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 EDITO of Jean-Marie Leblanc
"How can we make sure it's as good next year?" That was the delighted question that could be heard on the 27 July in Paris while the crowds were disbursing after the Tour.
Of course, it is impossible to talk about the Tour de France 2004 without recalling once again that feeling of plenitude and joy that swept over us at the time, and which we were able to share with thousands of spectators and television viewers. For the riders had a special talent, as if inhabited by the grace and magic of this Centenary celebration, also a great success from a commemorative and celebratory angle.
But the lamps of the Centenary celebration have gone out! We shall have to count on something else next year. Of course we will still have Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki, Alexandre Vinokourov and many other riders displaying the panache that we have come so much to appreciate.
Our main concern has been to prepare the terrain so that they are once again motivated to provide us with as fine a contest as this year. Discover the terrain; see how it has been split up; study the regulations: nothing is conventional, everything has been designed to create suspense and uncertainty.
First of all, the course seems to us to respond well to today's requirements: reasonable distances, fairly long stages at the beginning, and somewhat shorter at the end, a first rest day after eight days of flat cycling and another one after the Massif Central and Pyrenees have been crossed – just before the Alps; no individual time trial before the last week, but what a trial: the ascension of the Alpe d’Huez!
With a time trial by teams and adjusted time gaps, with a tight points scale for the Best Climber Rankings, we can expect constantly changing rankings and, above all, potential turnaround situations: sporting directors, you will need to be clever strategists!
And let us not forget the atmosphere: the Grand Start in Wallonia, a country of festivities, the reunion with Brittany, a region of cycling, the salute of the Tour to Raymond Poulidor and Saint-Léonard-de Noblat, the first stage of the Tour de France in the Creuse (at last!); all that augurs for a quality vintage.
Without forgetting the question that is already on the tips of everyone's tongues: will "He" be the first to obtain six victories? Well, we will just have to be patient…
Jean-Marie LEBLANC
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