It is a beige house, leaning against the hill. We come there on foot, by car, and especially by bike, but we do not enter. Those who live there reign over the Tour. On the Moyen-Corniche road, overcrowding Monaco, the silent house with closed shutters suggests that its occupants have gone to train, or that they have already reached their hotel four days before the start of the Grande Boucle, in Nice , twenty kilometers further.
It is there, in fact, that the Ineos team (ex-Sky) established its base camp a few years ago, when its runners, Chris Froome in the lead, were spinning in clusters to settle in the Principality in order to take advantage of the climate, steep roads, little frequented in winter… and tax advantages. The villa with swimming pool in the garden, massage room and bedrooms upstairs, terrace and sea view, garage for mechanics, is an ideal site to combine efforts with a few moments of rest in cozy comfort.
“It was already Lance Armstrong’s favorite training place”
“They are always there, you see them all the time when you cycle, says Gilles Panizzi, a former car rally driver, who now walks the asphalt while pedaling in the hinterland from his home in Monaco. I do not recognize them all because they are helmeted but Froome, him, we can not miss him. They like to climb the Col de la Madone ( Editor’s note: 1,000 vertical meters on the heights of Menton ), it was already Lance Armstrong’s preferred training location. It’s as hard as a big pass in the Alps. We meet them very often on these roads since the deconfinement. “
On the heights of Nice, in the Turini that the peloton will climb on Sunday, too. Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, the aging and out of shape Monegasque residents, will not be there, but the British team will still play at home. Especially since Egan Bernal, the young Colombian holder of the title and favorite, intends to join the places and settle there at the end of the season. Like his boss, who already took the plunge two years ago.
Jim Ratcliffe also has happy and busy days in Monaco. The 67-year-old businessman, who made his fortune in the petrochemicals (his Ineos group has a profit of 5 billion euros), has become the richest figure in the United Kingdom with an estimated nest egg of 24 billion euros and bought the Sky team in spring 2019.
Jim Ratcliffe, a boss who lives his childhood dreams
Passionate about cycling and sport in general, this middle-class son who grew up in Manchester (England) is also discreet even if he does not hesitate to cross swords with his government or to break a strike by threatening to shut down one of its businesses. Little talkative but bubbling, Ratcliffe is ecstatic like a kid in front of the exploits of his protégés, tries to follow them by sweating profusely on the slopes of the Col de la Madone where he refines his slender silhouette.
The 47 million euros annual budget, almost twice as much as most teams in the peloton, is a trivial matter for him. Owner of several villas in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, he also owns a huge yacht moored in the Principality on which he has attached an OGC Nice flag. Its other acquisition in the region, in the summer of 2019, for around 100 million euros.
His goal: to propel his new football club – he has already bought FC Lausanne in Switzerland – into the French top 4. A way to take root even more in his adopted region, while living his childhood dreams. “We’re not here for long, so we have to have fun,” he said in an interview with Nice-Matin. My philosophy is to maximize the number of unforgettable days. “The Tour, which leaves close to home, is ideal for that, even if it will necessarily be special, pandemic requires.
