Choirs with sounds coming from an alboka, a Basque wind instrument with ox horns, spectators who have worn a yellow scarf, a town hall dressed in the same color. Bilbao put on, this Thursday, the colors of the next Tour de France of which it will host the Grand Départ, on July 1st.
In front of the town hall then at the foot of the San Mames stadium where the start of the first stage will be given, Christian Prudhomme, the boss of the Grande Boucle, did not hide his enthusiasm. “In this Basque region where cycling is king, we already know that the fervor will be there, he underlines. The pride in hosting the Tour is palpable. The elected Basques who were at the Grand Départ in Copenhagen last year saw the fervor of the Danes. The bar is high but they will rise to the challenge. And you will also see that at the finish of the first stage, which will be very difficult, the first yellow jersey of the Tour 2023 will necessarily be a very great rider. »
Bilbao has never hosted the Tour de France before. But the Basque Country has long been linked to the history of the race, both by the runners who have distinguished themselves there and by its supporters who have often crossed the border in the Pyrenees displaying the ikurrina (Basque flag). The Tour had already started from the Basque Country, in 1992, in San Sebastian, during a prologue won by Miguel Indurain.
In “the Arab room”, the superb reception hall of the Bilbao town hall, Juan Mari Aburto, the city’s mayor, is just as enthusiastic a hundred days from the first lap. “It’s the third biggest sporting event in the world and it’s an immense pride to receive it, he enthuses. The first time we let the Tour know that we were candidates for a Grand Départ was in 2016. We had to be patient but it was worth it. »
Tribute to Guernica
To host the Grande Boucle for five days, Bilbao and the main institutions of the Basque Country have paid 12 million euros. “This will give an exceptional image of our region and show how Bilbao is a compact and dynamic city of 330,000 inhabitants where there is not only the Guggenheim museum”, continues the mayor.
A few hectometres away, in the general council, Unai Rementeria Maiz, the deputy general of the province of Biscay, remembers the first contacts with the Tour. “Christian Prudhomme came in 2016 and then the discussions never stopped,” he recalls. After the pandemic, we signed an agreement, right here in my office. It was November 14, 2020 and everything was top secret. You can’t imagine how proud the whole Basque Country is to host the Tour. Here, we have always loved cycling. And we will take the opportunity to show all our architectural but also historical heritage. »
It is therefore no coincidence that, for example, the route of the first stage will pass twice through the village of Guernica, bombarded by the air forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1937 and whose martyr is passed down to posterity with Picasso’s famous painting. “The Tour is also a return to memories”, often blurts out Christian Prudhomme. In Basque land, it will also serve as a tribute.
