France 2 news report in Froome gaff

France 2 mistakes Tour de France winner for part-time leisure cyclist

© Thortuck (WikiCommons)

Chris Froome may not have set the world alight during this year's Tour de France, but he did hit the headlines during a recent news bulletin on forest fires in the south of France. As a huge inferno raged in the Var department, state broadcaster France 2 ran a news piece on the dangers of wild fires during the height of summer and the road closures aimed at preventing further outbreaks.

During the segment, the reporter is heard explaining that local authorities had recently warned of a “very severe risk” of forest and bush fires across much of the south of France, leading to the closure of some remote roads in higher areas. A gendarme can be seen blocking traffic in the middle of the road as the voiceover explains that “No one gets through, not even this randonneur à vélo,” a term which translates as 'leisure rider' or 'cycling tourist'.

In no time at all, eagle-eyed viewers spotted that the man under the helmet, who politely says “Okay” before heading back down the mountain, was in fact cycling royalty: four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome. While understandable, the gaff was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that France 2 is the national broadcaster of the world-famous race, with Froome's face amassing a significant amount of screen time on the channel over the past decade.

For his part, the cycling great saw the funny side, later taking to Twitter to post a Strava summary of his ride, showing he eventually completed the 180 km circuit, which included over 3,000 metres of vertical climbing, in just over six-and-a-half hours. He accompanied his post with a winking emoji and the title “A holiday bike ride...”.

After coming back from a career-threatening crash in 2019, Froome has struggled in the last twelve months and finished a disappointing 133rd in this year's Tour de France. He has skipped the final grand tour of the year - the Vuelta a España – preferring to concentrate on one-day classics and shorter stage races in bids to find the form that saw him dominate the cycling world for much of the last decade. ■

Village celebrates 100th birthday of US soldier

Asmall town in Normandy has unveiled an enormous banner celebrating the 100th birthday of an American paratrooper who helped liberate it in 1944. Thomas 'Tom' Rice was a soldier in the famous 101st Airborne Division that landed in Carentan-lesMarais as part of the D-day landings and had initially hoped to visit France and parachute back into the village on his birthday, but the recent travel restrictions made that impossible.

Instead, he was able to watch the celebrations online, telling the town “I hope we’ll meet again and shake hands once more. That would be wonderful!” Tom did still take to the skies to celebrate his one hundredth birthday, parachuting onto Coronado Beach in his native California . He was joined by members of San Diego’s military community and hundreds of spectators who turned out for the event. Tom said he was still hoping to make it to the small village in 2022, following a previous trip in 2019 to celebrate 75 years since the D-Day landings.

“On the night of June 5, 1944, as we boarded the planes that would lead us into combat, I am not sure that we realised the full extent of the dangers and difficulties we faced, or if we thought to the hundreds of thousands of other men who have faced similar or even worse trials, but if we had known all that, it would not have made any difference to us. We were ready and almost eager to go into action and get the whole bloody thing over with,” Tom recalled.

The 101st Airborne were among the 13,000 paratroopers who landed in northern France as part of American efforts to secure Utah beach. After achieving their objectives, Tom returned to England before being dropped in Holland and fighting in the Ardennes, where he was wounded. Once recovered, he would also later take part in fighting at Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany. ■

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