The Rencontres d'Apamée offered a conference on the Tour de France on Friday evening in Pamiers in front of an audience very attentive to this flagship event in sport and heritage, particularly in Ariège. After the introduction of Pascal Augéry, president of the Rencontres d'Apamée association, the two speakers, Jean-Emmanuel Ducoin and Pierre Carrey, having covered nearly 60 editions of the Tour between them, shared a demanding but passionate look , sometimes dark but full of love about the evolution of the ordeal.
For Jean-Emmanuel Ducoin, editor-in-chief at L'Humanité and writer, “the Republic of the Tour de France” conceived in 1903 and “the People of the Tour”, who invited themselves en masse to the party from the paid leave of 1936, are today in danger. The excesses of hyper-doping, hyper-capitalism and hyper-communication in fact contribute to the dehumanization of cycling.
For Pierre Carrey, contributor to Le Monde, the stage on July 14 at the Plateau de Beille, concluded by the victory and record climb of Tadej Pogacar, represents a very contradictory moment, mixing popular emotion and suspicion of sporting fraud.
Both speakers nevertheless concluded with a note of hope. They recall that it is its popularity that has kept the Tour going for more than 120 years, and they call on spectators, enthusiasts, sponsors and local elected officials to be very vigilant about the humanist values of cycling as well as the historic turning point which is taking place. has been playing since 2020, with the acceleration of the evolution of the Tour.
Several questions in the room confirmed the lively curiosity of the public, in particular this one: “Why has no Frenchman won the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault in 1985?” This question reopened a fascinating and in-depth analysis of the Tour, between doping, sport, economy and history.
Pascal Augéry announced an upcoming conference on March 7, on the reindustrialization of France. These meetings can also be found on Facebook as well as on the association's YouTube channel, where they are very successful.
