“Attack by Tadej Pogacar! Jonas Vingegaard stays in his wheel!” At the front of the No. 2 Tour de France management car, Sébastien Piquet recounts the movements of the race every day on the airwaves of Radio Tour. The internal Grande Boucle radio is broadcast in all the vehicles following the peloton. An essential function of information for the media but also for the sports directors, made aware of the progress of the race and the needs of their riders.
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Helmet screwed on his head, microphone, notes and road book in hand, Sébastien Piquet is living his 18th Tour de France in the heart of the peloton. A former journalist, he took advantage in 2005 of the departure of his predecessor, John Lelangue, now manager of the Lotto Soudal team. “ASO [Amaury sport organisation, qui gère le Tour de France] offered me to do a test drive on the Tour of Qatar, and obviously it went well since I went on to the Tour de France and I haven’t missed a single one since then”, he says. Sébastien Piquet also officiates at the world championships and at all the other races organized by ASO, including Paris-Roubaix.
Placed behind the peloton on the flat stages, or behind the group of favorites in the mountains, Sébastien Piquet has a privileged point of view on the race. “During my first mountain stage, in Courchevel, in 2005, I had shivers when I realized that I was closely following the yellow jersey. When you follow the favorites and there are attacks like this year , I often have a big smile on my face and goosebumps. For someone who loves cycling, this is the best place in the world, but it should not be said too loudly”he laughs.
Close to the riders, Sébastien Piquet represents an essential relay for their requests. “My priority is to inform the sports directors cars, because I have the peloton in front of me, and sometimes I have a rider who raises his hand to ask for a bottle or sometimes he shows me his rear tire which punctured to call his car and change his bike”says the announcer.
From the side “less pleasant memories” represent the falls, with “runners screaming in pain on the ground”. the speaker must report it “on Radio Tour as quickly as possible, so that the medical service can intervene and that the vehicles are informed of the danger. All without being mistaken about the identity of the riders, since this has an impact for journalists, commentators and many safe for their sports directors. In general, we inform of the fall, then of the fallen runners.'”.
After 18 years of service at some of the greatest cycling races in the world, the announcer recognizes the riders quite easily. “After three weeks of racing, in general, I also know their bib numbers by heart”. If in doubt, he has a card with these numbers, which he also uses to memorize the position of the riders. “We work with three information motorbikes placed at different points in the race. The one at the front gives me the bibs of the breakaways, which I circle with a certain color on my grid, then the next motorbike gives me the riders interspersed, which I surround with another color, and so on, to then inform the following vehicles”explains Sébastien Piquet.
Hands busy with his notes, the speaker uses a pedal to turn on his microphone. Different channels are available, to intervene on the radio intended for all vehicles, to communicate only with the information motorbikes, to interact with the marshals, or to speak only to the cars of the race direction.
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“As soon as I press the pedal, the microphone is on. But I have to be careful, because sometimes I turn to my pilot to say something to him and I have to have the reflex to press the pedal. times, I had talked about my sandwich and everyone had heard it, it made the cars laugh”he laughs.
Even if the tone sometimes gets carried away when the race accelerates, Sébastien Piquet tries to remain as understandable as possible. “I remember Bernard Hinault who told me in 2005: ‘Kid, stay calm. Because if you get excited, you’ll annoy the sporting directors, who will drive anyhow'”. The tone can however prove to be more vehement when it is necessary to correctly replace cars and motorcycles, sometimes recalcitrant, in the line of vehicles, so as not to interfere with the runners.
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In the event of an incident, the announcer must also keep his cool and remain measured. “This year, during the neutralization, I was behind the peloton and it was at the front that the demonstration took place. So informants told me what was happening, and we, in the car, we immediately had the reflex to take the times because we knew we were going to neutralize the stage, to then restart the race with the same gaps. Then, under the supervision of the president of the jury of commissaires, I I indicated on the radio when the groups could resume”he says.
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The stages end in a paradox for Sébastien Piquet. He is the first to officially announce the winner on Radio Tour… although he never sees the finish. Once the line has been crossed, the announcer’s day does not end there, since he puts on a second journalist hat and goes to the podium to carry out interviews with the riders on behalf of the organisation.