the essential
Saturday June 22, Philippe Giannoni returned from his tour of France. Since his departure on June 1, he has covered 4,000km 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.
Everlasting memories
Arriving in Normandy after the Breton escape, Philippe discovers the harshness 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, the passes you can have a rhythm that we keep,” says the cycling enthusiast.
From morning to evening pedaling, the time can seem long. To counteract this, Philippe anticipated: “I was thinking about the next steps, the supplies and how I was going to sleep. I sometimes sang.” In the evening, he often slept in lodges, but sometimes, Philippe slept with locals.
“In Nantes, a cycle tourist put me up in his shared flat of seven. A great time,” he recalls. 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 come with me, luckily he was there. The rain and the headwind, it was hellish. We both supported each other. 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 take legendary passes too. That’s my next goal.”
