Tour de France: This resident near Dieppe has been traveling the roads in a caravan for ten years

“Participate in the Tour de France, the most beautiful race in the world, it is something exceptional. » With sparkling eyes, Thierry Gilles, from Calleville-les-Deux-Églises (Seine-Maritime) can’t wait for July.

At 58, the man who works in wealth management is still as crazy about the handlebars as ever. He started the bike at 16 years old at VC Rouen 76 and is its current leader.

He was a regional runner from 1981 to 1993.

Every year he cycles around 10,000 kilometers. There is only one time of year when he leaves his bike for a while, but for a good cause.

Indeed, the cycling lover will soon experience his tenth Tour de France. Not as a cyclist, but as a caravan driver.

A second family

In 2015, the leader of the cycling club approached event agencies who recruited staff for the Tour’s advertising caravans.

“Out of 2,500 candidates, about 50 are accepted,” he says. “I was accepted in 2015 and at the end of each Tour, we are asked if we want to go again next year.”

So obviously, for the die-hard cycling fan, it’s a big yes!

Nothing better for his first Tour than to pass through his lands, in Seine-Maritime. Dieppe, Quiberville-sur-Mer, Veules-les-Roses…

“My family and acquaintances came to see me,” he remembers, all smiles.

Since then, every year, the meeting has been included in his diary. From June 29, the Seinomarin will join Sablé-sur-Sarthe, where the head office of the brand for which it will drive is located: Le Gaulois, a French poultry company.

For a month, the resident of Calleville-les-Deux-Églises will rack up the miles at the wheel of one of the eight Tour caravans.

For him, finding this team is almost “like a second family”.

But how does a day go for a caravaner? “We get up around 6 or 7 am to go to the caravan park, which is sometimes 50 or 80 kilometers from the start,” he explains.

You must arrive two hours before departure. We clean the caravan every day, we prepare the loads of goodies (small gifts bearing the brand image, Editor’s note). »

Daily checks

Every day, the driver is checked for alcohol, drugs and speed. The caravanners leave two hours before the peloton.

Each caravan is placed in a defined order each day. The vehicles travel in a staggered pattern, 50 or 100 m apart, and must arrive an hour and a half before the cyclists. Then, you have to return to the accommodation.

This year, Thierry Gilles will start the Tour only from the fourth stage. He will have the opportunity to go through the Alps, Troyes, the Massif Central, the Pyrenees, the Alps again to finish towards Monaco and Nice, “a superb stage”, he smiles.

If the riders will pedal around 3,400 km, he will rather be closer to 9,000 km.

However, the distance does not scare him. He dreams in advance of the landscapes he will discover, of the spectators at the side of the roads.

And every year, during the Tour, the Seinomarin is even in the spotlight, since it will be his birthday!

He then receives beautiful gifts that would make cycling fans jealous: a jersey from Chris Froome, another from Poulidor.

“Last year I got a cap signed by Peter Sagan,” he says proudly.

So what gift will be in store for him this year? He doesn’t know, but what he hopes is to continue the adventure “a little longer, especially since next year, the Tour de France may pass not far from our home.”

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