Club Arnage

With the route for nexts years race anounced, (the time trial up Alp Huez looks good!), Has the race ever used the Sarthe circuit, I know it has used Spa in the recent past but don't know about Le Mans.

Don't remember it happening and there is a separate mini -tour around the region in April-ish I think.

As for Spa, don't remember that either in recent years but the World Championships used a large part of the Zolder circuit last year.

2004 route is interesting for sure and should make for another exciting one!

Cheers

Rick

A little confusion here.
Spa-Francorchamps was used in the 2003 Tour de France - that's the Tour de France Auto, for (historic) cars.
The Tour de France for cycling does not use circuits, with the exception of the final Sunday, when a circuit is used, once the competitors have arrived in Paris.

The tour de France may pass near to Le Mans in early july...
... but of course not on the circuit !!!

I'm pretty sure i remember them on eurosport one year covering them going down the straight. The commentator saying there 200mph slower than the cars.

Checked over the weekend with some cycle racing nuts, Part of the spa track was used in the mid late 80's, in the same way that the mulsanne has been used. as Rhino has said.

Exactly - but not either circuit

Yeah but I think what Nordic meant referred to the public roads.

My reference to Zolder was because during the World Championships they do go in "circuits/laps" and used part of Zolder circuit for that in 2002. (20 laps to be precise!)

I've often wondered myself if the Mulsanne had ever been used. I started following the Tour big time in the late 80s and had never seen it, although the TV coverage here has been minimal (daily highlights)until fairly recently. Thanks to Eurosport and Channel 4/ITV, recent years have led to a definite down turn in my daily productivity rate in July each year!!!

 ;D

Is it due to the performance of an english-speaking guy or simply to an increasing personnal interest ?

I admit that they have use the mulsanne straight sometimes (in my memory, not for a long time) but never the Bugatti.

Maybe the Tour Cycliste de la Sarthe has already run on the Bugatti.

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Actually, they used the whole circuit and not only parts of it. It was quite an event and you know that the Belgian are great fans of cycling.

It was a joy to watch too, having been to Zolder for the GP in 1981 and it brought memories flooding back!

How come Belgium has such great circuits???!!! I grew up near Brands so when the GP went to Silverbore I was mortified. Spent many a Sunday at the Kentish wonder drooling in the paddock (cycling to the circuit of course!!).

Ah, those were the days! No taxman on my back, no ties and no beer gut!!!

And they held the world championships at goodwood one year, including a large part of the circuit.

The Tour de France Organisers never reveal details of the exact route until about 3-4 weeks before the event for some reason. Those mid points could well be correct. The Le Mans Classic next year will be very close if not on the same weekend as the finish of the Tour De France.

This year I was in France doing the Centerenary celebrations by riding the full route (3000Km) of the 1903 tour de france in 11 days. We did pass very close to Le Mans ;D. Seem to have a reason to go to Le Mans every time I go to France, shame.

Have you read 'French Revolutions' by Tim Moore? a great read,It had me laughing out loud,
 if not, its his account of riding the entire route in the weeks preceding the race.

Rick,
You were at Zolder in '81?  Jesus was that weekend a disaster!
Did you see the startline fiasco where Luckett got clobbered between Patrese & Stohr? Pironi was the only one who had the sense to get that race aborted.  Very sad win for Carlos.
Fax

Crikey Fax, I'd forgotten about that! Good memory!

I watched the start from just after the first left hander before they doubled back around the lake. Went for a good old wander after that and memories of the fiasco finish were such that when we boarded the tour coach to go home, no one seemed really sure who had won.

Mansell I think finished 3rd, which was (if the old grey cells serve me well) was his highest finish to that date. There was even talk that he might have won as nobody seemed sure where the race had been officially halted.

It was a sad event indeed. I didn't return the following year (impending A levels), but that one obviously was also sadly a tragic event with the loss of Gilles V on the Saturday.

Rick,
I vividly remember watching that race on Sunday afternoon here in the States (on tape delay obviously) I remember that Jonesy had a huge shunt that day as well and had his leg badly scalded when the contents of his shattered radiator were emptied into his cockpit.  They used to randomly broadcast the races on what was called CBS Sports Spectacular.  They never listed if & when they were showing the races, you just had to tune in and hope for the best.  I was just a couple of weeks away from my high school graduation at the time (18 years old).  My favorite memory from the CBS-SS days was the time I went looking for the '79 French GP and much to my delight ever since...it was shown.   Maybe still the single most exciting race I've ever seen, on TV or in person.  Got a buddy here in Cincy who went to the '79 GP at Zolder and really loves the place.  He's got a great photo of him sitting in front of the pit straight in a sea of Stella bottles.
John

We must be about the same ripe "old" age then as I was a few weeks shy of my 17th at the time and also of my first LM too (my birthday was on the race Saturday that year and remember waking my Dad up on the ferry over at 3am in the morning to remind him I was now 17!! Wonder why he didn't wish me happy birthday at the time?).

For my 18th (1982), that was my "finals" year (A levels) and my exams fell neatly a few days either side of Le Mans that year, so managed to still go!

It was always a nightmare to actually follow the race in those days if you were actually at the track, especially on foreign soil. That applies to both Zolder and Le Mans and in fact virtually any other European circuit I guess. Particularly at LM pre-radio days. We'd get about 5 mins of English summary every hour on the half hour and it was a case of tough tittie if anything vaguely powerful went past - no chance of hearing what was going on.

Zolder was/is indeed a great circuit but haven't been back since unfortunately.

Cheers

Rick

Meister,
Sounds like were of the same vintage (and rose tinted glasses)  seriously, those were great days.  I always loved Le Mans since the early seventies but had to content myself with ten seconds of highlight footage on the local news until my issue of Autosport arrived at the bookseller...3 weeks later, if I was lucky.  I've still got the 1981 LM issue with the Ickx/Bell Jules 936 on the cover and the headline "Jacky Does It!" the race was in June and I think I finally received it the first week in August.  Was like a kid on Christmas morning though.  Our Buddy Ricardo's been making the journey about the same length of time as you.
John

Yeah, gets kind of addictive!! Only missed one year since then!

I've got most of the Autosport issues with their Le Mans coverage back to when they started in 1951 (few missing in the 50s & 60s and also the last few years). Got all the Brooklands Books with the magazine reports in but it's not the same as reading the actual mag with all the other little snippets in the news pages.

All I can say is that I have a very tolerant/understanding wife and kids!  ;D

Cheers

Rick

I was there one year prior to that. Mario Andretti won the race and the title in that year.

Ah yes HGB,
I remember that weekend as well. I was in Indy all weekend.  Mario was caught in a somewhat tricky situation as the Zolder GP and the first weekend of qualifying for the Indy 500 were the same weekend.  Mario originally was going to try and Concorde it back and forth, qualify at Zolder then scramble to Indy, qualify his Penske then jet back to Zolder for the race.  In the end he decided to bag that idea and Penske Racing had Mike Hiss qualify the car for him and Mario just stayed in Belgium.  Good thing he did too, it was the race debut for Black Beauty and he led from pole, never pressed and won flag to flag.  Storming drive that day by Peterson as well.
John