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It takes just a fraction of a second for a Tour cyclist to speed
past you at over 50 kph. Yet it takes considerably longer to
make it all happen.
There's an entourage of 4,800 people and a
cavalcade of over 2,000 vehicles at any one time. During the
Tour 2,300 accredited journalists and 1,200 photographers,
cameramen and television directors transmit live coverage of the
race to an estimated two billion viewers on 78 television
channels in 190 countries. A further 500 media staff and 1,100
technicians and chauffeurs help to make the Tour the enormous
success that it is, while over 13,000 policeman help shepherd
the Tour safely to Paris. With hotels to book, parking to
arrange and food to prepare, the entire Tour is an extraordinary
juggernaut and logistical masterpiece.
It's also an astonishingly popular spectator
sport, every bit the equal of the football World Cup and the
Olympic games. Only, unlike these events, is a free to view
event and takes place on the streets, outside homes, shops and
schools. And it happens every year, stirring strange Gallic
passions along the way.
Organisers in Britain anticipate over 3
million people will line the streets to enjoy the first leg of
the Tour de France, and another 12 million for the final 19
stages in France. Sponsors are expected to shower crowds with
over 11 million gifts, while festival floats in the publicity
caravan promise to delight spectators with a peculiarly surreal
style that sits somewhere between Disneyland and Cirque du
Soleil. In other words, if you see a man perambulating inside a
giant bear with its arms outstretched towards you, don't be
alarmed.
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