Luxembourg's Relationship with Tour de France Commemorated in the Pyrenees

The Ministry of Sports has announced that Luxembourg's involvement with the Tour de France has been immortalised with a commemorative plaque at the top of the Tourmalet pass in the Pyrenees mountains.

This year celebrates 60 years since Charly Gaul's victory in the 1958 Tour de France and 90 years since Nicolas Frantz's second year of success with The Great Loop in 1928.   The installation of this commemorative plaque is in memory of Luxemburger Alphonse Steinès, a sports journalist who played a big role in the organisation of the Tour de France 108 years ago in 1910.

Being the first Luxembourg sports journalist and a close associate of Henri Desgrange, director of the newspaper L'Auto and inventor of the cycling Tour de France in 1903, Alphonse Steinès was able to convince him in 1910 to attempt passing the Tour de France through a high mountain range such as the Pyrenees.

Thus, on July 21, 1910, during the 10th stage leading from Luchon to Bayonne, the riders of the Tour de France first passed the Pyrenean passes of Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque due to the initiative of Alphonse Steinès.

Yesterday afternoon, Thursday 26 July 26, the day before the 58th passage of the Tour de France over the Tourmalet, the Minister of Sports, Romain Schneider, and the President of the Luxembourg Association of Sports Press, Petz Lahure, surrounded by Josée and Fabienne Gaul, respectively the wife and daughter of the winner of the 1958 Tour, officially unveiled the plaque in memory of Alphonse Steinès at the top of the most famous Pyrenean pass, a place of pilgrimage for thousands of cyclists every year.

"This plaque in tribute to our compatriot Alphonse Steinès symbolizes the special links that have always been maintained between the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Tour de France," exclaimed the Minister of Sports in his brief address at the Tourmalet summit while thanking Amaury Sport Organization, the Hautes-Pyrénées Departmental Council and the Town Hall of Bagnères-de-Bigorre to have favorably accompanied this initiative.