormones, testosterone and amphetamines in the boot of his car. Following police raids, the riders went on strike finishing one race at a snail’s pace. Richard Virinque, Festina’s King of the Mountains was caricatured on the French satire programme, Les Guignols de l’Info, as having taken the drugs “à l’insu de mon plein gré‘ (against my free will).

A non-cynic would say, apart from a lot of guts, determination and strength, a good team is required. The Tour de France is not a sport where individual riders win races, teams win them. They protect each other, support each other and then the team leader/star rider takes the glory.

Fancy a cycling holiday?

No-one is suggesting it would be a good idea to do that much cycling for a holiday. Although former England international footballer Geoff Thomas might disagree. Diagnosed with leukemia after his career was cut short by injury, he survived and cycled the entire route of the Tour de France in 2005 and then a second time in 2007. All in aid of cancer research.

For the less courageous and more sedate (although slightly sporty nevertheless), a wide variety of cycling holidays are available, and not just in France. And don’t forget (shameless plug), travel insurance will cover any cuts and bruises if you fall off or repatriation if you have a really spectacular accident.

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A beginner’s guide to the Tour de France | World First Travel Insurance Blog

In an occasional series of interviews, we’ll be asking members of the World First team and beyond, a number of questions about their travel experiences. Today, it’s the turn of the Editor (well, we’ve got to start somewhere!).

First holiday memory

My father worked for British Railways (as it still was at the time) so from the early 1960s, the cheap travel gave us the opportunity to go to a relatively under-developed part of Spain where I first experienced a sunny beach. We continued going throughout the 60s and 70s. Before that though, I can remember a wet Dun Laoghaire beach, Pinky and Perky at the cinema and my 6-month old brother being fed chips.

Favourite place in the UK

The Sussex Downs and Brighton. I lived there for much of the 1980s. I love the seafront in Brighton in a wet January, the deserted pubs on the beach and the railway journey between Lewes and Newhaven.

Holiday reading

Wherever I go, I like to take a book that is set in the area that I’m in. In recent years then, beach reading in Spain has included Paul Theroux’s travels round the Mediterranean, The Pillars of Hercules or Carlos Ruiz Záfon’s The Shadow of the Wind and Angel’s Game, both set in Barcelona. Being roughly in the context changes the way you read a book and helps you appreciate it more. I’m looking for some set in the Seychelles now!

What places have seduced you?

Paris in the winter can be as depressing as anywhere else, but go to Notre Dame when there are no tourists walking around in November. There’s  strange inner peace.  Alternatively, go to the Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada (one third of the size of Wales!) and hear the silence fall on you, it’s quite eerie. I also went to Berlin six months after the wall came down, Check Point Charlie was still there as were the the 8 U-Bahn stations closed when the wall went up in 1961. I have an East German stamp on an old passport somewhere. Living history.

Better to arrive or to travel?

That all depends on the journey. Low-cost airlines are a cattle truck nightmare, get there as soon as possible. The train I took between Trieste and Istanbul in 1978, even if it was in Bulgarian couchettes (8 per cabin), was a joy and an integral part of the trip.

Worst travel experiences

Hoverspeed hovercraft across the English channel – the only time I’ve ever been seasick. Any trip on EasyJet. And a trip years ago from the long-defunct station at Boulogne-Aeroglisseurs to Paris on an overcrowded train (two car set when four was required). Sore bum time, at least I wasn’t standing.

Worst meal abroad

When I was 14, I went on a school trip to Paris. The journey was delayed for a reason I can’t remember and we arrived at something like 9 in the evening – to be served with tripe. Needless to say, I ate an orange that evening. It wasn’t all bad though. That was the trip I met the 13 year old that is now my wife.

Dream Trip

A drive from Quebec or Montreal to Boston or New York in September or any one of the trains across the USA. The Taj Mahal any time of the year or the Transsiberean Express, preferably in the summer. Trains, me? Nah, can’t stand ‘em!

