The Tour de France is very easy to locate. Heat, vacations, routine evasion, beach bar, Pyrenees, naps to soak the pillow. Always July. The return … It is the end of summer, the return to school, the rebel, yellowish tones. It was not always the case. Before, most of its history was rain, cold, pollen, allergies, the hit of ‘I am going crazy’, Serranillos, Perico, Kelly, the Colombian hatching … All that is now nostalgia. Because the Spanish round risked. Changed dates of April-May to September. And it was like the mute skin of reptiles and amphibians. Sacrifice part of the essence to grow and achieve a new one.
The general director of Unipublic then was Enrique Franco. Intelligent, nonconformist and sharp language, the witness of El Correo took in 1979 to organize a career that agonized between political protests. He had managed to modernize the test with the arrival of television and the inclusion of new ports such as Los Lagos de Covadonga when Spain began to show an avant -garde and cosmopolitan image after the Barcelona Olympic Games. Then, he wanted to join the wave and pursued his international expansion. The final step. To give it, he had a man of good strides: Miguel Induráin. At least I thought so.
The year prior to the announced change of dates in 1995, Franco had signed an agreement with his team, the Banesto (not with Induráin) for which the banking team could take the cyclists he wanted in 94 if the Navarrese ran what would be the first round of September (the second after the sporadic of 1950). “Worse participation than this year we will not have in 95,” said technical director Alberto Gadea. But in the days before the premiere, Miguelón would express that he had no “desire or illusion” for running it and would focus on the Duitama World Cup (Colombia). The leader exploded. “In another place, public, politicians and media, they would not have consented their absence.”
His anger was excessive. He cried revenge because the mass idol pumpkin for the fourth consecutive time. Induráin did not run any return between his first and his fifth tour. In April he had allergy and suffered with the cold. September could come better, but you had to feel. “Miguel is a closed ‘best seller’ that I can never read, because I don’t know French,” he continued. “Maybe with garrota we can see you someday in the return.” This was in 96, forced after not winning the sixth in Paris. The thing did not end well, with the soulless abandonment at the Hotel Capitán de Cangas de Onís and its subsequent withdrawal communicated in 370 words.
The revalidation
The lap began on September 2, 1995 in Zaragoza without Induráin, Rominger (winner of the three previous editions) and Escartín, Aragonese idol, separated by the mapei for his departure to Kelme. On the other hand, there were Zulle, Riis, Mauri, Virenque, Pantani, Ullrich and Jalabert: “The new dates brought names, but not men with desire,” he valued years later in the confidential French, absolute dominator of the edition. Five stages, general, mountain and regularity.
To top it off, the main team directors were not happy with the transfer to September. The round gave off a revalida aroma, increased by the famous phrase of José Miguel Echávarri. “Who does not approve in the Tour, to go to September.” The second chance knew the second course. Because there would be good cyclists, but not the most acclaimed. The winner of the tour. In the spring return they won Anquetil, Merckx and Hinault; At the end of summer, except Ullrich, none had also triumphed in Paris until 2005, when Franco leaves the direction of the Vuelta.
El Chava, the nail to grab
With the change of property (Víctor Cordero), it was time to return to April. There was consensus because cyclists were made long September, and many of the stars, cyclists such as Boonen, Bettini or Freire, came around with the sole objective of preparing the World Cup and retired early. But there was no space in April with the great classics and the public had not lost interest thanks to the Duels del Chava or the inclusion of new ports such as Angliru or Alto de Aitana.
With the entrance of Javier Guillén, the departure was advanced to August, and the decision was spurred by the generation of Spanish gold. Accountant duels, Valverde, Purito and Samuel Sánchez value the prestige of the competition, followed in 190 countries. Chris Froome joined all of them. Finally, the long -winner of the tour. His effort to add the return to his record, his lost assaults at the Pinteño or Quintana, who succumbed to the Sky empire, ended up consolidating the race in September.
Conference as a source of, Arcalís or Aru turning around the race in the Sierra de Madrid against Dumoulin, the ‘summer final’ enlarge their history and closing the debate. The return became strong. Then came the hatching of Pogacar and its three stages and podium in 2019, the tyranny of the Jumbo and Roglic and the delivery of Evenepoel. This 2025 is the year of Vingegaard, another winner of the tour, or Almeida, before the Slovene genius returned to what ended. His legend.
The porphy of the dates, which seemed already settled, recovered in the bucolic edition of 2020 in October by the Covid, which was advocated to move it to autumn (more for a landscape issue than sports). In addition, in 2027, he will be forced to delay his dates again. The ICU has scheduled between August 24 and September 5 at the high saboya a World Cup that will host all cycling disciplines. The idea is to give it a week of margin, so that the race would end in October despite not being desired by the organization. But his left hand to modify his dates once, the big one converts it with the most flexible calendar.
