A meager consolation, Les Angles has linked its name to that of Tadej Pogacar, on the day it was forced to give up much of its public due to restrictions rightfully imposed by authorities because of wildfires. The Pyrenean stages, including Thursday's, which became yet another conquest terrain for the rainbow jersey wearer (pardon, yellow jersey), have drawn attention to two localities that within just four days found themselves for the first time in the Tour's spotlight.

With the Plateau de Solaison emerging, a triptych of unprecedented high-altitude finishes looms, an element of innovation within tradition (Markstein, Orcieres-Merlette and double Alpe d'Huez), through a long-distance approach to securing the Grande Boucle. Such is the case with Les Angles, where in 2022 Canadian Michael Woods found success in the fourth and final stage of La Route d'Occitanie – the Dépêche du Midi: what seemed like a promising prelude turned into disappointment, expressed by the mayor of this small center in the Pyrénées-Orientales, 600 inhabitants (capable of hosting 18,000 tourists in winter): «the entire village was ready, shopkeepers had their fridges full and we were expecting 25,000 people. Now we hope to get a compensatory stage in the future» - said to the local press the mayor Michel Poudade, who while expressing solidarity with areas hit by wildfires judged the decision to prevent spectator attendance as too drastic. What remains – and it is no small matter – is the television exposure, in the awareness of that unique audience guaranteed by the event broadcast in 90 countries, through 100 channels, for a colossal total: 150 million viewers.

Data well known also in Gavarnie-Gèdre, the concluding venue of the stage won by Samuel Fernandez at the Ronde de l'Isard (a particularly prestigious 2.2 U race) four years ago: cameras focused on Tadej's solo breakaway, in the Tourmalet stage, but what is the value of the postcard of the Cirque de Gavarnie, a UNESCO World Heritage rock formation, sent to the world? Here too nothing unfamiliar: 140,000 euros for a special visibility opportunity, increasingly to be interpreted in strategic terms, that is to say in the spirit of deseasoning just begun.

Meditate, people, meditate, while mountain is spoken of as a climate refuge the old and dear cycling becomes an underscoring of a paradigm of living. Smiling – and he has every reason to – Claude Trescases, the mayor who well remembers the phone call in which Christian Prudhomme informed him they had been chosen: beyond the enthusiasm mixed with pride, among the inhabitants of the tiny village of just 377 souls in the High Pyrenees, absolutely everyone thinks about the lasting impact of the Tour, here where already a million visitors frequent every year the trails that start from the village.

The bike? It becomes an important arrow in the station's quiver, especially there just steps away from Luz Ardiden and Tourmalet. Awaiting the moment when Plateau de Solaison takes the yellow spotlight (following the recent arrival of Tour Auvergne Rhone Alpes), Sunday the 19th a guarantee of extraordinary turnout, Les Angles and Gavarnie are united by the winner. On the Savoyard balcony (which previously hosted Tour de l'Avenir and Dauphiné), the Grande Boucle appetizer – it was June 14th – brought good fortune to Del Toro, just to stay within the UAE family. Who knows if, as on Montjuïc, Pogacar will exercise magnanimity, a term that is moreover hardly fitting for the cyclist from Komenda.