Antoine Blondin – La Légende du Tour

Between 1954 and 1982, Antoine Blondin wrote 524 columns on the Tour de France for the daily newspaper “L'Equipe”. Through his love of the “Grande Boucle”, and in almost 30 years of enthusiasm and virtuosity, he gave his letters of nobility to sports literature. This aesthete of words has captivated readers, cycling fanatics and lovers of literature alike, with his high-level writing, his stylistic discoveries, his generous erudition and his passionate outlook. Antoine Blondin is “the other yellow jersey”, the yellow jersey of columnists, the yellow jersey of words. To follow Blondin on the Tour is to revisit the history of the Grande Boucle in a marvellous way. Blondin wrote: ‘Le Tour de France, c'est la fête et les jambes’ (‘party and legs’). Blondin recounted the landscapes of France and the great hours of the event during a period rich in exceptional champions such as Bobet, Anquetil, Merckx and Hinault. Blondin remained friends with Raymond Poulidor until his death, for whom he coined the expression “Poupoularité”, among others. Through the personality of Antoine Blondin, this film is both a declaration of love and a declaration of humour about the Tour de France.