Remco Evenepoel, the Belgian double Olympic gold medal winning cyclist is back. However his return from injury has been marked by news off the bike. His confession in an Instagram post that he prayed with his Muslim wife Oumi as part of his recovery caused a blizzard of media attention. His prayers were ultimately answered, with him defeating Flemish national hero Wout van Aert in a two-man sprint in the Brabantse Pijl, but the episode and reaction to it reveals how politics has always been integral to cycling’s image.
For the British reader, cycling is the sport of the liberal someone who believes the world peaked with the London Olympics and rotundly objects to all populism. An environmentalist, he scorns gas-guzzling cars, is deeply liberal, and opposed to Brexit. The word MAMIL (Middle aged man in lycra) abounded in the early 2010s to describe this middle class, and occasionally slightly portly cyclist.
Funnily enough, for the MAMIL’s continental counterpart, things couldn’t be more different. The heartland of the sport—Flanders, home to Evenepoel and Van Aert—is probably the most right-wing region in Western Europe, with the far-right Vlaams Belang gaining 20% of the vote regularly and races in the region being replete with the yellow and black flags of Flemish separatists. While the Belgian national football team might be as diverse as could be, one struggles to see a Black or Brown Belgian cyclist at any level of the peloton. In the small towns of Flanders, where cycling attracts a level of passion only seen with football in Britain, it is also a symbol of Flemish ethnic and national identity. In this environment, Evenepoel’s confession immediately sparked questions as to whether he was converting, and fevered discussion in the tabloids.
In France, home of the biggest race in the sport, conditions are similar. In my childhood, L’Équipe asked its readers why the Tour de France had no Black riders, and a Lord of the Rings fan and reader answered that it was because Frodo had destroyed the Dark Riders.( I can’t find any citation for this anecdote but a family member confirmed it happened). In France, cycling has routinely been—like elsewhere in Europe—an old man’s sport, similar in some respects to Test cricket in the UK. Both have always been associated with the radio and involve long summer afternoons of action. There have been a few minority ethnic French riders such as Kévin Réza and Nacer Bouhanni; nevertheless, compared to the national football team, the picture couldn’t be more stark.
Cycling has, from its inception, been a political sport. The Tour de France was started as a means to promote the anti-Dreyfusard newspaper Auto-Vélo; indeed, the first few editions went through the then-German Alsace-Lorraine blaring the French national anthem as they went. Now its route presents a different political message—from the bocage of the Chouans to the pristine pastures of the Pyrenees and forests of Alsace, the Tour de France is, in effect, a celebration of the landscapes and society of a France removed from the multiculturalism which characterizes its cities.
Cycling is a growing sport—exciting racing, great riders, and the ease of streaming have made visiting races ever more popular, especially in the Tour de France. Nevertheless, historically its popularity varies strongly by region, even within countries. The Basques are a cycling people and had their own Basque-only team competing well at the very highest level until the mid-2010s. In Veneto, cycling is massively popular amongst the tifosi compared to other regions. This regional and rural popularity, along with the need to have and maintain a bike, has preserved cycling so that the pro peloton still looks very similar to fifty years ago. There are riders from South America, where there is a long tradition of climbers benefitting from growing up high in the Andes. Furthermore, occasionally African riders, particularly from Eritrea—such as last year’s Tour de France Points Jersey winner Biniam Girmay—break out. Nevertheless, in a Europe ever more shaped by arguments about multiculturalism and migration, cycling, through no choice of its own, could become a symbol for a Europe without mass migration. The upcoming Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza from Albania was agreed as part of Italy’s asylum processing agreement with the Balkan country and demonstrates how sport—and cycling—remains a diplomatic tool.
Cycling is the last great European sport. With the decline of American interest in the sport following Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace, it is probably the largest sport which is still almost completely European in professional participants, races, and commercial control. The reaction to Evenepoel’s statement shows that in a world where politics is ever more total, cycling could well become the next frontline in the culture wars—representing, as it does in many ways, a Europe that is no more.
Loved the article jack