He has a bit of the Jacques Bossis blues. After 27 years of uninterrupted presence with various partners of the Tour de France, the former professional rider was delighted to welcome the Grande Boucle to his Charentaise lands. After an unprecedented stage initially planned for this Tuesday between the islands of Oléron and Ré, the race was to start the next day from Châtelaillon in the direction of Poitiers (Vienne).
Admittedly the feasts are postponed in September, but for the only Charentais wearing the yellow jersey in 1978 under the colors of the Renault-Gitane team, “it will not have the same flavor”. The planned reduction of the advertising caravan in which the former teammate of Bernard Hinault or Jean-René Bernaudeau worked each year for the sponsor Le Gaulois and the ban on entering the paddock of the runners hardly excites him.
“On this occasion, I loved explaining the little details to my VIP customers, often bicycle enthusiasts. In addition, I know the mechanics well. We are discussing technical. All this will not be possible this time because of the coronavirus and the distancing measures. “
Fear of a Sanitized Tour
The double winner of the Grand Prix de Plouay (1976 and 1977) has above all a thought for the municipalities which had sometimes planned large operations in July and the runners who live a season decidedly like no other. “I am destabilized, I recognize it. Just imagine Milan-San Remo in August ( Editor’s note: he rolls his eyes ) so think of the runners. How to motivate yourself and continue training. What motivates them is competition, nothing else. “
Jacques Bossis, who now lives in Corme-Royal (Charente-Maritime) about thirty kilometers from the Atlantic coast, fears that he will not find his account in a Tour sanitized despite himself by the measures taken in the context of the Covid pandemic -19.
Too bad for VIPs, because the champion who is rolling around his 68 years, is inexhaustible on the two stages of Charente which he knows the roads by heart to ride there again every week. In 1983, during the only incursion to date of the Great Loop on the island of Oléron, he had tried to take off, but “the others were watching me”. “I used to live in Royan and I often went in the direction of Oléron with the headwind going in the back which pushed me in the back on the return”, remembers the man who always pedal at least twice a week for outings of a hundred kilometers.
“On the bridge, the runners will have to beware of the wind, because when it blows, we don’t exceed 20 km / h,” warns the local of the stage. Fortunately to alleviate his disappointment, the native of Jonzac will resume racing during the tour of Occitania scheduled for the first 4 days of August. He will pilot the director of the event there with the firm intention of attenuating a little his summer disappointment.
