Last modified: 2004-12-22 by ivan sache
Keywords: tour de france | cycling | red pennant | flamme rouge | start flag | danger flag |
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![[Red pennant in Tour de France]](../images/f/fr@tdf-r.gif)
by Ivan
Sache
In Tour de France, there is a tradition, whose origin I am unfortunately not aware of: the last kilometer of each stage is identified by the so-called flamme rouge (red pennant).
In a not so ancient past, the red pennant was simply hoisted vertically on a rope fixed up vertically above the road. Nowadays, the red pennant is hardly seen because it is incorporated in a huge multicoloured plastic porch sponsored by an American soda company.
It seems that the red pennant is used to show the last kilometer in several international cyclist races, probably with local nicknames.
The image shown above is now obsolete. The pennant is still triangular, red, and vertically hoisted, but the logo of the Tour de France is added in white. The logo is made of a stylized chronometer with TOUR DE FRANCE and the year on two lines (for instance 20 above 02) inside the chronometer.
Ivan Sache, 28 July 2002
There is another flag rarely shown on TV, which is used for giving
the "real start" of the stage.
Each stage starts in a city, which pays a huge amount of money for
that, but the streets are usually to narrow to give a mass-start. The
racers therefore parade after a "fictive start" in good order through
the city streets, with the leaders in front line.
When the bunch gets out of the city and the street enlarge, the race
director, standing in his traditional convertible red car, waves a
white flag with something written on it (in the past, I seem to
remember it was simply DIRECTION DE COURSE [race direction], but
there might be some sponsor logo now) to give the real chronometric
start.
Ivan Sache, 9 July 2000
The start flag is currently a white rectangle flag with the word DEPART [start] in capitals and underscored. The sponsor logo turns out to be on two poles with fixed cloth constructions on the side of the road, marking the imaginary line where the director should wave the flag (or maybe start waving; I don't have the regulations).
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 July 2000
This year (2002), the pennant was a white rectangle with DEPART in blue letters placed on the SW/NE diagonal. In each of the two fields delimited by the diagonal, the logo described above is placed on a blue background.
Ivan Sache, 28 July 2002