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OPINION

The Penitentiary Tour de France

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by Tony Farrelly
Wed, Jun 10, 2009 23:05
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You've probably seen some of the many stories about the French prison service's interesting approach to putting criminals back on to the straight and narrow by getting them to ride it in a 20 stage version of the Tour de France complete with outriders, medical support (who knows there may even be drugs) and the obligatory inflatable plastic arch for stage starts and finished. Breakaways are banned in this gallic version of the chain gang that also echoes the famous description of Tour riders as convicts of the road.

Anyway, there's been loads of things written about it, but here's the most thoughtful piece I've seen Putting offenders behind handlebars by Adam Sage in The Times who was actually at the start of the ride today in France

Prisoners Tour de France
Tony Farrelly

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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