With the 2022 Grand Départ just a few days away, the Tour de France website offers a gallery of characters from the past and present, brought together through the ages by their relationship with the Grande Boucle. While Denmark is seeing its first Grand Départ guided by a new generation of champions, the centenary of the births of Antoine Blondin and Pierre Chany provides an opportunity to delve into a selection of texts that they wrote in L’Équipe, while travelling in the famous car no. 101. Two series in five episodes, the first of which are already available on the site.
Danish cycling
Denmark joins this year the prestigious list of countries to have hosted the Grand Départ. This extraordinary first comes at the same time as a “golden generation” makes it to the forefront of international cycling. How did they rise to the highest summits? Letour.fr meets with the riders and directors who have shaped Danish cycling in recent history.
Blondin and Chany, the car no. 101
Antoine Blondin and Pierre Chany first cultivated the differences before delighting the readers of L’Équipe. The talented journalists were brought together in the car no. 101, which followed the Tour peloton so that the L’Équipe reporters could cover the race as closely as possible to the champions. Pierre Chany from 1953 to 1987, joined by Antoine Blondin between 1954 and 1982, were road brothers in conveying the challenges and drama of the Tour.
