It’s summertime in France, and I’ve landed the dream job of working for SBS together with larrikin cycling interviewer, Dan Jones. Our assignment is to capture the team interviews for the 2022 Tour de France.
With a sip of champagne, half a croissant and the steady beat of dance music, we begin the Tour de France in the official Village - the moveable, central hive for the 21 stages of this epic race.
Here are five life lessons I’ve learned from the privilege of being involved in this Tour:
Planning
Hosting the world’s largest, free-to-attend sporting event takes incredible planning on many fronts: closing local roads; booking 21 team hotels; arranging transport for hundreds of bikes; preparing the course for 172 riders; and, bus parking.
Medieval towns were built for horses and carts, and the Tour’s bus driver's natural-born skills to navigate through Roman-built, cobbled corners is a feat to behold.
Process
To deliver high standards, processes need to be followed, and every facet of the tour has their own.
Mechanics meticulously maintain the riders’ machines. Riders personally prepare for each mountain and sprint stage. Media ensure their equipment is ready for live grabs. And regional food and wine producers proudly follow gastronomical traditions to offer daily delights in the Tour Village.
Bianca Ross during the Tour de France
Places
Selecting start and finish towns for the Tour requires excellent geographic and mathematical skills.
Terrain needs to be calculated for technicality and duration to suit each individual stage.
Holding areas are designated for the daily Tour Parade floats which include a massive strawberry, a giant baguette in a very French basket, and a plush lion of such size to make a local dry cleaner’s dreams come true.
Then there are the 21 team buses, each with three cars and a van; vehicles that transport the 5,000 members of the media; and the rotating Village set-up with its corporate marquees, kitchens, stages, and posh port-a-loos.
And because it’s the Tour de France, add in the aesthetic mandatories of chateaux, lakes, and mountains, which subsequently requires greater concentration to ensure, as a driver, that I’m in the middle of the road.
Dan Jones and Bianca Ross at the 2022 Tour de France
Professionalism
Setting a globally revered benchmark requires unheralded commitment, and the Tour de France executes this annually across many aspects.
The professionals who work together to make this event happen are a delight to watch: medical staff who bandage riders from moving vehicles; chefs who prepare the riders’ nutritionally specific meals; emcees who excite the crowds; and access point security who somehow manage the throngs of fizzing, fancy-dressed fans all the way up the 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d’Huez.
Simon Clarke and Dan Jones after Clarke won the cobbled Stage 5 of the Tour de France
People
As a keen Tour viewer, I confess I perceived the riders as sleek, machine-like, athletic gods who wear sunglasses, a helmet and lycra into battle.
But talking with them and their incredible teams over the 21 stages of this epic race, about themselves and each other, my views are revolutionised.
The people who come to this race define a team. The riders, sports directors, mechanics, media managers and chefs love each other like family.
And respect extends beyond the colours and logos they wear. When UAE Team Emirates leader Tadej Pogačar came off his bike on the descent leading into the final climb of Stage 18, yellow jersey holder Jonas Vingegaard (Team Jumbo-Visma) slowed and waited to take his place behind.
When Dan Jones presents a 'Ride of the Day' kangaroo to Wout Van Aert, he tells us his son loves the two he’s already won. Hamilton beams as he talks about his dad being at the race, and when I button off and tell him he and his fellow riders are heroes, he thanks me.
Every July, the Tour de France sets a high bar, with all its elements working together to offer the world an incredible spectacle.
And when the yellow jersey winner stands triumphantly under the arch, all the heroes of this race will be celebrating his victory.
Bianca Ross is a writer and author, working at the 2022 Tour de France as a camera journalist for SBS.
