Philobiblon

A handy guide to French cycling vocabulary before the Tour de France arrives in London this weekend. Sadly (no, I don’t mean that), I’ll be in Paris at the time.

My favourite words: “une voiture balai” – the “broom wagon”, to pick you up when you just aren’t going to make it to the end of the course, and “chasse patate riding between two groups (literally, “potato hunt”)”.

If anyone can explain the last one, please do in the comments!