- Since 2017, the Dictée du Tour de France has invited schoolchildren to work on a text evoking the passage of the race in their region. Edition five equalled the participation record with 26,000 children from primary and secondary schools on the route of the 109th edition of the Tour de France and the 1st edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
- On Friday 25 March, there are two dictations on the programme, with the addition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
- This initiative is part of the Avenir à Vélo (“Riding into the Future”) programme which groups the actions undertaken by the Tour de France to promote and encourage cycling, as well as the French Ministry of Education's Savoir rouler à vélo ("Learn to ride a bike") campaign, with its aim to develop and support cycling from a very young age.
A PREVIEW IN COPENHAGEN
On Wednesday, 23 March, exactly 100 days before the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Copenhagen, Christian Prudhomme visited the Prins Henrik French high school to kick off the 2022 Dictée du Tour. The 400 French and Danish students gathered for the occasion worked on a text highlighting Copenhagen's cycling infrastructure and the passage of the Tour this coming July.
THE TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES AVEC ZWIFT PUTS PEN TO PAPER
2022 is a year of firsts! The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift had its dictation programme, adopting the same format as the Dictée du Tour. And the students of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage towns were able to determine who is the best speller as they wrote their lines before this summer's mountain passes. While waiting for the riders' stories, Marion Rousse, the event's director, dictated the text selected for this first edition via a video presentation.
DICTATION FIGURES
The dictation involves no less than 33 cities in 4 different countries, France, Denmark with Copenhagen, Belgium with Binche and Switzerland with Lausanne and Aigle. And this is without counting all the peripheral towns that have joined the stage towns. For the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the 13 stage towns, the three departments and the Grand Est Region are active in this educative and solidarity project. The pupils received an in-person or a virtual visit from numerous male and female athletes, who played the role of school teachers for an afternoon. This was the case, for example, with Antoine Dupont in Castelnau-Magnoac, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse in Lille, but also Thierry Omeyer and Perrine Clauzel in Grand Est. On the podium of municipalities that have mobilised their youngest citizens, Saint-Étienne stands out with 1,000 pupils, followed by Dunkerque (810) and Calais (800).
30,000 EDUCATIONAL BOOKLETS DISTRIBUTED
Amaury Sport Organisation is supporting local authorities by providing 30,000 school kits bearing the Maxoo logo, the Tour de France mascot, 400 official Tour de France diplomas and 30,000 educational booklets entitled “La vie à vélo avec Maxoo” ("Life on a bike with Maxoo") produced by the Journal de Mickey teams, with the participation of Marion Rousse.
RENDEZ-VOUS ON 12 MAY
Now it's time for the corrections... until the results on 12 May, 50 days before the Grand Départ. In order to achieve a perfect score, a perfect command of spelling, and in particular, cycling vocabulary will be necessary to be honoured. On each stage, only the six best students in the Dictée du Tour Femmes avec Zwift and the eight best in the Dictée du Tour will receive an invitation to spend a day behind the scenes of the Tour when it passes through their region. The award is, of course, subject to the health measures that will be implemented this summer.
