they definitely won’t Coppi and Bartali nor Pogacar and Vingegaard, but cycling has always fed on the gestures and deeds of those who are unlikely to leave their name in the historic annals of two wheels. And so, well to highlight another gesture of total fair play that took place during the last time trial of the Tour de France, in almost an hour of long and solitary pedaling between specialists and weeks also cut the last energies.
It was they who took the scene of the day Stefan Bissegger and Olivier Le Gac during the umpteenth test of the Grande Boucle characterized by the high temperature that accompanied the caravan on the plains as in the mountains. Two “gregarious” classics from the respective Teams (respectively for EF Education-EasyPost and pre Groupama-FDJ) that did not have visibility on the Tour and that suddenly found themselves having it, in addition to the times then recorded at the end of the individual event. Because in times of need, framed by the organization’s cameras, the Frenchman passes his bottle to the poor Swiss, amidst the thirst and hunger that blocked his legs along the way for nearly an hour.
A scene as human and normal as it is spectacular for those who find it difficult to remember that in addition to colors, teams, goals and the will to win, even cycling – perhaps much more than other disciplines – lives on empathy within the group formed by cyclists. divided by their respective companies, but who spend the great rides shoulder to shoulder from morning to night for almost a month. Thus, Le Gac realizing his colleague in crisis and that he simply offers you his own bottle of water to quench your thirstbecomes a new icon of this Tour 2022 and that obviously recalls the most epic imprinted in everyone’s mind, with two extraordinary protagonists, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.
Precisely in the Tour, dating from 1952 and immortalized by the famous shot during the ascent of the Col du Galiber, “Ginaccio” passes a bottle of water to Airone, becoming at that moment the extreme emblem of a fair game that can live beyond antagonism. And on this year’s Tour, almost everything was repeated with two other absolute protagonists, with Vingegaard waiting for Pogacar, who fell downhill and was his first antagonist for the yellow jersey. This time without passing anything more than a gesture of understanding that in turn became a postcard to be framed in the history of the Grande Boucle. Where, by right and duty, they are added out of respect for the hundreds of “extras” on the streets of France, the beautiful gesture between Bissegger and Le Gac.
Source: Fan Page IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
