{"id":597091,"date":"2026-05-22T00:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597091\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T00:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:15:14","slug":"the-president-the-prodigy-and-the-politics-of-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597091\/","title":{"rendered":"The president, the prodigy and the politics of the Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every summer, millions of people stand by the roadsides on mountains and plains to cheer the riders taking part in the Tour de France. Tens of millions more watch at least part of the three-week race on the television.<\/p>\n

But for the past four decades, the ending has never quite matched the country\u2019s aspirations \u2014 no French cyclist has won since Bernard Hinault in 1985.<\/p>\n

The long run of disappointments has become part of the national narrative, a little like the quest for the World Cup in England<\/a> or for an Ashes victory on Australian soil. In the absence of a recent homegrown winner, the French have taken to celebrating a loser \u2014 Laurent Fignon, the Paris-born rider who finished the 1989 tour an agonising eight seconds behind Greg LeMond, the American victor.<\/p>\n

Fignon had won the race twice in the early 1980s, but like Napoleon, he is best remembered for what his countrymen think of as a glorious defeat.<\/p>\n

\"FrenchLaurent Fignon wearing the yellow jersey during the 11th stage of the race in 1989. He lost out by eight agonising secondsAFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Now, however, the storyline could be about to change. Paul Seixas, a 19-year-old prodigy from a small town in central France, is generating frenzied interest after announcing that he will become the youngest participant in the Tour de France since 1937.<\/p>\n

Seixas is not expected to come first in the race in July, when the favourite will be Tadej Pogacar, the four-time Slovenian winner. But after Seixas\u2019s victories in the Tour of the Basque Country and La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, a Belgian road race, his fans are convinced that it is only a matter of time before he wins the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Christian Prudhomme, the race director, said he had not seen such enthusiasm for a French cyclist since Hinault\u2019s triumph 41 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"BernardBernard Hinault, the last French winner of the raceAFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Laurent Jalabert, a retired French cyclist, suggested that Seixas could be the greatest rider ever.<\/p>\n

The excitement has reached the \u00c9lys\u00e9e, where President Macron is said to be dreaming of a tricolour victory in the race described by Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand, his predecessor in the 1980s, as part of the national \u201cheritage\u201d.<\/p>\n

The presidential dream ran into the reality of modern sport when media outlets began speculating that Seixas might be tempted to leave his French team, Decathlon CMA CGM, for a lucrative contract with UAE Team Emirates in the Gulf. Macron, who travels to the provinces to watch the Tour de France almost every year, was said to be aghast.<\/p>\n

\"FrenchPaul SeixasJEFF PACHOUD\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"CyclistsAnd with Tadej Pogacar, of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, during a race from Li\u00e8ge, Belgium, in AprilBERNARD PAPON\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Eurosport, the television channel, said the president had put pressure on Seixas to stay put. Macron did much the same when Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, the French footballer, was rumoured to be leaving Paris Saint-Germain for Real Madrid. Then, the presidential pleading had little effect, as Mbapp\u00e9 quit France for Spain in 2024.<\/p>\n

With Seixas\u2019s contract at Decathlon CMA CGM due to end next year, there is no guarantee that Macron will do any better this time, although at least the unpopular head of state can claim to be in tune with public opinion on the issue.\u00a0Don\u2019t Sign for UAE, a English language song by Kilian Willems, a German singer who performs under the name Killow, has gone viral. The song says that if Seixas were to remain in France, he could run for president or live in the Palace of Versailles, home to kings in the ancien r\u00e9gime \u2014 an exaggeration, but possibly only a slight one.<\/p>\n

If the weight of expectations on Seixas\u2019s shoulders is so big, it is because of the importance of\u00a0 the Tour\u00a0in the national conscience. Ever since the state broadcaster began covering the race in 1948, generations of French people have discovered the diversity of their own landscapes by watching it.<\/p>\n

Erik Orsenna, the high-brow novelist and member of the French Academy, summed up the national sentiment when he once said: \u201cIt\u2019s thanks to the Tour de France that I learnt the geography and face of my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacques Chirac, the late centre-right leader who was president in the 1990s, put it more succinctly. \u201cThe Tour, it\u2019s France,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seixas seems the perfect fit \u2014 a homespun provincial boy who lives in the small town of Anse, near Lyon, with his father, Emanuel, a computer analyst and former French karate vice-champion, and Emmanuelle, his mother, a teacher who also practises the martial art to a high level. <\/p>\n

\"FrenchSeixas is from a small town near Lyon<\/p>\n

Media outlets like to tell how he trained on the roads of the Beaujolais wine-growing region, and made public his participation in the Tour de France in a video in which he announced the news to his grandparents. L\u2019\u00c9quipe, the sporting daily, said he had been an \u201cintroverted child\u201d who had \u201cfreed himself\u201d when he took up cycling. In short, he\u00a0is depicted as everything the jet-setting Mbapp\u00e9 is not \u2014 although\u00a0that description might have to be revised if Seixas signs for UAE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every summer, millions of people stand by the roadsides on mountains and plains to cheer the riders taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-597091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}