THE TDF, ACCORDING TO RUBINO

Here's what came out of it... enjoy the read!

The Tour de France marks the beginning of summer for cyclists.

It is part of the rituals in which we seek security. Like in a religion, a celebration.

The Tour de France is the quintessential July ritual for all cyclists. The sport of cycling in its essence, the heat, told by black and white images that, when you flip through them, appear in color, in high definition, and with ever more precise details. As in the stories for which radio and imagination were enough. Today we have everything there, deepened, explored, extrapolated, and clarified. Nothing must be missed.

Nevertheless, the Tour remains a story that fires the imagination, like a book or a beautiful photograph. On the other hand, who else, if not our imagination, could have seen twin brothers in first and second place in the race stage always rewarded with the yellow jersey?

The Tour de France is the ritual of the summer heat, which begins precisely at the start, do not be fooled by the calendar. The Tour is in summer, and the race is in July. People will still discuss it in August while looking for the right jersey so you do not feel the heat. And when you stop talking about it, it's time for the World Championship, so almost Autumn.

Illusion or reality?

In the Tour de France, there are stories of water buckets and domestiques looking for fountains and stealing water from cows to be faster, but without telling the captains, and we had to add the colorful imagery. The fantasy of coolness was sought in every way, cutting jerseys and caps. Today this is no longer necessary, thanks to the fabrics used to refresh the skin. But the riders know that it will never be enough. The Tour de France rhymes with toil and celebration while other peers are already on vacation. They carry supply bags of programmed supplements, following in the footsteps of heroic cycling that did not make concessions and astonished even a young journalist from Le Petit Parisienne, who discovered Bottecchia had six eggs, eight bananas, lots of chocolate, rice cakes, dates, and jam sandwiches for snacks at the 1923 Tour. Things that would make the grandmothers of the past envious of their grandchildren's seaside snacks. But then, all in front of the TV for today's stage of the race.

The Tour has kicked off, a French choreography with 176 leading actors.

Claudio Chiappucci and Nalini.

Surprise breakaways, adventures, and traps at the Tour de France.

Ten minutes of old-fashioned breakaway material for the already modern cycling of the 1990s. That was the margin by which the contenders crossed the finish line at Futuroscope, the second stage of the Tour de France, which had one favorite above all: Greg Lemond, the American wearing the yellow jersey. The accumulated extra minutes allowed the contenders of that day to do their thing for several days in this atypical Tour de France. First Bauer, then Pensec, and finally Chiappucci in the yellow jersey, who came one step closer to history.

And Chiappucci almost managed to make history if it was not for this trap.

Obviously because a stage race is won by strength, intelligence, and tactics. And by cartridges fired at the right time.

The cartridge fired by Greg Lemond, who never deviated from his favorite throughout the 1990 Grand Bouocle, was Ronan Pensec, of all people, the American's teammate, who, together with him, trapped Chiappucci. And so, after chipping away at the Italian's lead minute by minute in the mountains, it was Pensec's breakaway, close to Chiappucci's yellow jersey in the classification, that robbed him of the last of his strength and paved the way for Lemond's triumph, which was now drawing ever closer.

Lemond would win his third Tour de France, but the world had by now met Claudio Chiappucci, born a domestique but possessing the instincts of a champion.

Guido Rubino for Nalini