- Three days prior to the start of the 109th Tour de France, 4000 riders, officials and media have made their way to Copenhagen. The Danish capital welcomes the Tour after having been first to organise the cycling world championships in 1921 and once again in 2011.
- Only four of the 22 participating teams have previously won the Tour: Movistar, the record holder of consecutive participations set to ride for the 40th time, Ineos Grenadier, Astana Qazaqstan and UAE Team Emirates.
- Fantasy Tour by Tissot on offer for the fifth running year.
COPENHAGEN DRESSED UP AT THE COLOURS OF THE TOUR
The streets of Copenhagen have possibly never been so colourful. For the northernmost Grand Départ of its history, the Tour de France is warmly welcomed in a beautifully dressed up Danish capital. Yellow, polka dot, green and white are everywhere in the main streets and on the official buildings alongside the national red and white flag. On the occasion of the ceremony opening the race headquarters, a quartet of steeplejacks has been rappelling from a tower overlooking the Bella Center to make the colours of the Tour de France fly. “A dream has become a reality”, noted Mia Nygaard, the deputy mayor of Copenhagen in charge of cultural affairs who cut a ribbon mixing the emblems of Denmark and France. “Everyone who will experience this special week here will realise how obvious it was for the Tour to come to us.” Before the opening 13.2km individual time trial on Friday, the teams’ presentation will take place in the Tivoli gardens tomorrow from 6.30pm onwards. “We feel the atmosphere growing since the 100 days to go ceremony”, explained Ida Biqum, who heads the local organising committee created more than three years ago. “The fun rides we organised have gathered a lot of people. It’s our ambition to attract a maximum number of fans of cycling and the Tour at the presentation. It’s a unique occasion for us to show the world how much we share this passion.”
SOME KEY FIGURES OF THE 22 TEAMS OF THE 2022 TOUR DE FRANCE
Among the 22 teams set to take part in the 2022 Tour de France, Movistar is the longest serving. The same organisation run by Eusebio Unzue is going to take part in its 40th consecutive Tour de France. Their first appearance was in 1983 under the name of Reynolds and they finished second overall that year with Angel Arroyo. They successively had Banesto, Isles Balears and Caisse d’Épargne as title sponsors until Movistar took over in 2011. Jumbo-Visma is almost as experienced as they started in 1984 as Kwantum-Hallen with Jan Raas in the double role of rider and manager, before being sponsored by Superconfex, Buckler, WordPerfect, Novell, Rabobank, Belkin and LottoNL. Lotto-Soudal totals 35 participations but not consecutively, since 1985. There’s no newcomer this year. Alpecin-Deceuninck is the less experienced of them all with only one appearance, last year. Only four of the 22 participating teams have won the Tour de France previously: Movistar (7 times), Ineos Grenadier (7), Astana (2) and UAE Team Emirates (2). Jumbo-Visma holds the record number of stage wins: 64 (from Jan Raas in Bordeaux in 1984 to Wout van Aert in Paris last year). Ineos Grenadier holds the record of days in the yellow jerseys: 91 (all since 2012).
FANTASY BY TISSOT: A TEAM FOR EVERYONE
Cycling fans like commenting teams’ selections and teams’ tactics but they can also compose their own squad on the platform Fantasy by Tissot that is operating for the fifth running year and attracted 100.000 participants in 2021. It’s pretty simple: the game consists in buying eight riders with budget constraints according to each rider’s sporting value. Taking into account the stage profile and the characteristics of the selected riders, a team captain gets designated every day and points delivered by the rider in question is in this case doubled up. Points can also be accumulated by riders having taken part in a breakaway or contributed to a team-mate’s victory. At the end of the game, once the peloton will reach Paris, a number of gifts will be awarded, including official jersey and a Tissot watch.
DANISH KIDS WITH THEIR CHAMPIONS
Lots of media duties await the riders of the Tour de France. On site in Copenhagen, it started with the children’s press conference that has become a traditional appointment in recent years. This year’s interviewers had been selected from schools located in the Danish hosting cities of the Tour de France. They made their way to the Bella Center to talk via video call with four of their compatriots set to take the start on Friday: Kasper Asgreen, Michael Morkov, Andreas Kron and Magnus Cort. The winner of the 2021 Tour of Flanders admitted some of his limits to his young fans: “I’d like to have the Maillot Jaune but if I have a chance to win a Tour de France jersey one day, it would rather be the green one”, Asgreen said. However, as a time trial specialist, he has a chance to get dressed in yellow towards the end of the week…
