Translation: The Cup is more important than the Tour
July is a big month for the French. Not only do they celebrate their anniversary on the 14th -- commemorating when they ceremoniously stormed the Bastille and subsequently won their independence -- but they have their beloved Tour de France, a three-week bicycling stage race that circumnavigates the nation, at the same time. In fact, July is so stressful for the French they have to take the entire month of August off to holiday.
Fighting for their attention this month is also the 2006 FIFA World Cup, being held in bordering Germany, and which has France pitted against Italy in the finals.
Sacre bleu!, what are the French to do this month? When the French purposefully started the Tour de France in Germany to coincide with the 2006 FIFA World Cup, they had no clue they'd be splitting their croissants between World Cup soccer and the beloved Tour. Not because they don't love soccer (they do), but because the eighth-ranked national team didn't even make it out of the group play in 2002. Heck, they didn't even win a game that year. Merde!
Alas, the French have done the unthinkable. No, they're not supporting the Iraq war, but they made it to the finals of the World Cup after beating Cup favorite Brazil 1-0 on July 1, then blanking Portugal the other day 1-0, sending the Portugeese team to play for third place and France to play for the title. Something they did in 1998 when, on French soil, they embarrassed the Brazilian team 3-0.
Now the French have a dilemna. And it made me wonder: What's more important to the French? Le Tour or Le World Cup?
We don't often associate French with soccer. Sure, on some level, we do. It's Europe, after all, and in the all-European semi-finals of the Cup and the Italy-France match-up this weekend, it's hard to refute. But the French love cycling. When I think of cycling, I think of gay Paris. I think of old black and white photos of Frenchmen in wool sweaters, drinking Pernod or Lillet and smoking cigarettes -- all while climbing Alp d'Huez on a 1930s bicycle with one gear. France about soccer? Non. It's about cycling.
Well, this is what I thought for a brief while, anyway.
The French get Le Tour every year for the 103 (there was no Tour held during a little thing called Le Occupation, however), but they get soccer every four years (every two if you count the Olympics). Seeing as how they failed to make it out of the first round in 2002, it's adequate to say the French have been deprived for eight years straight in soccer, since they won the World Cup last time.
But wait. That roughly coincides with a definite void of a Frenchman on the podium at Le Tour. I believe a Texan won seven-straight Tour de Frances since 1999. Hmm, yeah pretty sure about that one. And in '98, while the French were winning on home turf, the Tour was celebrating another non-Frenchman atop the podium, the late Marco Pantani. Before that? German Jan Ullrich.
Sure Frenchman Richard Virenique earned 2nd place in the climbing (red polka dot jersey) competition in 1997, but that's not really anything. And prior to him, you have the undeniably amazing Bernard Hinault, five-time winner and prize of France. Winners aside, the best thing to happen in recent years in Le Tour is when young Thomas Voeckler wore the yellow leader's jersey for an unprecidented 10 days up to and including Bastille Day when he lost it to Armstrong. The crowds were enormous. The flags outnumbered the new LiveStrong wristbands during that week and a half. If there were to be a World Cup that year, it could've been in downtown Paris and not received any notice. Voeckler captured the French and held onto rockstar status, even to this day.
But these glimpses into French nationalism can't hold water against the countrywide -- not a team or individual -- participation in the highest level of European football: The World Cup. Especially since the other nations, namely Germany, Italy, and England, take so much pride in soccer and not cycling. And if there's one thing we know about the French, they like it when others fail just as much as when they themselves win. And they loved it when both England (hard feelings from the 14-1700s) and the Germans (hard feelings from the 1900s) lost. It's nationalism, baby.
For the riders themselves? While Germany, France, Portugal, Brazil, Italy and England were all still in the World Cup running, riders of the Tour, including Voeckler and other Frenchman, found it hard to concentrate on racing. Rather, they were concentrating on the World Cup.
Something tells me you can do that on the bike, but the footballers like Zinedine Zidane playing for France (and scored the lone goal in the semi-finals) aren't wondering how Team FDJeux is doing in the Tour.
We'll find out this weekend. During the finals on July 9 the Tour will be going through one of the most cycling-centric regions of all of France.
Related: "A Year in the Merde," by Stephen Clarke