Multiculturality at Tour de France
by Dino Trumić
Tour de France is globaly one of the most watched sporting shows. It is the most prestigious race in sport of cycling and cyclists are driving this event during France since 1903, and in this year it was centenary of the Tour which made the occasion even more special and watchable. In past decade there were many incidents regarding doping and the term “culture of doping” stuck with the Tour. But in each story there are two sides of the medal. Doping is bad thing but that is the thing that each cyclist does on his own responsibility. On the other side when we pay attention we can see one huge positive thing about Tour, and that is its multiculturality.
Every year people from different sides of world come to see this big event, and in this world where we are constantly hearing bad news and facing difficult situations that is ray of hope that things can change. On the Sunday’s arrival of Tour at Champs Elysèes first at night in race’s history we could see flags from everywhere, and people of different nationalities speaking, laughing and having a good time.
Married couple from Great Britain spoke to us about their feeling on the day: “We are here just because of Tour de France. It’s the most special race in year’s calendar and we wanted to see live how our rider becomes champion”. They also said that the amount of good people that they meet was big and that it is chance to prevail over these tough times: “ We met some great people from Australia, Canada. It’s a chance to talk between each other and to get to know different cultures. We definitely have that chance here”.
Teenager from Canada was impressed with the occasion and he was also aware of an importance of the race in other ways than sports: “ It’s a chance to bring peace. If all of these people can be together and hang out despite nationalities and other irrelevant stuff, than there is hope than world can still be better place for everyone”.
Man from Australia was content with the atmosphere and he was happy because of his presence at the event: “ I am happy to be here.
This is real mix of good vibrations and when you see these flags and this atmosphere you have to feel great. Here we have chance to met people from whole world and that’s what makes this day even more special for me”.
As I said there are always two sides of the medal and it’s better to see this one that shines brighter. Tour really unites people from all over the world and all of the people that were on Champs Elysèes could saw the great atmosphere with flags all over the world and people talking and having a good time. That’s the side that shows why this event is so special in hearts of many people.
