Voice of the Tour de France for seven years, Alexandre Pasteur is amazed by the passion of the public on each stage. An attachment to the Tour which is reflected in the audience figures.
The summer is particularly busy for Alexandre Pasteur. Present as every year since 2017 in the commentators’ booth on the Tour de France, the star presenter of France Télévisions will then continue with the Olympic Games. Not to commentate on cycling, which he will leave to his understudy Nicolas Geay, but to officiate on athletics, for which he already commentated the European Championships last month.
“The Olympic Games are just after. They will feed off the Tour because it will be a fantastic launching pad.”he also confided to The New Republic. After three days in Italy, the Grande Boucle arrives in France this Monday for the first mountain stage, with the ascent of Galibier on the program. And there is no doubt that the public will once again be present in large numbers.
“From 8am, the roads are packed with people”
For the former Eurosport player, the public’s enthusiasm for the Tour de France is simply “indescribable, indescribable.” “The day before each stage, I ask to be accommodated 70 kilometers from the finish. That way, I can drive those last few kilometers to recognize the end of each stage. It’s always very, very useful for the commentary. I’m impressed because from 8 a.m., the roads are black with people, he stressed. People are settling in, the campers are there, we are setting up the picnic tables… It’s festive, it’s joyful.”
This craze has given rise to a few excesses in recent years. However, nothing to worry Alexandre Pasteur about.
“We saw that there was a younger, more festive and often a little more drunken audience. But there was no big overflow. People are partying, he stressed. There is alcohol consumption, of course, but that has always been the case in Alpe d’Huez, especially with the famous Dutch bend. It has been invaded by Dutch people for thirty years who drink beer from night to morning for seven days. It is not the football crowd, there are no hooligans, no violence.
