The caravan of Susan and John Yates, the parents of Adam and Simon, on the route of the 13th stage of the Tour de France, in Ain, July 14, 2023. AUDE LASJAUNIAS / “LE MONDE”
Every morning since July 1 and the big start of the Tour de France in Bilbao, in the Spanish Basque Country, Olivier Paret-Peintre has a “ritual”. Just up, he sends a message to his son. “He doesn’t always answer, but I don’t ask him to, I know he gets a lot. There is his sister, his uncles, his aunts, his grandmothers…”he says, in front of the coach of the AG2R-Citroën team for which Aurélien, 27, has been racing since 2018.
Saturday July 15, the kick-off of the 14th stage is given from Annemasse (Haute-Savoie), the stronghold of the family. “You have to be very lucky for the Tour de France to come to our city, so when it does and we also have our child at the start, it’s extraordinary”continues Father Paret-Peintre.
Straw hat on the head, daily The team – intended for his son – tucked under his arm, he keeps an eye on the curtain barring the front door of the team bus to protect the privacy of the riders and the secrecy of the pre-race briefing. No question of missing the exit of the son, who will soon have to comply with the signing ritual, this moment during which all the participants of the Tour emerge before taking the start of each stage. The opportunity to give him a kiss, and to slip him a few words of encouragement.
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Rémy Turgis, too, likes to send a few text messages before the race to Anthony, 29, who is competing in the Tour in the colors of TotalEnergies. “We make sure not to bother him too much. We call him about twice a week”, he slips. Before acknowledging that, when his son received the Combativeness Prize for the first time, at the end of the 8th stage, on July 8, his phone probably heated up a bit… “The family side, all the runners like that, says Anthony Turgis. A little hello, three or four sentences exchanged, it’s revitalizing, it’s a bit out of context. »
Double winner of the event, Tadej Pogacar will not contradict him. Throughout the interviews, the Slovenian repeatedly recalls how much the presence of his relatives, especially on the side of the road, motivates him. This year again, his parents Marjeta and Mirko, accompanied by the youngest of their four children, Vita, are crisscrossing France in a motorhome to closely follow the prowess of the current second in the general classification. It would not be a question of repeating the little miss of 2020, where they had skipped the Tour… before meeting in Paris in a hurry to attend Tadej’s first coronation.
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