the essential
On Saturday, June 22, Philippe Giannoni returned from his Tour de France. Since his departure on June 1, he has covered 4,000 km in 19 stages, like Théodore Joyeux in 1895.
4,000 km traveled and 30,000m of elevation gain. That’s more than 200km per day. The rain, the wind and the climbs didn’t get the better of Philippe Giannoni. He did it. He completed the Tour de France, like Théodore Joyeux in his time, in 1895.
“I got back on the bike to come meet you,” laughs the cyclist. Returning to Agen on June 22, for several days it was rest for the bicycle lover. “The first stages allowed me to test the equipment. I had trouble sleeping, so I took an extra day of rest in Quimper, it was necessary,” confides the fifty-year-old.
A route all around France. “Brittany is not flat”, Philippe Giannoni says ironically. If his route did not contain any big passes, difficult to avoid with 30 kg of stuff on the luggage rack. The cycle tourist climbed up to 1200m altitude. “It was at the beginning of the stage between Digne-les-Bains and Mandelieu-la-Napoule, the day after a rest day, it was ideal”, adds the cyclist.
Unforgettable memories
Arriving in Normandy after the Breton breakaway, Philippe discovered the toughness of the route. “The stage between Dinan and Caen was one of the worst. All in a straight line with climbs at 8-9% and descents, like a roller coaster. It’s the hardest, on the passes you can have a rhythm that you keep up,” says the cycling enthusiast.
From morning to night, cycling can seem like a long time. To counteract this, Philippe anticipated: “I thought about the next stages, the supplies and how I was going to sleep. Sometimes I sang.” In the evening, he often slept in gîtes, but sometimes Philippe slept at a local’s house.
“In Nantes, a cycle tourist hosted me in his roommate of seven. A good time,” he rewinds. However, the highlight of this crossing will remain the Lons-le-Saunier and Grenoble stage. “It was the day after my birthday. My son lives there. He decided to accompany me, luckily he was there. The rain and the headwind, it was terrible. Both of us went ‘is sustained. It’s a memorable memory.”
A grand arrival
After thousands of kilometers, it is time for the cycle tourist to return to Agen. “Friends accompanied me, I was no longer driving alone. At the end a colleague towed me over dozens of terminals, headwind. Young people were waiting for me at the aqueduct. It was incredible, we are arrived together at the starting line of the Grande Boucle.”
He burned more than 3,000 calories per day. “To recover, I used sports compression stockings. You can feel the effects. In the Gard, I lost them, and towards the end, my legs were very heavy,” Philippe Giannoni recalls.
A successful feat that calls for others for this cycling enthusiast. “Maybe I would do it again, but without running on the economy and accompanied by a car. I would also take mythical passes. That’s my next goal.”
