by Eric Reed
erbated by the day’s high temperatures. The medical report also indicated that
amphetamines and methamphetamines tainted Simpson’s blood. The stimu-
lants masked the symptoms of extreme exhaustion as the British champion
rode himself to death on the mountainside.
After Simpson’s tragic death, professional cycling engaged in a decades-
long campaign to eradicate doping from the sport, with poor results. Legal
debates about individual privacy and worker rights lingered, with the result
being that the ability of race organizers and cycling’s governing bodies to en-
act widespread testing remained limited for many years. The persistence of
drug testing’s legal and procedural loopholes led to tragicomic dramas like
the Pollentier Scandal of 1978. Belgian national champion Michel Pollentier’s
victory at the fi nish of the l’Alpe d’Huez climbing stage made him the race
leader. Race offi cials allowed Pollentier to return home to put on fresh clothes before his drug test, which enabled the Belgian leader to collect another man’s urine. Pollentier put the fraudulent urine in a balloon in his armpit, attached a tube to it, ran the tube into his shorts, and squeezed the balloon to deliver the sample. Testers discovered the ruse, and Tour offi cials expelled Pollentier, the competition’s yellow jersey, from the race.98
The science of doping also advanced more rapidly than detection mea-
sures. The medical community developed new, undetectable drugs that in-
creased strength and endurance, such as advanced steroids. Physicians em-
ployed drugs and therapies developed for unrelated conditions to improve
athletic performance and recovery.99 For instance, medical researchers de-
signed Erythropoietin (EPO) to stimulate the production of red blood cells
in cases of kidney failure or in cancer patients suffering from anemia. Cyclists discovered that EPO also increases their stamina and endurance, because it
t h e f r e n c h s c h o o l o f c y c l i n g
109
allows the blood to carry more red cells and, hence, more oxygen to the body.
In the 1990s, EPO use by Tour de France cyclists led to numerous rider dis-
qualifi cations and sparked infamous doping scandals.
Policing doping carried inherent risks for the Tour, since detection led to
drug scandals that challenged the moral foundations of the French School
and undermined the image and popularity of cycling and its greatest event.
Such risks help to explain why the problem of drug use in the Tour lingers
to this day. Nevertheless, the race remained cycling’s most publicized arena
for combating drugs and a bellwether for drug testing practices throughout
the cycling world, as well as in other sports. As the sport globalized rapidly
in the television and Internet era, the war against athletic doping also offered unique opportunities for the Tour de France and the French School to redefi ne and reposition themselves at a time when French athletic dominance of
the “national bicycle race” waned, global public opinion turned defi nitively
against drug use by athletes, and businesses became more hesitant about
sponsoring cycling teams and stars. At the close of the twentieth century,
the Tour and the French School attempted, with mixed results, to reposition
themselves as exemplars of drug- free athletic prowess.
f i g u r e 7 . Antonin Magne (center, seated) and teammates drink champagne before the start of stage 20, an individual time trial, August 1, 1936. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 8 . A boy tends his geese as the peloton passes. Journalists often mixed imagery of the countryside with the race narrative. Undated photograph (ca. 1936). Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 9 . French cyclist Georges Speicher rides back to the race route after an unplanned detour through a farm. Undated photograph (ca. 1936). Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 0 . A fan throws a bucket of water on French rider René Vietto during the second stage of the 1947 Tour. Vietto won the stage, which ended in Brussels, June 26, 1947. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 1 . René Vietto competes in a time trial between Vannes and St. Brieuc, July 17, 1947. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 2 . A typical mountaintop scene: Italian Fermo Camellini climbs the col du Tourmalet during the Luchon – Pau stage, July 13, 1947. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 3 . Spanish cyclist Julián Berrendero crosses the summit of the col du Puymorens during the fourteenth stage of the 1937 Tour, July 18, 1937. Reporters followed the action on motorcycles and often interviewed competitors while they raced. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 4 . 1947 Tour victor Jean Robic, clad in the yellow jersey and a leather crash helmet, shakes hands with actor Bourvil moments before the start of the 1948 Tour de France, June 30, 1948. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 5 . Intimate heroes: Two boys read about French racer Jacques Marinelli, their neighbor and Tour leader at the time, while sitting in front of Marinelli’s bicycle shop in Le Blanc- Mesnil, July 6, 1949.
Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 6 . Belgian rider Roger Lambrecht competes in a time trial stage near Les Sables- d’Olonne, July 8, 1948. The Tour was popular among men, women, and children. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 7 . A crowd mobs Italian star Fausto Coppi, who signs autographs before the start of the Tour, June 30, 1949. Coppi won the 1949 Tour. Courtesy of the National Archives.
f i g u r e 1 8 . The beloved loser: Raymond Poulidor of France is injured after an accident during the descent of the col du Portet d’Aspet during the thirteenth stage of the 1973 Tour, July 15, 1973. The Limousin rider was famous for his bad luck. Courtesy of AFP/Getty Images.
f i g u r e 1 9 . Greg LeMond shadows Bernard Hinault during the climb of the Alpe d’Huez, July 21, 1986.
