Legions of Basque fans wear orange and flood the Pyrenees for at least one weekend in July. Cycling has played an important part in Basque sports culture. Over the years, cyclists like Marino Lejarreta, Federico Etxabe or Miguel Indurain coped the support of Basque cycling fans, but since the Euskaltel-Euskadi was invited for the first time to the Tour the France in 2001, the landscape of the Pyrenees changed, it has turned to bright orange, the colour of the team’s kit. And this orange has become the fourth national colour.
But how did such a small team manage to gather such a mass of support? Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour the France, once said that his biggest worry was “manic Basque cycle fans” in the Pyrenees and organisers for this year Tour the France have moved the key Pyrenees stage from Sunday to Monday in order to avoid or minimize the crowds of Basque fans invading the Pyreenes.
But this has not stopped thousands of Basque fans flooding the Pyrenees again. Being in a group and enjoying the most important cycling race in the world is part of what it has been called the “grand fiesta of Basque cycling", an expression of their local traditions and their love for cycling.
|
