Eleven road officials mark out the 3,400 km route. Roundabouts, speed bumps, everything is indicated to facilitate and ensure the passage of runners. Meeting with these men in the shadows.
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They are at work when the runners are still sleeping. Their day often starts at four in the morning. Their mission: to scout out and install signs on the Tour route.
Jean-Pascal Bourmaud is a supervisor at Tourmalet in the Hautes-Pyrénées. It prepares and repairs the roads to ensure the best safety conditions for the runners. Every July, for eight years, he has gone with the Tour de France. His reward, in a way.
He is part of the team of agents who secure the roads and roadsides of the Tour:“It’s a parenthesis, a second family, we find the team and we live together 24 hours a day in a good atmosphere, and sometimes more tense moments. I take this opportunity to do some scouting to go back on vacation. Here, we are in the Basque Country, it’s very green, I love it!”
We travel abroad, we travel the length and breadth of France. For runners, it’s 3,500 km traveled and for us by car, it’s 9,000 km in a month with transfers. We see a lot of pretty things, France is beautiful!
Jean-Pascal Bourmaud, road worker for the Tour de FranceFrance 3 Aquitaine
In total, over the entire tour, the agents install between 4,000 and 5,000 panels.
This Sunday morning, Jean-Pascal Bourmaud must secure the longest stage of the tour. The one that starts from Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Spanish Basque Country to reach San Sebastian, 208 km in total with many villages to cross and therefore a lot of signs to install on the edges of the roads. Six hundred panels in total. Sitting in the vehicle next to him, Eric Thomas was also selected to accompany the Tour. “It’s a great event, watched all over the world. We are privileged while doing our job and we represent our department. We cross magnificent landscapes as JP says, places that we did not know. this atmosphere experienced from the inside, it’s huge!”.
It’s a chance to do this job. We are eleven to be selected to be part of the team. For a month, we live with the runners. We are in the heart of the matter!
Eric Thomas, road agent for the Tour de FranceFrance 3 Aquitaine
They still have 19 stages to ensure the safety of the riders and to go around France.