“Basque is the yellow jersey of the fans”

Christian Prudhomme, general director of the Tour de France, described the Basque as the “yellow jersey of the fans” in action where, accompanied by the institutional leaders of Bilbao, Vizcaya and Euskadi, the countdown of a hundred days for the start of the round that will begin in the Biscayan capital on July 1 and will consist of its first three stages on the Basque roads .

Prudhomme was accompanied by the mayor of Bilbao, Juan Mari Aburto; Bingen Zupiria, Minister of Culture and Language Policy of the Basque Government, and Elixabete Etxanobe, Provincial Deputy for Public Administration and Institutional Relations and PNV candidate for Deputy General of Vizcaya.

Aburto and Etxanobe emphasized that, “after six years of work”, the people of Bilbao and Biscay “need to enjoy and vibrate” of an event on the scale of the Tour, an event that is exciting in the Biscayan capital because “Bilbao is a city that loves sports and loves challenges”.

“We are delighted”, agreed Prudhomme, who advanced that the great French race would allow the world to see the “Basque geography and orography”, both “its coast and beaches” and the mountains passing “that does not climb casually” and that led to many climbers as provided by Basque cycling.

The French leader also emphasized “the insistence of the Basque institutions for the Tour to return to its land since the start in San Sebastián in 1992″. “And they don’t want just one stage, but another great start to the race”, he appreciated.

Prudhomme, Aburto, Zupiria and Etxanobe together activated the ‘giant button’ that started the countdown to an act followed by musical performances and followed by lighting in the Aznar building -opposite the town hall- of 13-inch jersey meters and then the yellow light on the façade of the town hall.

Subsequently, a tour of the center of Bilbao was carried out with a first journey between the town hall and the Provincial Council of Vizcaya, where there was another musical performance, and later from the institutional building on Gran Vía to in the stadium of San Mames, which is lit in yellow, like the Bizkaia Tower, the Foral Palace or the Bizkaia pediment.

At ‘La Catedral’, the Athletic Club of Bilbao, which at the beginning of the last century had a cycling section, made a “special welcome” to Prudhommewho received a jersey from the rojiblanco team – from a cycling clothing line sold by Athletic – from the president of the entity, Jon Uriarte, and the captains of the first two teams, Iker Muniain and Garazi Murua.

The Tour director responded by giving himself the yellow jersey from the French race.

The final link to these commemorative acts is the celebration on Sunday 26 of ‘Tour Eguna’ (Tour Day) with various bicycle-related activities taking place on the esplanade of the Maritime Museum.

This is the second time the Tour de France will start from a Basque capital because the most important race in the professional cycling calendar already started in San Sebastián in 1992, with the socialist Odón Elorza as mayor, an edition won by the legendary Navarrese cyclist Miguel Indurain, ahead of the Italians Claudio Chiapucci, second in four minutes and 35 seconds from Navarre, and Gianni Bugno, third in ten minutes and 49 seconds.