RONDE AND RONDE
PIERRE CARREY The Ronde de l'Isarde is a throwback to a purer time in cycling
The most romantic cycling race of May is perhaps not the Giro d’Italia but the Ronde de l’Isard, in the French Pyrenees. The Ronde de l’Isard? This international race, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, doesn’t ring a bell for many fans of cycling. Yet it has become legendary for U23 riders from all around the world, who are dying to experience a first journey over big passes or fight for a contract. It’s a proven path to the top: 19 out of the past 20 winners have become professional. Like the Giro, ‘l’Isard’ is hectic, epic and dramatic. The snow and the mist wrap the climbs in their cold embrace quite often. This is a backdrop of pure and wild mountains. But it all remains at a very human size.
At first sight there are very few signs of mankind when you go to Ariège, this region in the middle of the Pyrenees, close to Andorra and 90 minutes’ drive from Toulouse. Everything is green. A fresh green. A replenishing green. An almost oppressive green. Deep forests cover the land as if nobody lived there, apart from a very small community of a dozen bears.
But there are humans in Ariège. Some are born here and work in small shops or the tourist industry; some have come from elsewhere to find space. These people are reclusive, but once a year, in May, they open up, at the Ronde de l’Isard. The race is a sort of café where everybody can meet. It was founded in 1977 to provide entertainment at the annual fair in Saint-Girons. At the time it was only for local riders. Then it joined the UCI calendar in 1998. Paradoxically, the organisers have no clue of what cycling really is or who the riders exactly are.
They run a bike race but they might have launched a bric-a-brac stall as well. Sometimes they watch the Tour de France on television and ask themselves: “Romain Bardet? Didn’t he come to the Ronde de l’Isard six years ago?” There are only volunteers to organise, paying some expenses from their own pocket, and cash is hard to come by. Because of the lack of money everything could stop in the next few years.
‘l’Isard’, which is named after the Pyrenean chamois, has its own logic and beauty. Three years ago the finish line was still just painted on the road, next to a caravan, with the timekeeper sitting on the roof. Was that appropriate for the most mythical cycling race for the up-and-coming champions? Yes, because this is a race of simplicity. When a UCI commissaire pointed out that the Côte de Lara wasn’t deserving of its rank of category four, (“Why did you rate a false flat?”), here was the answer: “This is because Mr and Mrs Buscat [two of the volunteers, 60 years old] love riding their bikes on that climb!”
The Ronde de l’Isard is made by old people for young people. It has never tried to host the French ProContinental teams and national stars such as Thomas Voeckler. It will remain a wild and colourful race, in the same mould as the region’s landscapes and people. To many young riders this is a time of truth. A dream or a nightmare. The best climber in Brittany, David Chopin, burst into tears in GoulierNeige in 2008 when he realized he was not a great climber and might not be able to turn professional. Romain Bardet also cried at Guzet-Neige when he was defeated by Kenny Elissonde in 2011. This year again, some 22 year-old rider had his heart broken because he was struggling on the climbs: it meant no selection for the national team for the Tour de l’Avenir and, perhaps, no professional career after that. The Ronde de l’Isard is more than a bike race: this is beauty and fragility, an authentic lesson in life.