Start of the Tour de France in the Basque Country: A region turns the wheel – sport

In the Basque Country, where the Tour de France is starting its 110th edition, everything that makes up the scene is concentrated: passion, betrayal, glorification, worship. A journey from “El cojo”, the lame, to the cycling madmen of the present.

Vicente Blanco, the old warhorse, would certainly have liked this hustle and bustle. On Thursday, people in Bilbao crowded in three or four rows in front of the barriers, waving Basque flags, white and green crosses on a blood-red background. They hurled roars at every driver who passed here, and when the drivers reached their destination, a stage in front of the Guggenheim Museum, they were cheered like rock stars, especially the Basques, of course, Mikel Landa, Ion Izagirre, Jonathan Castroviejo. And that was just the riders’ presentation, in the rain, two days before the 110th Tour de France kicks off in Bilbao on Saturday.