Post-stage impressions
By Dino Trumić
Beatrice Rogue is in cycling for her whole life. She drove women’s edition of Tour de France, she was a cyclist and now she is Director of Technical services in Saint Pourcain sur Sioule. This year when Tour de France in his 100th edition came to this place she was responsible for technical issues regarding hosting of the Tour de France’s 14th stage depart. We spoke to her about her experience and about her feelings and the feelings of people in Saint Pourcain and how they have prepared for this big event.
“It was a huge occasion to host the Stage in race’s centenary. We were candidates for long period of time and to get this chance now it’s special for us” said Béatrice. She also spoke to us about the tough preparation in the place. It took a lot of nerves and dedication to bring this to life. “ I can’t express my appreciation for the people enough. Most of them could have gone to holiday but they chose to stay and help us to make this thing special. I cannot have any remarks. Their job was wonderful and I’m very thankful for that”.
A lot of equipment was needed also and a lot of time they’ve spent in building the right environment for the occasion. “We set up 3 km of barriers and made space of 12 000 parking places. We were very nervous but in the end the whole stage was ready and it was really special”.
She stated that the amount of people on Saturday surprised her and that it brought shivers and tears in her eyes. “I never expected it. Early in the morning there wasn’t that many people but later when the depart approached it was unbelievable. I was very emotional and happy that everything went well”.
Rouge also stated that it takes huge dedication to host this occasion and the next plan is to try to host the arrival of the Tour stage. “It’s the plan and we will try to do this. After this, everything will be easier. We shook huge load of our shoulders so we can cope with everything now”.
We can only say that this woman did a lot this year to help organize this event and now she can finally enjoy the fruits of her hard work.
