Songs About Sports - "Tour de France"

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While today in the States we celebrate our 250th birthday as a country, in France they are celebrating today’s start of the 113th edition of the Tour de France. I’m in the middle of a Songs about Sports series, which makes today’s entry a no-brainer - “Tour de France” by Kraftwerk. The Tour de France - 21 races during the month of July (with only 2 rest days) started today in Barcelona, Spain (the Grand Tours of cycling often start their tours in other countries for the first three days - money is the name of the game in a sport that relies solely on sponsorship and the like, and these countries pay to start the races there) with a team time trial. Two-time Tour de France Champion Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) wears the coveted Yellow Jersey after day one, 12-seconds ahead of his main rival, 4-time Tour champ Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia.) Kraftwerk is a German electronic band founded in Dusseldorf in 1970. Cycling fans, Kraftwerk released “Tour de France” in 1983 in honor of the 80th edition of the Tour. It hit #22 on the U.K. Singles chart. In the States, the song caught on quickly with the breakdancing community, a natural song to pop and lock to. (It also reached #4 on the Billboard U.S. Dance Club Songs chart.) The tune was a minor international hit, hitting various charts in Finland, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, and West Germany as well. A beautiful song made for the beautiful sport of cycling. Link is to a video I made at the end of 2024, using “Tour de France” as the music for our annual end-of-year Project Hero ride in Longmont, Colorado: