Twenty kilometers of special telephone lines, one hundred cabins, 300 phones with exclusive lines for telefotos, the press room installed in the then brand new Palau d’Esports of Lleida Street, a caravan of 1,300 people, autocars of fans who moved from Bilbao, Castellón, Huesca and numerous areas of Catalonia … The arrival of the tour of France to Barcelona 1957, the first in history, was a citizen event. All accompanied by artistic actions, such as the mimic quartet of the Frères Jacques or the accordionist Yvette Horner … Barcelona was speechless with the tour, a myth of the world sport that landed in the city and flooded the streets of advertising messages, with the holiday caravan of 150 decorated vehicles, the blackboards that installed Canals & Nubiola to follow the first stages, the organization backed by Cinzano …
The 1957 Tour visit extended for three days. First, a stage from Perpiñán to Barcelona, with a tour of Figueres, Girona and a bathroom and sea through Calella, Arenys, Mataró, Badalona … to the Paseo Colom and the ascent to Montjuïc by Miramar. The goal was located inside the Estadi.
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The first arrival of the Grande Boucle in Barcelona in 1957 was a total citizen event
The next day, in the afternoon, an individual counterreloj was played again in Montjuïc (Jacques Anquel To France by Bourg-Madame.
The hiring of the Tour rose to 1.2 million pesetas, had a subsidy of the City Council of Barcelona and the Provincial Council of a million million and fund collection As a comparison, tickets for the Montjuïc Cup final (Barça-Espanyol), a month before, were more expensive: 20 to 200 pesetas.
An image of cyclists on Maria Cristina Avenue in Barcelona, in the 2009 Tour
The second great visit of the Tour arrived in 1965 and also extended three days, but there were two stages and one day of rest between them. On July 2, the historic Ax-Lles-Thermes day to Barcelona was played, again with a final in Montjuïc, ideal to fill the box. The expectation throughout the Catalan geography was apotheosic when the voice was run: José Pérez French had attacked in the first kilometers and was about to resist the 240 of the solo stage. The layout was basically the same as 1957, but in the opposite direction, entering Bourg-Madame and going through cough and the rest of the aforementioned populations. Already in Montjuïc there were three laps to the French circuit and Pérez culminated the deed with almost five minutes of advantage. That tour had Italian Felice Gimondi as leader and dominator. The cyclists were distributed over the hotel hotels to rest on Saturday, July 3 (Raymond Poulidor, many years later, reminded me that it had never happened as much heat as in that room of the Rambla that corresponded to him) and the next day the race went from Barcelona to Perpignan. Again with an output concentration in the Plaza Catalunya to go through the Gran Via and the Glòries to Badalona, follow the coast to go to Girona and finally cross the border by Llançà and Portbou.
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The third visit of the Tour is more recent. It was in 2009 with two stages. First of Girona to Barcelona, on July 9, on a day of torrential rain that did not prevent the great public agglomeration on the roads. A first part on the coast (Sant Feliu, Tossa, Blanes, Arenys …) until I go through Collasacreu to Sant Celoni and Granollers, then Badalona and entrance in Barcelona by the Guipúscoa Rambla, descent to the Ciutadella, uploaded by the paral·lel and finish in the Avenida del Estadi. With the Swiss canceled in the lead, he won the Norwegian Hushovd. The next day, from Barcelona to Andorra, with high scoring in Montserrat, Solsona, Port del Comte, and from there to the SEU, to end at the Alto de Arcalís, where Alberto Contador, then winner in Paris, began to open differences.
#Fifteen #pesetas #tour #Montjuïc #Stadi #Xavier #Luque
