UPDATE 9 April 2007: information on the Jeunes Reporters du Tour programme organised by Vélo 101 and ASO added
UPDATE 18 April 2007: extra information about A chacun son Tour + addition press accreditation at the end of the article
UPDATE 15 May 2007: link to an article on the selection of the Jeunes Reporters du Tour
People who read this website regularly probably already know it: from July 7th till July 29th the yearly cycling tour, the Tour de France, will be organised again.
Starting in London and in addition to the many stages in France, this year also with some sidestops in Belgium and Spain (you can also read my blog post about the Tour de France 2007 on this) this of course is an event in itself, but this blog post is about the other events which are organised around the Tour de France!
In their order of appearance of 2007's calendar these events are presented here:
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Everyone gets his own Tour ('À chacun son Tour')
The programme À chacun son Tour, organised by the company which organises the Tour de France (A.S.O. - Amaury Sport Organisation 
), together with the French Ministry of Sports, Youth and Associations - Ministère des Sports, de la Jeunesse et de la Vie associative and the French cyclist association - Fédération Française de Cyclisme (FFC) , targets French students to allow them to get to know cyclism in general and especially the Tour de France.
The first part of this programme allows teachers of the 4th and the 5th class (CM1 and CM2 for cours moyen 1/2 in French) to integrate in 11 subjects (French, Mathematics, Biology, Technology, Geography, History, Drawing, First Aid, Road safety lesson, Environment/ecology/sustainability and Gym) elements of cyclism and the Tour de France. At the same time, the students are being prepared to the Tour de France coming to their city (they can make banners, learn to know the different jerseys, do bike rides, etc.)
An example of part of the school programme around the Tour de France of 'A chacun son Tour'
In addition to this school programme and starting in March, each weekend, one of the arrival cities of the Tour de France stages will see the arrival of a so called Cycloparc where visitors get to know the world of cyclism in a nice way and where children between 8 and 12 years old can participate in some tests and show their skills to qualify themselves for the third part of the programme. The Cycloparc will go around France until early July.
The third part of this programme will be in July on the day the Tour de France arrives in each arrival city. 9 children, who qualified for this in the second part in the Cycloparc (and one of their parents and their teacher) will be invited for this third part to be a VIP this day with visits of the different parts of the arrival city and a place on the stand and the possibility to do the last meters of the stage by bike and cross the arrival line like a real cyclist, complete with timekeeping and a platform scene for the 3 winners with a photo shoot!
And if you thought that's all you were wrong ... the timekeeping in this third part is crucial since this is the way these children can qualify for the fourth and last part of the programme: each arrival city will have its winner who will, together with one of his parents and his teacher, be invited in Paris on July 29th to attend the last stage as a VIP and again, together with 180 young cyclists who are member of the FFC, do the last meters by bike on 'the most beautiful avenue of the world', the Champs-Elysées which has each year been the arrival scene of the Tour de France since 1975!
More information about this programme is available at the presentation page of À chacun son Tour on the Tour de France web site
UPDATE 18 April 2007: recently ASO published more information about this programme on the Tour de France website. We now find there a clear description of the three elements which make up this programme :
- the school programme
- the Cycloparc which will make its first appearance in Castelsarrasin during the weekend 21/22 April and will then go on to Angoulême on 28/29 April, Pau on 5/6 May, Castres on 12/13 May, Marseille on 19/20 May, Albi on 26/27 May, Bourg-en-Bresse on 2/3 June, Le Grand Bornand on 9/10 June, Autun on 16/17 June, Semur-en-Auxois on 20 June, Migennes on 23/24 June and finally on 30 June/1st of July Compiègne
- the activities for children during the Tour (especially for the children who came through the first rounds)
we can read that Jaja (Laurent Jalabert, ex-pro cyclist and now a consultant for France 2) will be the official starter for this programme and that other well known French ex-pro cyclists will contribute to the programme as well (including Bernard Thévenet and Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, Hervé's father).The advertising caravan
A more classical event around the Tour de France is the advertising caravan which follows the same route as the cyclists who follow around 1 or 2 hours after this colourful collection of cars and other vehicles. The advertising caravan first appeared in 1930, at that time especially because the cyclists who were so far being sponsored by different brands had to appear as national teams for the first time that year, so the organisor needed money to pay the cyclists and their material. Since that time, it has grown to a big party and a riding circus and for some people even the only reason to come to see the Tour de France!!
Once it has completely left the departure city, the advertising caravan stretches out over a distance of about 20 kilometers and between the first and the last car this means a big party of small gifts of about 45 minutes ...
The brands which will be present in this year's advertising caravan are not officially known yet, but if we take a look at the different sponsors of the Tour de France 2007 we can easily predict that the brands Champion (supermarket, sponsor of the spotted jersey), LCL (Crédit Lyonnais) (a bank, sponsor of the yellow jersey), Nestlé Aquarel (since 2001 the official water of the Tour de France and since 2003 the sponsor of the stage winner each day), Skoda (car supplier and sponsor of the white jersey), PMU (games, sponsor of the green jersey), Nike (sports brand), Cochonou (lovely sausages!), Grand Mère (coffee), Haribo (candy), etc., will be there again. Other well known brands such as La Vache Qui Rit (new web site!) will almost certainly also be there again.