LeMond won the Tour, the fi rst of his three titles. Courtesy of AFP/Getty Images.
f i g u r e 2 0 . Alberto Contador punches a cheeky spectator who runs beside him during the climb up the Alpe d’Huez, July 22, 2011. Authorities found Contador guilty of doping and stripped him of his 2010
Tour title. Courtesy of Lionel Bonaventure /AFP/Getty Images.
5
The Tour in the Provinces: Sport and
Small Cities in the Global Age
In 1926, enthusiastic civic boosters established a special task force to bring the Tour back to Caen for the fi rst time since 1910.1 The “Caen Tour de France
Committee” succeeded so marvelously that its members penned a history
of its work nine years later. The Tour returned to the Norman town every
year between 1927 and the Second World War and performed miraculous
feats, according the committee’s account. The history concluded that thanks
to the return of the Tour, a “grand global contest,” Caen “woke up like [Lord
Byron] one morning to fi nd itself famous.” The race’s passages in the early
1930s, the nadir of the Great Depression, “put citizens of all professions to
work: businessmen, printers, electricians, restaurateurs, fl orists,” helped fund publicity drives for the regional dairy industry, and generated seed money
and enthusiasm that led to the construction of a new, cement- surface ve-
lodrome that “could rival the best Parisian tracks.” The Tour helped solve
poverty, crime, slums, youth delinquency, and disease thanks to the commit-
tee’s sizable donations to local charities.2 Caen’s overblown characterization
of the Tour’s local, national, and globa
l impacts in fact typifi ed the hopes and dreams of many race host towns.
The emergence of mass culture reshaped provincial communities’ rela-
tions with the French nation and the broader world.3 Mass tourism, radio
and television, and mass consumerism spurred cultural integration, un-
dermined some aspects of class distinction, and eroded geographical barri-
ers. These developments created novel forums in which local, national, and
global communities interacted in unprecedented ways. In some senses, these
trends threatened traditional provincial particularisms and identities. At the
same time, many provincial communities seized on the new commercial
possibilities offered by France’s emerging mass culture. As they negotiated
t h e t o u r i n t h e p r o v i n c e s
111
threats and opportunities of globalizing mass culture, provincial communi-
ties redefi ned their identities in the new cultural and commercial context and reforged their relationships with the broader world.
The stories of two Tour host towns, Brest and Pau, provide an opportu-
nity to explore the active role of France’s provincial communities in shap-
ing national cultures.4 While most French towns welcomed the race only
occasionally, Brest and Pau were, at different times, favorite Tour stops that
developed lasting relationships with the event. In the twentieth century, com-
mercialized sport emerged as an important locus of cultural and commercial
relations between the provinces and the broader French nation.5 The Tour
became a powerful cultural phenomenon around which local and national
identities coalesced and through which both were expressed. The changing
functions and meanings of the race in its provincial host towns suggest that
the creation and adoption of rituals and traditions in the era of mass culture
was a fl uid, uneven process in which provincial communities often played an
active, crucial role.6 The stories of the Tour in its host towns demonstrate that provincial communities selected which elements of France’s shared popular
culture to integrate into their local cultural frameworks and determined the
terms of that integration. In the process, these provincial communities helped
to shape the evolution of a national cultural institution and global spectacle.
Brest and Pau’s experiences also illustrate how smaller cities engaged the
globalization process. Provincial communities’ interactions with the broader
world became more complex and diverse in the era of global mass culture.
Although scholars have explored quite thoroughly the urban dimensions of
globalization in very large cities like Paris, London, New York, and Tokyo,
relatively little attention has been paid to how small- and medium- sized ur-
ban communities participated in the process.7 From the mass press era to the
Internet age, Brest and Pau enjoyed a measure of recognition that extended
far beyond France. In seeking new ways to connect to the wider world, smaller
French cities like Brest and Pau sought the same tangible results as large me-
tropolises: they hoped integrate themselves more deeply into the international
economy, increase tourism, and transmit appealing images of themselves to
large, faraway audiences. It is clear from the stories of Pau and Brest as Tour host towns that local contexts, hopes, and fears determined the nature and
outcomes — not always positive ones — of local interactions with the global.