Greatest travel luxury

This is going to sound corny, but a nice notebook. I take my iPhone and laptop with me when I travel, but nothing gives me greater pleasure than writing in my increasingly illegible scrawl on a pristine, plain sheet of paper with a good writing implement.

Worst tourist trap

Lourdes. OK, I’ll admit an agenda here. As an atheist, I would say this, but there was ever a case for Christ in the Temple, it’s Lourdes. Maybe I don’t get it, but it’s one of the most repulsive places I’ve ever been to.

Traveller or Tourist?

When go the the now slightly more developed part of Spain I first went to in 1963 or even more, when I go to France, the answer’s neither. I’m at home, I feel part of the furniture – I lived in France for 20 years. When I go anywhere else, I’m a traveller of course, I’m there to discover and talk to people if I can, not just soak up the sun. Even on a package trip to Tunisia, although that was a bit difficult!

Related posts:

1. My life in travel – Martin Rothwell – Managing Partner at World First
2. Welcome to the World First Travel Insurance blog
3. My Life In Travel – Steven Usher – World First Website Management

My life in travel – Mike Garner – World First blog editor | World First Travel Insurance Blog

This is a bit self-indulgent. I was going to call this 10 great things about Sealink, but I couldn’t find enough to list.

I used Sealink a lot in the 60s, 70s and 80s as a child and then as a student going back and forth from France and Spain. For those old enough to remember, Sealink was what we used to get to continental Europe before the Channel Tunnel came along. It was real travelling. No antiseptic, air-conditioned high-speed trains here. This was real contact with the wind, air and diesel fumes.

integrated transport

The beauty of Sealink ferries was that they connected with ports with railway stations, Dover Western Docks, Folkestone Harbour, Newhaven Harbour, Calais Maritime (“Calais Maritime, ici Calais Maritime, tous les voyageurs descendent du train, assurez-vous de rien avoir oublié dans la voiture“!), Boulogne and Dieppe Maritime. Just get off the train on to the boat. Now that was a great thing! Simple really.

student travel

I used the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry a lot from 1980 onwards. It took me on my first permanent move to France in 1981. I had a suitcase and a yellow rucksack on my back. I travelled light in those days. I was a student in Brighton, so with short train journey to Newhaven, I’d leave at lunchtime and be in Paris by mid-evening. In the late 70s and early 80s, that was fast, believe me.

first-class on cross channel ferries

In these days of low-cost cattle truck airlines, it’s difficult to imagine the latter-day colonial atmosphere of the MV Invicta (see photo) with its first-class tea rooms, wicker chairs and promenades. Invicta was built for the Southern Railway in 1939 and went straight into war service. It transferred to British Railways in 1948 and worked the Dover-Calais route until 1972 when it was retired and scrapped. It connected on the British side with the Golden Arrow, the old Pulman service whose coaches are now used by the Orient Express. I can still remember the table cloths and the protective wooden barriers around the tables that prevented the cups from falling off.

bad weather

I was only ever seasick once, on a hovercraft. But those boats that crossed the English Channel in the 1960s weren’t big, they carried no cars and some had no stabilisers. It may be just because I was a child, but I’m sure I can remember seeing just sea on one side of the ship and just air on the other. I didn’t like it very much.

sleepless nights

I’m the first one to have a swipe at low-cost cattle truck airlines, but the worst cattle truck of all was the Dunkerque – Dover crossing used in conjunction with the Paris to London train as it was called. The train arrived in Dunkerque at 2.30 in the morning and the boat left at 4. Sleep? Forget it. One of the two times I took it, admittedly after a rather well-oiled dinner, I fell asleep on the train. The port in Dunkerque is a long way from the town centre and I woke up after the train had reached the port and returned to the siding in the station back in the town. I had to get a taxi back to the port and only caught the boat because it was running late. I arrived in London with something of a hangover and fell asleep in the theatre that night. Sorry to Griff Rhys Jones – 25 years later. It was nothing personal.

