The yellow jersey is washed white
The Tour de France is not just a sporting event. For the «Grande Nation,» it is also a social event with political implications. By Jürg Altwegg, Geneva correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and author.
Who actually won the Tour de France last year? This is a question that many a cycling fan will have to pass on. But everyone has known for months that Lance Armstrong, the historic - seven-time - serial winner of the French national tour, will be at the start on Saturday. Who has never won anything else. He announced his comeback last September after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in New York. The head of state's aim is to regenerate the myth of the Tour de France.
For a decade now, it has been a shadow of its former self, a doping-contaminated event. Various countries have decided not to broadcast the event live. Now it is apparently going back to the way it used to be: the abuses are being concealed. The owners of the prestigious sports newspaper L'Equipe have strongly advised the editorial team to attach importance to doping - and to stop publishing any more revelations. For the owners of L'Equipe, this is a matter of business interests. Because they also own the Tour, and it is what newspapers no longer are: a lucrative business. With an annual profit of thirty million euros.
Reporting on them has always been a balancing act for reporters. At present, L'Equipe is also facing tough competition. Advertising revenues have collapsed and readership figures are falling. The editorial team is under pressure - the bosses have been replaced twice in the course of a year. For the first time in the newspaper's history, the "elitist" specialists for cycling and athletics have been replaced at the top by the "populist" football experts.
The doping allegations made by L'Equipe against Lance Armstrong obviously also play a role in the background. The editorial team published information from the anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry about six of Armstrong's doping samples from 1999 that were positive for the blood thickener Epo and were not intended for the public. Because the samples were only analyzed for scientific purposes and were actually anonymized and because no - legally prescribed - counter-analysis was possible, the American was never convicted or banned.
For Armstrong fan Sarkozy, it's all about national interests. After the World Ski Championships in Val d'Isère in February, the head of state, who attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, said that his country needed to organize more international sporting events again. The defeat against London for the 2012 Summer Games remains a French trauma. The Tour de France must return to its former glory. The political and journalistic lesson that has now been staged should also impress the international federations that have to award title fights. In a book published recently, a dismissed ex-Equipe editor reports that talks took place in Beijing between the French and the world cycling federation. Three weeks later, the Tour organizers dismissed the doping officer, who was fighting for clean cycling - and later communicated the corresponding guidelines to the editors.
The yellow jersey is washed white. On the Sunday before the start of the grand tour, Lance Armstrong was a guest on a popular TV show on France 2, whose presenter occasionally trains with Sarkozy on his bike. The public broadcaster, from which Sarkozy has withdrawn advertising, is broadcasting the Tour de France - and its commentators can hardly be expected to be critical.
After his mediocre performance at the Giro d'Italia, nobody expects Lance Armstrong to be able to replace Carlos Sastre as the winner. Whether he can benefit the Tour de France myth with his participation is more than questionable. Rumor has it that he is trying to buy the event. In any case, cycling fans and experts are horrified by this American comeback. They will not be following the Tour de France in the coming weeks for sporting reasons. Even if we Swiss are hoping a little for Fabian Cancellara - despite everything.
The "Grande Boucle" will be observed as a social event with a political objective. And read L'Equipe between the lines. Always with the calm and reassuring certainty that the sporting legend of the year will not be Lance Armstrong. But has already been produced in Paris: Roger Federer.
For a decade now, it has been a shadow of its former self, a doping-contaminated event. Various countries have decided not to broadcast the event live. Now it is apparently going back to the way it used to be: the abuses are being concealed. The owners of the prestigious sports newspaper L'Equipe have strongly advised the editorial team to attach importance to doping - and to stop publishing any more revelations. For the owners of L'Equipe, this is a matter of business interests. Because they also own the Tour, and it is what newspapers no longer are: a lucrative business. With an annual profit of thirty million euros.
Reporting on them has always been a balancing act for reporters. At present, L'Equipe is also facing tough competition. Advertising revenues have collapsed and readership figures are falling. The editorial team is under pressure - the bosses have been replaced twice in the course of a year. For the first time in the newspaper's history, the "elitist" specialists for cycling and athletics have been replaced at the top by the "populist" football experts.
The doping allegations made by L'Equipe against Lance Armstrong obviously also play a role in the background. The editorial team published information from the anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry about six of Armstrong's doping samples from 1999 that were positive for the blood thickener Epo and were not intended for the public. Because the samples were only analyzed for scientific purposes and were actually anonymized and because no - legally prescribed - counter-analysis was possible, the American was never convicted or banned.
For Armstrong fan Sarkozy, it's all about national interests. After the World Ski Championships in Val d'Isère in February, the head of state, who attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, said that his country needed to organize more international sporting events again. The defeat against London for the 2012 Summer Games remains a French trauma. The Tour de France must return to its former glory. The political and journalistic lesson that has now been staged should also impress the international federations that have to award title fights. In a book published recently, a dismissed ex-Equipe editor reports that talks took place in Beijing between the French and the world cycling federation. Three weeks later, the Tour organizers dismissed the doping officer, who was fighting for clean cycling - and later communicated the corresponding guidelines to the editors.
The yellow jersey is washed white. On the Sunday before the start of the grand tour, Lance Armstrong was a guest on a popular TV show on France 2, whose presenter occasionally trains with Sarkozy on his bike. The public broadcaster, from which Sarkozy has withdrawn advertising, is broadcasting the Tour de France - and its commentators can hardly be expected to be critical.
After his mediocre performance at the Giro d'Italia, nobody expects Lance Armstrong to be able to replace Carlos Sastre as the winner. Whether he can benefit the Tour de France myth with his participation is more than questionable. Rumor has it that he is trying to buy the event. In any case, cycling fans and experts are horrified by this American comeback. They will not be following the Tour de France in the coming weeks for sporting reasons. Even if we Swiss are hoping a little for Fabian Cancellara - despite everything.
The "Grande Boucle" will be observed as a social event with a political objective. And read L'Equipe between the lines. Always with the calm and reassuring certainty that the sporting legend of the year will not be Lance Armstrong. But has already been produced in Paris: Roger Federer.
