Devilish Tour climbs make Lourdes fitting start for Hail Marys
Lourdes is Las Vegas for Catholics. It is where men wear hoodies with “Don’t Panic. Just Pray” written on the back. It is the home of shops full of statues of the Virgin Mary in all sorts of sizes. It is where people come seeking miracles and wonder.
Last Friday, it was where the Tour de France began its 19th stage. The “village depart” — the hospitality village that is at the start of each stage of the Tour — had the Notre-Dame de Lourdes Sanctuary as a spectacular backdrop, watching over those having a splash of the local rose, a wafer-thin slice of the black pork of Bigorre, a small basket of chicken and chips, a sneaky handful of Haribo sweets and the chance to inhale the heady atmosphere of the Grand Boucle.
Sponsors, fans, priests, nuns, riders, organisers and media clicking their necks, cracking their fingers in preparation for one of the hardest days of the 2018 Tour de France.
Sadly, I did not see or get to taste the spit cake, Pailhasson chocolates, Malespine sweets, Pyrenees cheese, garbure (soup) and Tarbes beans the Tour de France site says are the gourmet attractions of the town.
It marks “religious tourism” as one of the main economic activities in Lourdes, along with “household appliances”.
If you tire of plaster and plastic statues, you can head along to the wax museum to see the real-size character depicting the life of Jesus Christ.
Lourdes, then, was a good place to start one of the toughest days of 2018’s Tour. A day when some prayers would be offered on the last day in the Pyrenees. There were two hors categorie (out of category) climbs, the Col d’Tourmalet and the Col d’Aubisque, the category one slog up the Col d’Aspin.
There was a huge crowd outside the Team Sky bus on that morning in Lourdes. They may have hissed and howled at Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas on the roads, but Sky remained the star attraction.
Outside the Team Dimension Data bus was a Qhubeka bike, the dikwiel that makes the South African team that bit different from the rest. As well as to win races, the team ride to raise awareness for the Qhubeka charity to get kids on bikes to help them get to school.
Edvald Boasson Hagen, their Norwegian sprinter, rode the Qhubeka bike to sign on for the 19th stage. Outside the Dimension Data bus, Jay Thomson, the South African riding in his first Tour, posed with his parents, family and friends. You could not scrub the smile off Thomson’s face.
Robbie Hunter, the first South African to win a stage at the Tour, with Team Barloworld in Montpellier in 2007, came past the bus for a chat. He is an agent nowadays, as feisty and quick with a chirp as ever. Daryl Impey, the first African to wear yellow at the Tour, stopped by on his way to sign on for the day.
The three South Africans, all Joburg boys, joked about the day. “Just three more days to go,” said Impey. Hunter laughed: “K*k. Today is last day. Two days of holiday after this.”
Those two days of holiday included a time trial and a party-bus roll into Paris.
I was a guest of Dimension Data and we hopped into cars to drive the route of the stage, stopping for a quick helicopter flight to watch the early few kilometres of the racing. We stopped for lunch at a ski resort on the way up the Tourmalet.
A man, sporting the polka-dot freebie sun hat thrown out by the publicity trucks that precede each stage, stood up a little unsteadily from his deckchair to direct a torrent of abuse at a Team Sky car.
The driver stopped and stared in disgust at his abuser. A gendarme walked across and warned the man to behave. When another Sky car came past the man started off again, but shut up as soon as the cop pointed at him.
The cop asked us for a Team Dimension Data cap. Everyone loves a freebie.
We drove on to the finish, through thick clouds and crowds, and drank champagne as the leaders roared over the line in Laruns. We toasted the remaining five Team Dimension Data riders as they finished another day at the Tour.
From Lourdes to Laruns to Paris: a day of miracles and wonder.