slightly less sleepless nights

The Dieppe-Newhaven version of that journey was more civilised and both routes had a cheaper fare over night. At 150 francs, it was a bargain for hard up students. The train arrived at a much more civilised midnight and was followed by a 4 hour crossing that tended to extend sometimes so you could get a good amount of sleep. If you were smart, you could get in the bar and lay out on one of the benches. Those were the days! .

the train goes on the boat

Years before the Channel Tunnel, it was possible to get on a train in Paris and get off in London.  Three boats on the Dunkerque route, the Chartres, the St. Eloi and the Vortigern all had rail tracks fitted to their car decks. I never took it but it seems that loading the train on to the car decks was a little shaky. The service first started in 1936 and although it was suspended during World War II, it continued until October 1980 –  I remember selling the odd ticket for it in Paris that year. In March 1982, the Vortigern was beached on the way in to Ostend and it seems that only its hull that was reinforced to take the weight of the trains prevented it from breaking up.

schooltrips

An unnamed Sealink ship with very 1950s/1960s wooden interiors (Invicta perhaps?) appeared in a famous French film A nous les petites anglaises in which a couple of French schoolchildren were sent to Kent to improve their spoken English. Generations of both British and French kids have done the same thing (I even met my wife on one – that’s another story).

And so went Sealink, privatised in 1984, through a variety of corporate mergers and takeovers before sinking into oblivion. I’m sure the old ghosts of the Invicta, the Vortigern, the Horsa and the Hengist are out there somewhere, rattling about under the waves of the English Channel.

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Remember Sealink? | World First Travel Insurance Blog

Paris is famous for its romantic springtimes, iconic buildings and grumpy waiters. But it’s far more than just that. Since the Revolution, the French and particularly Paris, have absorbed people and influences from across the world. Today, it’s possible to spend a week in Paris and hardly meet any French people!  (although you might be missing something there).

By the way, the waiters are far less grumpy with tourists if you attempt to speak some bad French – especially if you’re American).

Here’s a quick splash of the non-French things you can find in the French capital.

Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute)

Housed in a stunning building on the Left bank of the Seine, the Institut du Monde Arabe or Arab World Institute was established in 1980 to encourage cultural exchanges between France and the Arab world and to promote the Arabic contribution to the world particularly in terms of science and technology (modern medicine has its origins in the Middle East).

Bollywood in Paris

Fancy some Bollywood-style classes? Menaka de Mahodaya and her Bollywood Passion are some of the rare specialists in traditional Indian dance and modern music this is going down a storm with young Parisians. All with incense and bright costumes. Bollywood Passion (in French/machine translation available)

Capoeira in the park

Capoeira I hear you say? It’s a Brazilian type of martial arts that also includes music and dance. It was brought by African slaves and mixed with Portuguese and Indian flavours that make it . On a Sunday morning when the weather’s good, you’ll probably find participants huddled round in a circle in the parc de La Villette watching to of the fight it out in the middle. A mixture of dance and combat, between Africa and America.

A taste of Africa

Forget the run-down look of the buildings, just follow the flow of people. Come out of the Château-Rouge metro station and you’ll walk straight into a real African market*. Everything’s there, catfish on the fish store, neat’s feet (beef equivalent of pig’s rotters) front the butcher’s store, plantain and manioc adorn the grocer’s. It’s not all food though, sellers of “pagnes” fabrics and false hair

* Web site in French

Learn to write Chinese?

Au Comptoir des écritures is both a store and a school. Apart from an impressive range writing and calligraphy implements from China and precious paper from Iran and Syria, it also boasts a “school” to learn the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy. The web site is in French with a translation of sorts. “Welcome, enjoy and please do not hesitate to ask if you need further explanations as this is a real human beings’ website”, pity they didn’t use a human being to translate it.

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1. Istanbul, European City of Culture
2. Got the power to pedal to Paris?
3. Remember Sealink?

Paris: the world in one city | World First Travel Insurance Blog