A moment in time London hosts Le Tour

In 2007 the Tour circus came to London for the start of a controversial race that would end with just 31 seconds separating the top three riders

- GILES BELBIN

At 3pm on 7th July 2007, the 94th edition of the Tour de France got underway with the sound of Big Ben ringing out across London. Two years to the day since the city had been hit by a series of terrorist attacks that killed 52 people and injured more than 770 others, crowds ten or more deep lined the capital’s roads. More still sat in public parks watching the action on large screens. Transport for London later estimated somewhere between 900,000 to 1.5 million people attended the spectacle.

‘You couldn’t hear anything – not even the sound of your tyres. It was a wall of roaring voices,’ Tour debutant Mark Cavendish said afterwards. ‘It was amazing.’

Those spectators watched 189 riders roll down the start ramp in Whitehall and onto a near-8km long prologue course that passed the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Serpentine before heading to the finish line on The Mall. While the large attendance painted a picture of a sport in good health, in truth it was a troubling time for the race. The 2006 winner, Floyd Landis, was in the middle of an appeal process against his subsequent disqualification for doping, and the 1996 winner, Bjarne Riis, had recently confessed to doping during his own career.

‘My yellow jersey is in a box in my garage at home,’ Riis had said. ‘You can come and collect it. What matters to me are my memories.’