These brands clearly show that it's interesting for them to be present at the Tour de France. This isn't really surprising if you know that after the World Championship Football and the Olympic Games, the Tour de France is the third most broadcasted sports event in the world!
The brands which formed the advertising caravan last year were 118 712 (directory service of Orange/France Telecom), ANCEL (cocktail biscuits), ANTARGAZ (bottles of gas), AUJOURD'HUI EN FRANCE (newspaper), BOUYGUES TELECOM (mobile operator), CAFÉ GRAND MÈRE (coffee), CAISSE D'ÉPARGNE (a bank) / ILLES BALEARES, CFTC, SUPERMARCHÉ CHAMPION (supermarket), COCHONOU (sausages), COFIDIS (private loan), COLUMBIA / LES REBELLES DE LA FORÊT (movie), DR OETKER (pizza!), ÉCO EMBALLAGE, EUROTYRE (tyres), EUSKALTEL EUSKADI (operator), FÉDÉRATION NATIONALE DES SAPEURS POMPIERS (fire fighters), FESTINA (watches, etc.), FORCE OUVRIÈRE, GENDARMERIE NATIONALE (police), HARIBO (candy), KLÉBER (tyres), LA FRANÇAISE DES JEUX (games), LA NOUVELLE VIE OUVRIÈRE, LA REDOUTE (mail order), LA VACHE QUI RIT (cheese!), LCL - LE CRÉDIT LYONNAIS (a bank), LE FAILLITAIRE (furniture shop), LE JOURNAL DE MICKEY, LES MARCHÉS DE FRANCE, MINISTÈRE DE L'INTÉRIEUR, MOTORHOME RENT, MOTRIO (auto repair), NESTLÉ AQUAREL (water), NESTLÉ GLACES - EXTRÊME (ice cream), NESQUIK (chocolate milk), PANACH' (beer), PMU (games), PRODIR (Swiss pens), ROADSIGN (clothes), RMC (radio), ŠKODA (cars), STABILO (text markers), TÉLÉ 7 JOURS (TV guide), T MOBILE (mobile operator), TOUT FAIRE (DIY shop), TPS (satellite TV) and VISIT LONDON (promotion of the city of Londen).
Visit London is one of the brands which has more or less announced they will again be in the advertising caravan this year ... especially with the start of the Tour from London this seems to be quite natural! The London taxi's will therefore again drive on the roads of the Tour de France ...
Don't hesitate to take another look at my photos and videos of my day in the La Vache Qui Rit advertising caravan.
L'étape du Tour
Known as L'étape du Tour each year one of the official Tour stages is chosen to be rode by amateur cyclists a few days before the real Tour de France will ride this stage. This year, the stage Foix > Loudenvielle - Le Louron was chosen: on July 16th by the amateurs and on July 23rd by the professional cyclists.
This is the 15th Etape du Tour and as usual the amateur cyclists will not have an easy ride ... the route of this stage will take them over several difficult mountains such as the col du Portet d'Aspet and the col de Peyresourde.
L'étape de légende
For the first time this year L'étape de légende is being organised by the Tour de France organisation A.S.O.
This stage has been created because more and more people want to ride the same stages as the professional cyclists. From 2007, each year at the end of September - the end of the cycling season - one of the stages which have become famous because of the Tour de France will be organised.
This year, the organisation has chosen the stage Strasbourg > Ballon d'Alsace. This stage was part of the Tour de France in 1967 and Lucien Aimar won it (his only stage victory). This stage will again be organised, but now for amateur cyclists, on September 23rd, 2007. These cyclists will see this isn't an easy route either ...
By the way, A.S.O. is still looking for partners/sponsors for this event.
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Jeunes Reporters du Tour
Added on 9 April 2007
Since last year Vélo 101 and ASO organise the programme Jeunes Reporters du Tour. This programme allows 6 young potential journalists (between 13 and 16 years old) to report on the Tour de France during 3 weeks as if they were real journalists.
The pupils will get an official press accreditation and regularly report on what happens in the Tour in a newspaper that will be printed (1000 copies) and distributed in the Village de Départ, in the advertising caravan and in the press room.
Last year the six selected young journalists published 13 of those newspapers and they wrote articles about many different topics including the driver of the sag wagon, an interview with Christian Prudhomme (the new Tour de France director), the food in the Village de Départ and the advertising caravan ... Their newspaper was called 'A notre Tour' (a word game meaning 'it's our turn' using the fact that in French the word Tour is used for that!).
More information on this programme and the 13 newspapers published during last year's Tour can be found on the Vélo 101 website 
. This site now also contains an article about the selection of the 6 young reporters which took place on 12 May in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
Please don't hesitate to share through a comment below how your Tour de France will look like this year: will you stay at home and watch it on TV or will you come to France to see everything live?!
By the way, the registration page for press accreditation for the Tour de France goes live on 25 April.
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this publication is published in: Tour de France | Tour de France 2007
en dat programma voor de schooljeugd brengen ze spontaan ook in het Nederlands uit? Misschien kun jij hen helpen met de vertaling ;-)
Dat zou wel leuk zijn inderdaad ... maar ze richten zich er toch vooral mee op scholen in plaatsen waar een Tour de France etappe aankomt en de Tour komt dit jaar helaas niet naar Nederland ...