1. Brest and the Tour before the Second World War
Because of its vast, protected harbor and its river and canal linkages to the
Breton interior, Brest has been a strategically and economically important
112
c h a p t e r f i v e
port town for hundreds of years. In the fi rst decades of the twentieth cen-
tury, Brest was an unusual cultural crossroads. The town lies at the heart of
a region, generally contained within the Finistère département on the tip of the Breton peninsula, that was considered to be one of the most culturally
unassimilated areas of France, as indicated by the persistent use of Breton, a
tongue of Celtic rather than Romance origin. In 1902, 80 percent of Finistère
children began primary schooling not knowing a single word of French.8
Even as late as 1977, more than a million of Brittany’s three million residents were fl uent in Breton.9 Yet Brest was a city in which French and local cultures met. Because of the large military port, thousands of soldiers and sailors from other parts of France passed through Brest’s walls. The permanent military
community became part of the fabric of Brest’s culture.
Brest became one of the Tour’s most frequent hosts in the event’s early
years. The race visited the town every year between 1906 and 1931 for several
reasons. Brittany was one of the cradles of French cycling and produced nu-
merous cycling talents and Tour winners. Brest played a signifi cant role in
the development of cycling in Brittany. The Paris – Brest – Paris race, created in 1891 and the fi rst of the classic multiday cycling events, traversed the entire Breton peninsula and made Brest famous throughout the French cycling
world. The town’s cycling community founded several of the fi rst Breton cy-
cling clubs and built one of the largest velodromes in the region in 1893.
Brest’s location at the far western tip of the Brittany peninsula fi t well
into Henri Desgrange’s vision of the Tour’s cultural symbolism. In the race’s
fi rst decades, Desgrange devised itineraries that followed as closely as pos-
sible France’s frontiers. Christophe Campos has argued that the Tour found-
ers engaged in a campaign to use the Tour’s itinerary to “beat the bounds”
of France’s borders and to continually retrace and reaffi rm the cultural and
geographic shape of the nation, especially at a time when France’s political
boundaries were in fl ux.10 Desgrange believed that the race was an event
meant to celebrate France’s diverse geography and to reinforce in the popu-
lar consciousness a shared knowledge of the varied regional landscape that
comprised l’Hexagone. The Tour’s popularity and structure made it an ideal vehicle for transposing local and regional geography onto the wider scale
while at the same time celebrating France’s diversity as a source of national
unity, which was an important goal in the Third Republic’s ideologies and
policies.11 No Tour illustrated this tendency more clearly than the 1919 race,
during which competitors sped past the Great War’s battlefi elds and pedaled
through the reconquered provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, symbolically re-
integrating them into the motherland.12
Nevertheless, before the Second World War, Bretons contextualized the
t h e t o u r i n t h e p r o v i n c e s
113
meaning of the Tour very differently. Brittany has a long separatist tradition.
Regional historians often point to Brittany’s “resistance to assimilation [and]
refusal of acculturation”13 as defi ning characteristics of Breton experience and identity in the modern era. Breton patriots viewed the advance of the French
nation- state, and with it French language and institutions, as the tragic de-
mise of their indigenous culture and ethnic identity.14 Pierre- Jakez Hélias,
a poor peasant boy who grew up during the interwar years
in southwestern
Brittany and later became a famous ethnologist, described the veritable colo-
nization of the region during the Third Republic in the following terms: “We
were punished for speaking Breton. . . . We were transplanted, immigrants
despite ourselves in a civilization that was not our own.”15
The case of Brest illustrates how sport, especially cycling, emerged as an
important arena in which some provincial towns on the nation’s periphery
expressed their distinctiveness and disdain for “offi cial French” culture dur-
ing the Third Republic. Around cycling, the most “national” of French sports
well into the interwar years, Bretons built a unique regional identity that distinguished them from the rest of the nation.16 The Brestois (Brest’s residents) established an opposition, manifested on the race courses and in the press,
between themselves and “Paris,” a generic term synonymous with nonlocal
culture and traditions. The dialogue between provincial Bretons and Pari-
sians that centered on the Tour was symptomatic of a broader cultural gulf
between the rest of the nation and Brittany.
The regional and national press played a key role in elaborating a specifi -
cally Breton sporting identity around which separatist sentiments coalesced,
but which in the long run helped weave the colorful fabric of the national
myth of the Tour. It is disputable whether this region’s cyclists demonstrated
particularly Breton athletic characteristics and personal traits in competition, as many commentators have asserted,17 but it is undeniable that the Brestois
and the rest of the nation imagined and perpetuated those stereotypes. The
Brestois considered the riders of local origins to be both sports heroes and
champions of local culture. As local sports editor Noël Kerdraon pointed out,
Brest’s public favored riders who combined athletic prowess with a strong
attachment to Breton culture, such as 1930s professional star Ferdinand Le
Drogo: